Raiding nurseries could spell disaster for hammerhead population
13 Aug 2008
WWF-Australia is calling on the Queensland Government to block the establishment of targeted shark fisheries in its waters because so little is known about the sustainability of shark populations.
"The Queensland government should shelve its plans to issue shark fishing licenses when there is little science to demonstrate the impact on at-risk species," WWF-Australia's Marine program leader Dr Gilly Llewellyn said. "The absence of verified data on the species biology and the fishery is of major concern and the near-term focus needs to be on shark conservation and not shark exploitation."
"With an insatiable global market for shark products growing every month our waters may be last resort for many species of tropical shark, we just don't know what adding another targeted shark fishery would do to their ability to maintain their populations," she said.
Poor sustainability records and species collapses have happened in many shark fisheries around the world, including relatively well informed fisheries with specific management plans for sharks and rays, Dr Llewellyn said.
"Of the few Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea shark species for which population estimates are known, a number like the whitetip reef shark and grey reef shark have been shown to be declining. This decline underscores the need to put a halt to unsustainable shark fishing, as even small levels of mortality can risk their survival."
Another major concern is the lack of selectivity of fishing gears used in Queensland, demonstrated by the large number of by-product and by-catch species.
Preliminary scientific studies have raised alarm bells for conservation groups by showing that existing commercial catches already feature at-risk sharks like the scalloped hammerhead shark. This species of shark uses coastal sites to give birth, returning to open ocean habitats and to aggregations sites such as to the Coral Sea.
"We know that adult hammerhead sharks are at risk from being caught in off-shore tuna fisheries and that their fin is a sought after delicacy in Asian markets," Dr Llewellyn said.
"Allowing the fishing of the juveniles and adults is simply a recipe for extinction. We need protection for the maternity wards and nurseries for at risk species like hammerheads not the creation of a licence to fish sharks," she said.
"Sharks play a crucial role in the balance and health of marine ecosystems. They are slow-growing, long-lived, and produce few young. By keeping the ecosystem in balance, healthy numbers sharks and other top level predators may help tropical reef ecosystems be more resilient to impacts such as climate change".
"There are already many other ways sharks are being caught and killed in the region, including managed as well as illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries in and outside Australian waters. We don't need to add to the pressure."
"One of the most important decisions we can make on behalf of this critically important species is to fully protect pristine areas like the Coral Sea, and prevent adding further pressures like new targeted shark fisheries," Dr Llewellyn said.
Notes to editors
- Recently declared a 'predator diversity hotspot' for its abundant shark populations, the Coral Sea is recognised as one of Australia's last tropical marine wilderness regions.
- Stretching from the outer boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to the edge of Australia's territorial waters - in some places more than two hundred nautical miles off the Queensland coast - a protected Coral Sea would create the largest Marine Protected Area in the world.
- WWF is calling on all Australians to persuade the Australian Government to declare the entire Coral Sea region a Marine Protected Area. This would create the world's largest Marine Park and protect the Coral Sea for future generations, before irreversible damage is done.
- For more information: www.wwf.org.au/coralsea
For more information
Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia Oceans Program Leader, glewellyn@wwf.org.au
Jacqueline McArthur, 0408626780, jmcarthur@cohorts.net.au
