OCEANA, the world’s largest international ocean conservation organization, released a new report today that estimates that more than 1.3 million highly migratory sharks were caught in the Atlantic Ocean during 2008, without international fisheries management.
This estimate demonstrates the need for protections of highly migratory sharks at the 17th Special Meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), currently underway in Paris, France.
“Sharks are the elephant in the room,” said Rebecca Greenberg, marine scientist at Oceana. “Too many sharks are being caught in the Atlantic Ocean for ICCAT to pretend there is not a problem. Many shark populations are in much worse shape than other fish species already managed by ICCAT.”
Read the complete story from Fish News EU.