{"id":6325,"date":"2015-11-12T12:15:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/?p=6325"},"modified":"2015-11-16T11:55:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T15:55:43","slug":"sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2015\/11\/12\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks need smarter management and better data to recover and thrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"By<\/a>
Dusky Shark \u00a0(Carcharhinus obscurus) are extremely rare. This one is swimming at Seaworld Aquarium in Queensland, Australia. Photo by: Amada44 via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Shark advocates at Oceana recently sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), claiming that the way the agency controls fishing on dusky sharks violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act.\u00a0 Duskies are overfished and have suffered overfishing for years, even though it is illegal to retain them if they are caught.\u00a0 The duskies\u2019 plight highlights the shortcomings of bans and similar efforts when it comes to protecting vulnerable species like sharks, especially when they are caught alongside other, healthier species.<\/p>\n

Over the last several years, more and more people have learned about both the importance of sharks and the ongoing threats to their existence. This is great news because sharks are among the most important creatures in the ocean, playing a vital role in maintaining healthy marine ecosystems.\u00a0 Plus, they\u2019re really cool.\u00a0 Formerly of interest exclusively to fish geeks like myself, Shark Week is now a widely celebrated summer ritual.\u00a0 Shark finning, a deplorable practice where a shark\u2019s fin is removed and the rest of its body is discarded at sea, has been banned in the United States since 2000, and more than 70 other countries have enacted similar bans.<\/p>\n

Despite this progress, shark populations remain threatened and overfishing is common. The FAO reports<\/a> that the market for sharks has actually increased, and many sharks die as bycatch as a side effect of fishing for other species at healthier population sizes, such as Atlantic swordfish (which has recovered after a focused conservation effort).<\/p>\n

Nineteen U.S. shark species, including duskies and great white sharks, are at such low population levels that they are so-called \u201cprohibited\u201d species; if caught, they cannot be kept.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0For dusky sharks, the ban has been in place since 2000.\u00a0 Nevertheless, they have continued to experience overfishing.\u00a0 Duskies simply can\u2019t tolerate much fishing and struggle to recover because they don\u2019t reproduce until about 20 years of age and then deliver 5-10 pups only once every three years.\u00a0 NMFS calculates that in order to rebuild them in a century<\/u> — 100 years — fishing levels have to drop by more than half.<\/p>\n

In short, the ban isn\u2019t working.\u00a0 Pretending sharks don\u2019t get caught because we prohibit landing isn\u2019t effective. \u00a0Even if increasing the use of conventional management tools, such as closed areas or gear restrictions, worked to curtail fishing mortality enough, those restrictions could force U.S. fishing vessels out of the fishery altogether. \u00a0But the foreign-flagged vessels can have even higher levels of bycatch<\/a>, so importing more seafood could further harm the sharks we\u2019re trying to protect.<\/p>\n

We need a new approach.\u00a0 Fortunately, emerging technologies could provide the means to effectively monitor and enforce real bycatch limits, and conservation incentives can lead to more flexible regulatory structures that give fishermen the ability and motivation to use their expertise to avoid the sharks.\u00a0 Fishermen will have a stake in the recovery of the dusky population by minimizing the catch of the species and its impact on their ability to fish.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen this kind of transformation in the west coast groundfish fishery.\u00a0 After years of high levels of fishing mortality (and extensive litigation) that left many groundfish species extremely overfished, the long-lived species faced rebuilding plans that in some cases ran to more than 100 years.\u00a0 The Pacific groundfish individual fishing quota program, which involves binding quotas of both targeted and bycaught species and careful monitoring, took effect in 2011.\u00a0 The conservation results have been amazing.\u00a0 Bycatch declined from roughly 20-25% of catch to less than 5% in 2011-2015.\u00a0 2014 fleet-wide catch for overfished species was well below allowable limits.\u00a0 Overfished populations have rebounded much more rapidly than expected.\u00a0 Producing similar results for duskies and other sharks would be game-changing.<\/p>\n

On the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, pelagic longline fishing vessels already carry cameras that monitor their fishing activities, and they tally their catch under a new system designed to protect Atlantic Bluefin tuna.\u00a0 These changes are not easy to navigate, and fishermen deserve support and credit for doing so.\u00a0 NMFS should carefully examine the lessons learned in the Atlantic Bluefin tuna effort and consider expanding it to other species, including dusky sharks.<\/p>\n

Nor should American fishermen bear burdens that foreign fleets do not.\u00a0 The United States has often broken new ground in fisheries management.\u00a0 As solutions emerge for species like sharks that are caught all over the world, we can leverage our participation in international fishery management organizations to institute global management that takes into account the need to catch target fish while avoiding more vulnerable species.<\/p>\n

Oceana has highlighted an important issue, and the law backs them up, as we explained in a letter to the agency<\/a> back in January.\u00a0 Pretending we can ban our way out of the deadly problem of shark bycatch has failed and violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act.\u00a0 We hope the lawsuit leads to a stakeholder-driven process to develop real solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shark advocates at Oceana recently sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), claiming that the way the agency controls fishing on dusky sharks violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act.\u00a0 Duskies are overfished and have suffered overfishing for years, even though it is illegal to retain them if they are caught.\u00a0 The duskies\u2019 plight highlights the shortcomings of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42656],"tags":[157,55583,72527,72526,5109],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scienceresearch","tag-data","tag-domestic","tag-dusky-shark","tag-shark-conservation","tag-sharks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSharks need smarter management and better data to recover and thrive - EDFish<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2015\/11\/12\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sharks need smarter management and better data to recover and thrive - EDFish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shark advocates at Oceana recently sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), claiming that the way the agency controls fishing on dusky sharks violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act.\u00a0 Duskies are overfished and have suffered overfishing for years, even though it is illegal to retain them if they are caught.\u00a0 The duskies\u2019 plight highlights the shortcomings of ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/2015\/11\/12\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EDFish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-12T16:15:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-16T15:55:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/edfish\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/2015\/11\/UShaka_Sea_World_0893a-1024x678.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Monica Goldberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Monica Goldberg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Monica Goldberg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad241fca33312b8e9d0a383bcee8b1d3\"},\"headline\":\"Sharks need smarter management and better data to recover and thrive\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-12T16:15:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-16T15:55:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":849,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/18\\\/files\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/UShaka_Sea_World_0893a-1024x678.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"data\",\"Domestic\",\"dusky shark\",\"shark conservation\",\"sharks\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science\\\/Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/edfish\\\/2015\\\/11\\\/12\\\/sharks-need-smarter-management-and-better-data-to-recover-and-thrive\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sharks need smarter management and better data to recover and thrive - 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