EU fleet accused of undeclared shark catches

摘要

European ships have allegedly caught thousands of sharks without declaring them to the fisheries management bodies, contrary to their obligations, according to the International Council for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). The organisation for the protection of the ocean, Oceana, which made this accusation, is seizing the opportunity of a meeting of ICCAT scientific experts, which is taking place from 1 to 5 September in Madrid (Spain), to call on competent European authorities so the EU participates in conservation measures. The experts' conclusions and suggestions should eventually lead to the first international regulations on shark fishing. ICCAT experts will carry out a precise assessment of the situation of various species of shark and provide a series of recent data on the volume of catches as well as the fleets involved - including more than 150 European industrial surface longlin-ers - so that concerted management pro- posals for this resource can be drafted and presented before the end of the year (ICCAT meeting from 17 to 24 November in Morocco). This exercise is necessary due to the lack of reliable data available on the topic.