The wildlife conservation group, Oceana, announced on Friday that proposed regulations meant to protect dusky shark populations off the coast of the United States are not adequate to slow the species’ plummeting numbers.
Under the new plan put forth by the National Marine Fisheries Service in October, stricter fishing regulations would be put in place for anglers who target sharks, including gear specifications, and would include a community outreach and education program.
Oceana, however, says that the new proposals don’t do enough to curtail the accidental catch by commercial longline fishermen who are targeting tuna and swordfish.
“This is yet another example of the federal government failing to take meaningful action to control the capture and killing of dusky sharks,” Oceana campaign director Lora Snyder said in a release. “The proposal released today does not come to grips with the problem, as it fails to even address all the fishing fleets responsible for catching dusky sharks.”
According to Oceana, dusky shark populations off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have plummeted by 85 percent in the past two decades as a result of overfishing and by-catch when fishing for other species. As many as 75,000 dusky sharks may have been caught as bycatch since they were officially prohibited from being targeted in 2000, leaving their populations struggling to recover.
Dusky sharks, which were prized for their fins and oily livers, grow slowly and have low reproductive rates, rendering the species highly vulnerable to overfishing. Almost 4,000 dusky sharks are snagged every year in fishing gear meant to catch other species such as grouper, snapper, swordfish and other sharks. Many of these dusky sharks – as much as 80 percent – die by the time they are hauled to the boat and tossed overboard.
The regulatory proposal was formed as a result of a lawsuit brought by Oceana in May. The NMFS is seeking public input on the proposals until Thursday.
“It is long past time the government gets serious about its obligation to protect dusky sharks and to bring back this important species,” Snyder said in a statement at the time. “The Fisheries Service has acknowledged for years that dusky sharks are in serious trouble, yet this population is still being overfished due to federal inaction.”