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PAGE ONE :: WORLD NEWS :: ECO

Environmentalists sue NOAA, NMFS over coastal shark fishing

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by FREEMAN WASHINGTON

TAMPA, Florida (31 Jan 2002) -- Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to halt overfishing of large coastal sharks.

The National Audubon Society, Earthjustice and The Ocean Conservancy filed the lawsuit, which alleges that NOAA and the NMFS have failed to prevent overfishing and rebuild populations of US coastal sharks, and have "short-circuited public participation in fisheries management by illegally eliminating opportunity for comment and allowing key management decisions to be made through secret negotiations and by outside parties."

The lawsuit stems from an ongoing dispute between environmentalists and the US shark fishing industry over quotas.

"The lawsuit is intended to get the government to follow the law in terms of shark fisheries to rebuild the population," said Sonja Fordham, a fish conservation manager with The Ocean Conservancy.

In recent years, the US shark fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico and along the US east coast has boomed to supply the increasing popularity of shark filet and shark fin soup.

But according to scientists, overfishing had caused a sharp decline in shark populations and some species, such as the sandbar shark, have declined by over 80% since the 1970s.

Bob Spaeth, executive director of the Southern Offshore Fishing Association, disagrees and called for quotas to be increased. In a statement reminiscent of DEMA's strategy to scare scuba diving public into opposing a government ban on shark feeding, Spaeth described the suit as "ridiculous" and just "another attempt by the enviros to destroy the shark fishing industry."

Environmentalists say the NMFS caved in to pressure from the shark fishing industry when it suspended a 1999 quota reduction to settle a lawsuit with fishermen.

Sharks are in trouble worldwide and need more protection than many other species due to overfishing, slow maturity and low reproductive rates.

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Shark Fishing

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    ENDANGERED SPECIES - Sharks, Rays, Skates and Sawfish

    (Editors note: This is not a complete list)

    Name: Angular angel shark (Squatina guggenheim).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: western South Atlantic coastal waters from Southern Brazil to Northern Argentina.
    Reasons: bycatch by gillnet and bottom trawling fisheries.

    Name: Barndoor skate (Raja laevis).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: northwest Atlantic.
    Reasons: overfishing.
    Other: has been extirpated from large parts of its range in Canadian Atlantic and New England coastal waters

    Name: Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: Atlantic, Pacific, Australian and New Zealand coastal waters.
    Reasons: overfishing, bycatch.
    Other: some local populations have declined up to 80 percent.

    Name: Borneo shark (Carcharhinus borneensis).
    Status: critically endangered or already extinct.
    Reasons: overfishing.
    Where: Pacific Asian coastal waters.

    Name: Common sawfish (Pristis pristis).
    Status: critically endangered or already extinct.
    Reasons: bycatch.
    Where: Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Seas.
    Other: once common in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, but is now extirpated from Europe waters and the Mediterranean along with all other sawfishes.

    Name: Dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: coastal waters worldwide.
    Reasons: overfishing.

    Name: Freshwater sawfish, Great-tooth sawfish (Pristis microdon ).
    Status: critically endangered.
    Where: Indian Ocean and west Pacific coasts, lagoons and estuaries; freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.
    Reasons: overfishing, habitat loss and degradation.

    Name: Ganges shark (Glyphis gangeticus).
    Status: critically endangered.
    Where: Ganges-Hooghly river system, India and Pakistan.

    Name: Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: worldwide.

    Name: Green sawfish (Pristis zijsron).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: Indian and west Pacific coastal waters and lower reaches of rivers.
    Reasons: overfishing, bycatch.

    Name: Grey nurse shark (Carcharodon carcharias).
    Status: critically endangered.
    Where: Australia.
    Reasons: overfishing.

    Name: Largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti).
    Status: critically endangered.
    Where: Indian Ocean and west Pacific coasts, lagoons and estuaries; freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.
    Reasons: overfishing, bycatch, habitat loss and degradation.

    Name: Night shark (Carcharhinus signatus).
    Status: endangered.
    Reasons: overfishing.

    Name: Pincushion ray (Urogymnus ukpam).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: coasts, lagoons and estuaries, and freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams of Congo, Gabon, and Nigeria.

    Name: Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus).
    Status: critically endangered.
    Where: worldwide.
    Reasons: overfishing.
    Other: western Atlantic population has been reduced by 85-90% in just ten years by overfishing.

    Name: Sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: Australia.
    Reasons: overfishing.

    Name: Silver shark (Balantiocheilos melanopterus).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
    Reasons: overfishing.
    Other: a freshwater shark.

    Name: Smalltooth sawfish, Wide sawfish (Pristis pectinata).
    Status: critically endangered.
    Where: Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, lagoons, and estuaries, and freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams.
    Reasons: overfishing and loss of habitat.
    Other: wholly or nearly extirpated from large areas of its former range in the North Atlantic (Mediterranean, US Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico) and Southwest Atlantic coast.

    Name: Smoothback angel shark (Squatina occulta).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: western south Atlantic shelf waters (Brazil to Uruaguay.
    Reasons: bycatch by gillnet and bottom trawling fisheries.

    Name: Speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: Indo-Pacific coastal waters.
    Reasons: development, overfishing and habitat destruction.

    Name: Spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: temperate oceans worldwide.
    Reasons: overfishing.

    Name: Whale shark (Rhincodon typus).
    Status: endangered.
    Reasons: overfishing.

    Name: Whitefin topeshark (Hemitriakis leucoperiptera).
    Status: endangered.
    Where: Philippine coastal waters.
    Reasons: overfishing.

     

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