GEORGETOWN (CAYMAN ISLANDS)- Last april a new law forbids the fishing of sharks in Cayman waters. Yet fishermen are continuing to illegally catch and kill these creatures despite the protection afforded them by the National Conservation Law. The National Conservation Law provisions protecting certain species, including sharks, in the CaymanContinue Reading
BYRON BAY (AUSTRALIA)- Surfers on Australia’s New South Wales north coast have overwhelmingly and somehow unexpectedly voted for a partial cull of sharks. This vote was made last night following an unprecedented number of attacks and sightings along the world-famous coastline. Surfer Tadashi Nakahara was mauled to death in February andContinue Reading
SAN JOSE (COSTA RICA)- Conservation groups Turtle Island Restoration Network and PRETOMA have found evidence that Costa Rica is exporting hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) to plates in Hong Kong by way of stop-overs on U.S. soil. Eastern Pacific Scalloped hammerhead sharks are listed as “endangered” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). The exportContinue Reading
PORTLAND (USA)- US federal regulators are reviewing the status of the porbeagle shark to determine if listing the species under the Endangered Species Act is warranted. The regulators say the porbeagle sharks are threatened by the shark fin trade and bycatch from other fisheries. They are popular as meat and with gameContinue Reading
WASHINGTON (USA)—The Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) passed legislation in early February to create a shark sanctuary in the country’s full exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which covers nearly 3 million square kilometers (1.1 million square miles) in the western Pacific Ocean. President Manny Mori signed the legislation,Continue Reading
SAN JOSE (COSTA RICA)- Government officials and environmentalists in Costa Rica are in disagreement on what to do with more than 1,200 kilograms of shark fins — the equivalent of about 2,000 hammerhead sharks — allegedly caught as bycatch and set to be exported to Asia. The disagreement extends to regulationsContinue Reading
ANTANANARIVO (MADAGASCAR)- Great news for the sharks in waters of the isle of Madagascar. The Government of this eastern African country presented its first marine sanctuary for sharks. It is part of a new law to safeguard the country’s marine resources and the communities that rely on them, according toContinue Reading