Monday, 22nd December 2008
Letter to editor - in defence of sharks
Dear Sir,
While I welcome the news that the European Commission intends to adopt an ‘Action Plan on Sharks’ in January, based on scientific advice which shows that these species are highly vulnerable to fishing pressure in EU waters, I was nevertheless dismayed that the Fisheries Council last week failed to take action to save critically endangered sharks.
Instead of setting zero catch limits for two of the most seriously over-fished species of shark – the porbeagle and spurdog (spiny dogfish) – the Council set total allowable catch (TAC) limits that were reduced by only 25% and 50% respectively. Although the Commission had proposed a zero catch limit, based on scientific evidence that porbeagle and spurdog shark stocks are in danger of collapse, France used its position as chair of the Council of Ministers during the rotating French presidency of the EU, to block the move, in a bid to protect its lucrative shark fin soup industry.
I am appalled that once again France has put its own short-term economic interests ahead of any concern for the survival of some of the world’s most threatened species of shark. I can only hope that the Commission proposals, when they are published in January, will shame France into putting a stop to this unsustainable fishery before stocks of porbeagle and spurdog sharks disappear entirely from European waters.
STRUAN STEVENSON, MEP
