Good news for sharks and rays !

Dominican Republic banned the capture and trading on all shark and rays species in his territorial waters forever.

A cornerstone action was implemented by the minister of environment that will greatly help the conservation of our marine ecosystems . The decree also temporarily prohibited the fishing of parrotfishes and surgeonfishes( for 2 years ) and diadema urchins ( 5 years ) . Which we hope it can be extended for life in the near future.

The implementation was made by the new minister Francisco Dominguez-Brito and was heavily supported by world known business man and conservationist Richard Branson ; also by the local community of environmentalists which are also now collaborating on the implementation and enforcement of the new rules .

Here is one of the few publications in english of the news:

http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear=&day=19&id=92316&l=e&special=&ndb=1%20target=

But fried parrot fish is very popular here in DR, I imagine they will just fish from outside territorial waters? Never seen shark or rays here for sale but parrot fish always...

Yes , that's true and sadly those parrotfishes are mostly fished within our territorial waters . After this decree that must stop , but i will take time and lot of efforts .

Shark are already being targeted for the shark fin trade, the use of their livers for extract the oil , the jaws for souvenirs and in the south west they fish the eagle rays because they had a false believe that their tongues cure asthma !! . Also the use of long nets ( chinchorros ) kill lots of juveniles eagle rays in an area in the north west that seems it's a big nursery .

We need to promote the consumption of more sustainable species ( lion fish , dorado , wahoo,king fish, deep water snappers , etc ) instead of the parrotfishes , which we are already doing it . Also to help the authorities to promote better fishing practices among local fishermen and to put more efforts on law enforcement .

Conservation is still a very difficult matter here , so this ban is only the first step but it's a huge one . If you live in DR and you want to get involved, you can pm and i will let you know how you can help.