International trade in sharks and rays: Is sustainable use possible?

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08/22/2014 - 08/22/2014 | Bonn

International trade in sharks and rays: Is sustainable use possible?

Nowadays sharks and their relatives are severely threatened by overfishing as well as the international trade with their fins, along with other parts such as meat, teeth, jaws, cartilage, and liver liquid. They are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation as they are late maturing and slow reproducing species. One-quarter of the Chondrichthyan species are already estimated to be threatened according to the IUCN Red List criteria. Only one-third of about 1,041 species are considered to be safe.

The main driver of shark and ray fishing is the globalized trade to meet the Asian demand for shark fin soup, a traditional and usually expensive Chinese dish, or - with regard to rays - their gill plates for use in an Asian health tonic. The porbeagle shark is mainly sought after by the European consumers because of its highly valued meat. In the last years between 1000 and 2000 tons of porbeagle meat have been annually traded in the European Union.

Concerned by this threat five heavily caught shark species (Oceanic White-tip shark, three Hammerhead sharks, Porbeagle) and three Manta species have been included in the Appendices of the CITES Convention at its last Conference of the Parties in 2013. This listing will come into force on 14th September 2014.
From 14th September 2014 onwards only meat from sustainably fished stocks will be permitted to enter the international market.

The listing raised the need for a guidance how to assess the sustainability of the fishing management of shark stocks. The German Scientific Authority therefore commissioned experts last year to develop such a guidance. The methods suggested in this guidance will now be tested on their practicability during the workshop taking place on 20th-21st August 2014 in the Federal Agency of Nature Conservation.

Eleven experts from fisheries institutions, regional fisheries management organizations, CITES scientific authorities and universities all over the world have carried out case studies on stocks to test the methods of the guidance. They will present their results at the workshop. Before the amended guidance will then be made available for international use by publication of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as well as on the homepage of the CITES secretariat, journalists are invited to discuss the outcome of the workshop and other issues in the context of the conservation of sharks on August 22nd 2014 at 9:00 with some of the experts present (Sarah Fowler, IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group; Glenn Sant and Victoria Mundy, TRAFFIC; Ute Grimm, German Scientific Authority to CITES).

We ask the media to give timely notification: presse@bfn.de

Information on participating / attending:
Die Veranstaltung findet ausschließlich in englischer Sprache statt.

More information:

http://www.bfn.de

Date:

08/22/2014 09:00 - 08/22/2014 14:00

Event venue:

Bundesamt für Naturschutz
Konstantinstr. 110
53179 Bonn
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany

Target group:

Journalists, Scientists and scholars

Email address:

Relevance:

transregional, national

Subject areas:

Environment / ecology, Zoology / agricultural and forest sciences

Types of events:

Seminar / workshop / discussion

Entry:

08/04/2014

Sender/author:

Franz August Emde

Department:

Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

Bundesamt für Naturschutz

Event is free:

yes

Language of the text:

English

URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event47954