Bren Tierney
27-03-2003, 19:16
European Parliament Votes To Waste 66% of EU Shark Catch 27/03/03
Dear All - thank you to those who forwarded letters on to your MEPs, unfortunately the vote did not go our way. We will be expressing our concerns to Elliot Morley, and I will let you know what you can do to help.
WildAid
Thursday, March 27th, 2003
In a Plenary session today, the European Parliament voted to allow the ?finning? of sharks to continue in EU waters and on EU vessels around the world.
Finning involves the removal of a shark?s fins, often while it is still living, and the discarding of the body back into the sea. The practice became widespread in the 1980s as a result of rapid economic growth in east Asia, which permitted mass consumption of shark fin soup, previously reserved only for the very wealthy. The resulting escalation in the price of fins created an incentive to harvest fins from sharks that, in the past, were often returned alive to the sea. The far less valuable body, however, takes up too much room and is thrown back overboard.
Conservation groups, concerned about the rapid depletion of shark populations worldwide, have spent two years attempting to persuade the EU to ban the practice, which wastes up to 95% of the shark.
The key element in the Parliamentary vote was whether or not the new regulations should require that all sharks be landed whole. ?That would have been the most efficient and enforceable way of prohibiting finning?, said Sarah Fowler of the Shark Trust, ?but the idea was rejected?.
The fall-back position was to allow removal of fins on board, provided that the vessel?s cargo of fins weighed no more than 5% of the beheaded and gutted sharks on board and that the fins and bodies were landed together. Not only did the Parliament agree to allow separate landings, effectively preventing monitoring and enforcement of the regulation at landing places but the fins are permitted to weigh up to 6% of the live weight of the shark. These distinctions are critical, as a shark?s head and internal organs are very heavy in relation to its total weight.
?They haven?t done the maths properly?, says Sarah Fowler. ?For the species commonly caught in EU fisheries, 2% of live weight is more than generous. The wiggle room that a ratio of 6% of fins to live weight gives to the industry will, in fact, permit them to fin and discard two or more sharks for every one that they land, and still be able to produce the ?correct? ratio of fins to bodies on the quayside?.
In reality, this means that at least 66% of sharks caught by EU vessels can still be finned.
Recent research has revealed that some shark populations in the North-west Atlantic have declined by as much as 90% in the past 15 years. This is a pattern that is repeated all over the world.
?The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has acknowledged that sharks are in trouble globally,? says Susie Watts of WildAid, ?and so have numerous other multi-lateral organisations. We know sharks play a key role in their ecosystems, we know that impoverished coastal communities around the world depend on them for protein and we know that they?re disappearing fast. But the Parliament has decided that it?s fine to carry on throwing them away?.
The European Parliamentary vote will be considered by the EU Fisheries Commission at a meeting next week, when it will come to a final decision on the regulations, before sending its recommendations to the Council of Ministers for final approval in April.
?If the amendments agreed by the Parliament are reflected in the final regulations, they will be tantamount to a licence to fin hundreds of thousands of sharks?, said Susie Wat
Dear All - thank you to those who forwarded letters on to your MEPs, unfortunately the vote did not go our way. We will be expressing our concerns to Elliot Morley, and I will let you know what you can do to help.
WildAid
Thursday, March 27th, 2003
In a Plenary session today, the European Parliament voted to allow the ?finning? of sharks to continue in EU waters and on EU vessels around the world.
Finning involves the removal of a shark?s fins, often while it is still living, and the discarding of the body back into the sea. The practice became widespread in the 1980s as a result of rapid economic growth in east Asia, which permitted mass consumption of shark fin soup, previously reserved only for the very wealthy. The resulting escalation in the price of fins created an incentive to harvest fins from sharks that, in the past, were often returned alive to the sea. The far less valuable body, however, takes up too much room and is thrown back overboard.
Conservation groups, concerned about the rapid depletion of shark populations worldwide, have spent two years attempting to persuade the EU to ban the practice, which wastes up to 95% of the shark.
The key element in the Parliamentary vote was whether or not the new regulations should require that all sharks be landed whole. ?That would have been the most efficient and enforceable way of prohibiting finning?, said Sarah Fowler of the Shark Trust, ?but the idea was rejected?.
The fall-back position was to allow removal of fins on board, provided that the vessel?s cargo of fins weighed no more than 5% of the beheaded and gutted sharks on board and that the fins and bodies were landed together. Not only did the Parliament agree to allow separate landings, effectively preventing monitoring and enforcement of the regulation at landing places but the fins are permitted to weigh up to 6% of the live weight of the shark. These distinctions are critical, as a shark?s head and internal organs are very heavy in relation to its total weight.
?They haven?t done the maths properly?, says Sarah Fowler. ?For the species commonly caught in EU fisheries, 2% of live weight is more than generous. The wiggle room that a ratio of 6% of fins to live weight gives to the industry will, in fact, permit them to fin and discard two or more sharks for every one that they land, and still be able to produce the ?correct? ratio of fins to bodies on the quayside?.
In reality, this means that at least 66% of sharks caught by EU vessels can still be finned.
Recent research has revealed that some shark populations in the North-west Atlantic have declined by as much as 90% in the past 15 years. This is a pattern that is repeated all over the world.
?The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has acknowledged that sharks are in trouble globally,? says Susie Watts of WildAid, ?and so have numerous other multi-lateral organisations. We know sharks play a key role in their ecosystems, we know that impoverished coastal communities around the world depend on them for protein and we know that they?re disappearing fast. But the Parliament has decided that it?s fine to carry on throwing them away?.
The European Parliamentary vote will be considered by the EU Fisheries Commission at a meeting next week, when it will come to a final decision on the regulations, before sending its recommendations to the Council of Ministers for final approval in April.
?If the amendments agreed by the Parliament are reflected in the final regulations, they will be tantamount to a licence to fin hundreds of thousands of sharks?, said Susie Wat