Asian nations yesterday blocked US-backed proposals to protect the heavily fished hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks on concerns that regulating the booming trade in fins could hurt poor nations.
A committee at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, however, approved regulating the trade in the porbeagle shark, which is prized mostly by Europe for its high-valued meat. Controls on the spiny dogfish shark, a key ingredient in fish and chips in Europe, however, were defeated because opponents felt stocks were recovering in many regions.
Japan, which successfully campaigned against an export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna and regulations on the coral trade, led the opposition to the hammerhead and oceanic whitetip shark proposal at CITES. They didn’t speak on the porbeagle.
The hammerhead and whitetip sharks are heavily fished for their prized fins, with the carcasses often discarded.
Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.