EU citizens, help protect sharks!

The European Commission's Fisheries dept. is now seeking public consultation whether to amend a loophole in the Council Regulation (EC) 1185/2003 on the removal of fins of sharks on board vessels. That regulation basically banned finning, but a loophole allowed by the EC by issuing special permits to allow fishermen to remove fins. There is now a movement within the IUCN which is calling for the EC to stop all permits and close off the loophole entirely. That means either the fins stay on the sharks or must be 5% of the total catch, which would reduce shark catch tremendously!

The EC Fisheries has started an online consultation for EU citizens to gauge the popularity of removing this loophole. So all the EU citizens who remotely care about sharks, get your family, friends (facebook, myspace, twitter etc etc) out to write in to support this move!!! The Spanish fleet is one of the biggest suppliers of fins. Cut them off and give sharks a breather, while we work on the other economic zones! The online consultation ends 21st February 2011. Wetpixel will frequently update the front page to remind EU citizens to help out. Hopefully with the help of our community, we can do our bit to save sharks.

Details and how to write in are here:

http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/partners/con...an/index_en.htm

You can read more about it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11951562

Please also take the time to write your Member of European Parliament to sign on the declaration to protect sharks. More information is available here:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39058

Well Drew, citizen of the U.K. or European countries, I am not but I sent an email anyway to mailto:MARE-SHARK-FINNING-CONSULTATION@ec.europa.eu

Hope they listen.

Steve

As an Eu citizen (in a country with it's own 'internal issues'- lest said about that the better) .. I had a look at the consultation document on the EU site..

http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/partners/con...document_en.pdf

Had a look at Section 2.6 and Section 3 and also the 'back up' options etc. ...IMHO- As long as there is a demand for shark fin soup (a luxury commodity which is not beneficial for the essential survival of mankind as a species) on the Hong Kong markets- the fate of the sharks are heading in one direction only. Maybe what should be proposed is a total ban on shark fishing/finning in the EU (the rest of the world can do what they like), and afford the shark the same protection as the rhino*,the gorilla* the tiger*, the whale*, and the elephant*

ps. *It's interesting to note that these species are mammals--maybe there is a subconscious 'species class bias' here?? I mean-who cares about nasty horrible sharks like the one in Jaws?? They are evil... and deserve to be put into soups!-Better the sharks be in our bellys..... than us in their bellys.... right? ;-D.

Damo,

Little steps make inroads, a huge step like this, whereby ships cannot fill their hull full of fins and dump the rest of the shark is possibly the only way to stop it. Realistically, demand isn't going to drop fast enough to save sharks. Only a 2 prong attack on the problem, to cut supply and demand at the same time, while educating why demand should be shut off can sharks have any chance of survival.

What is more interesting to me is that we have at least 1000 thousand members in the EU. They may not all sign on all the time but less than 100 views on this most vital movement where millions of sharks can be saved vs shutting down a few restaurants here and there.

This is probably the most important regulation in shark conservation, even more so than the protection of great whites. If this movement does not pass, then what's the point of it all?

The EU constituents with big fishing fleets will be up in arms to fight this. Even Cyprus wants to jump in on the permit issue. Seriously if even we as a community which appreciates the oceans, won't even bother to write a few emails, what hope is there of others jumping onto the cause?

Now that we've won phase one of the long road to getting the EU to ban shark finning:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39058

The 2nd phase in this long battle is to get the EU to put in the legislation and enforce. Spain and other fishing permit countries will be fighting this all the way so in many ways, this legislation is in for a big fight.

Let's not stop now and make it a new year resolution to help sharks in 2011.

Oops, just realised that this thread is for the consultation... So here it is End Finning in EU

Xaria, it''s the same consultation on that petition. A very important step!

Something "easy" but crucial... http://sharkalliancepetition.org/

http://www.projectaware.org/project/eu-shark-finning-ban