Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
November 20, 2007
U.S. Leads Efforts to Strengthen Global Shark Conservation
At the urging of the Department of State-led U.S. delegation to the United Nations, member states last week agreed to
strengthen protections for vulnerable and endangered shark populations around the world.
The agreed language calls on individual nations and international fisheries organizations to take immediate and
concerted actions to improve shark conservation and management and to better enforce existing rules on shark fishing,
including bans on shark finning.
The resolution calls for, among other things, establishing limits on shark catches, improved assessment of the health of
shark stocks, reducing the unintended capture of sharks, and limiting shark fisheries until management measures are
adopted.
Ensuring effective conservation and management of sharks is a high priority for the United States. Sharks are
particularly susceptible to overexploitation because they are typically long-lived, slow-growing, and produce few young.
Many shark species are apex predators and are vital to the health of the ecosystems they inhabit, so their conservation
is an integral part of ecosystem-based fisheries management. Sharks are currently taken in fisheries directed for
sharks, and are also caught incidentally in fisheries directed for other species.
Sharks are also subject to the practice of "finning," which is the removal and retention of shark fins and the discard
of shark carcasses at sea. One key aspect of the language agreed at the UN negotiations is the call for improved
compliance with current bans on shark finning, including measures requiring that sharks be landed with fins attached.
The language will be included and considered during the week of December 10 as part of a larger annual UN resolution on
fisheries.
The United States intends to build on the success achieved at the UNGA by promoting shark conservation in other
multilateral fora, including the U.S.-led Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking and appropriate Regional Fisheries
Management Organizations.
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Released on November 20, 2007
ENDS