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Derek Bullock
26-01-2008, 03:38 PM
Found this on the AMCS Website.

MEDIA RELEASE
Thursday 24 December 2008

Shark Fin Fishery proposed for Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area - Conservationists Alarmed

The Australian Marine Conservation Society today expressed alarm at a new proposal by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) to establish a dedicated shark fin fishery in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Campaigns Director with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Craig Bohm, said, "In the next few months Queensland's Fisheries Department plans to legitimise one of the most unsustainable forms of fishing on the planet - shark fin fishing. With over 90% of the world's sharks and other big fish gone from our oceans, this is an extraordinary proposal to say the least," said Bohm.

"Not only is the Queensland Government proposing to hand out specific fishing licenses for shark fin fishing, but they are planning to legitimise shark finning in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and in the Marine Parks of Moreton Bay and the Great Sandy Straits. This proposal is unsustainable, unethical and conservationists and the thinking public will flatly reject it," said Bohm.

DPI&F are proposing to create a shark fin fishery as part of their consultation paper "Have Your Say: East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery". The proposal includes creating new licenses to fishers to catch unlimited sharks and also to catch sharks with nets over a kilometer long in our off-shore waters."

Bohm continued, "We have pressed DPI&F to reign in this practice for years and they have failed to do so. How can we have faith in the sustainability agenda of this agency when it is not only failing to protect the state's most vulnerable species, but promoting their exploitation?", Bohm said.

During 2000-2004 shark fishing in Queensland increased four-fold with a massive 1240 tonnes of shark being landed in 2004, according to the DPI&F Strategic Fisheries Report for the fishery. This figure does not include discards of sharks or cryptic mortality of sharks and rays (killed by fishing gear but not seen or recorded by fishers).

Bohm continued, "Sharks are extremely vulnerable to fishing impacts. This is because their biology is more like whales and dolphins than other fish. Sharks are slow growing, have extremely low reproductive rates (producing very few young) and are mostly long lived. This means that they are very slow to recover from impacts on their populations."

Bohm concluded, "The Queensland Government must revoke this proposal and commit to a program with fishers to save sharks, not hunt them. We strongly encourage anyone who treasures Queensland's sharks to have their say on this matter."

ENDS

Contact: Craig Bohm, Campaigns Director - 0427 133 481 or 07 3393 5811

Additional Information

Sharks in QLD
The Fishery is responsible for considerable impacts on elasmobranches with impacts increasing substantially since the early 1990's.

Table 1 in the DPI&F Strategic Fisheries Report for the Fishery indicates that the recorded landing of sharks has increased from 289t in 1990 to 1240t in 2004. This figure represents a four-fold increase in shark landings and does not include discards or cryptic mortality of sharks and rays, therefore it under-estimates the extent of the shark killing occurring.

Sharks have historically been recorded in logbooks as 'shark' and there are no historic stock assessments from which to analyse the extent of fishing impacts to date on most of Queensland's shark species.

The DPI&F Strategic Fisheries Report to the Department of Environment and Heritage states there has been poor record keeping of shark take by the Inshore Finfish Fishery.

Sharks in the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority website states that sharks are apex predators, helping to control populations of prey species. Consequently, reducing the number of sharks may have significant and unpredictable impacts on other parts of the ecosystem.

There is very little information available about the sharks in the Great Barrier Reef, and their status is unknown. The basic biological characteristics of most species in the Great Barrier Reef have yet to be studied.
Some 125 species of sharks, rays, skates and chimeras are found in the Great Barrier Reef, and inhabit a wide variety of habitats.

Sharks have very conservative life history traits and are generally unable to withstand the levels of fishing most bony (teleost) fishes are able to sustain. Many shark fisheries around the world have collapsed.

The main pressure on sharks in the Great Barrier Reef is fishing, and this pressure is increasing. More than 90% of the Great Barrier Reef commercial shark harvest is taken by the gillnet fishery with the remainder taken by the line and trawl fisheries. However recreational fishers catch and retain a significant number of sharks.

There is inadequate reporting of shark catch and there are no species specific catch and effort data. Bycatch and shark finning are significant issues but are poorly documented.

http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/info_services/publications/sotr/latest_updates/sharks_rays

Responses to this proposal should be sent to:

East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery RIS Response
Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
GPO Box 46 Brisbane QLD 4001
Fax: 07 3229 8146
Online: >www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb (http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb)