BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (BRUNEI)- The sultanate of Brunei has announced it will enforce the ban on the catch and landings of all shark species from Brunei’s waters. And thus cease the sale of any related products in the domestic market. Furthermore, Brunei will also now officially enforce the ban on the importation and trade of shark products which has been in place since August 2012.
This announcement was declared by the Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, with the remarkable name of Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, during the ‘Celebrate the Sea Festival’ in-conjunction with the Worlds Oceans Day 2013 yesterday.
Fins
The minister said sharks are targeted for their fins only, whereas the rest of the body are discarded back to the sea – most of the time barely breathing – to die.
He reminded the audience at the festival that sharks occupy an important hierarchy in the marine food web as “higher predators” in the marine environment.
CITES
The ban supports the international bodies such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at the recently concluded 16th Conference of Parties (16th COP) on CITES in Bangkok, Thailand. More shark species were listed under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable, endangered and threatened.
Shark resources
The minister believes that the impact from the ban would decrease the fishing pressure towards the shark resources, especially in Brunei and in international waters while more importantly safeguard the nation’s overall fishers’ resources to be in a preserved state in the future.
Fish resources around the waters of Brunei are declining significantly, similar to other countries in the world, with about 21 per cent of what it was in 1999 mainly due to overfishing.
Fishing targets
The minister narrowed down his point on shark catches, which are declining significantly over the years. The catches were around 40 metric tonnes in 1994 and they fell to 16 metric tonnes in 2011, even though shark is not a targeted fish in Brunei.
The event marks the 12th Celebrate the Sea Festival, which Brunei, with more than 41,000 square kilometres of majestic ocean and marine biodiversity, is a home for more than 400 coral species and a diversity of 670 species of fish, hosts.
Read more at the Borneo Post