OTTAWA (CANADA)- Friends of Hector have started a petition to urge Canada into protecting the endangered porbeagle sharks. It is the only country on the Atlantic ocean directly targeting this shark and is allowing thousands to be caught as ‘bycatch’ in fisheries for other fish. Over 17.000 people signed already.
Porbeagle
Porbeagle sharks are one of the most endangered sharks in the Atlantic Ocean. Since 1961, their population has declined by up to 88%. Yet, on November 12th, Canada will stand in front of 47 other countries to defend its right to keep fishing this endangered shark.
Protection
Sign Friends of Hector’s petition asking Gail Shea, Canada’s Fisheries Minister, to join the international consensus and protect the porbeagle, Canada’s shark. When you sign an email will be sent directly to the Minister.
Fishing
For the last two years, Canada has single handedly blocked the adoption of a proposal to stop all fishing for the porbeagle shark in the Atlantic Ocean at the annual international fisheries management meeting for the Atlantic – ICCAT, the International Committee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Let’s not let Canada continue this stalemate for another year.
Decades to recover
Canada’s own government science shows that even with no fishing porbeagles will take decades to recover. Yet, Canada continues to allow fishing that will push the recovery time to more than 100 years. This is not an acceptable risk for a shark that has been listed as ‘Endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Canada’s own Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The porbeagle spends much of its time in Canadian waters. What Canada does matters to the future of this shark.
Fishing for porbeagle has been banned in European Union waters and the Mediterranean. This year’s ICCAT proposal will ensure porbeagles are not fished anywhere in the Atlantic.
Remind Canada’s Fisheries Minister the world is watching – it’s time for Canada to do its part. Stop risking the recovery of this endangered shark.
Campaign
Friends of Hector is an international campaign dedicated to the protection of sharks and sea turtles from being caught as ‘bycatch’. Some of the most troublesome fishing gears for sharks are longlines, trawls and gillnets. Hector the Blue Shark lives in the Northwest Atlantic and is sick of losing his friends to the hooks of Nova Scotia’s various fisheries.
Hector is busy recruiting individuals and organizations from around the world to join him in his demand for Canada to stop standing in the way of an international proposal to protect the endangered porbeagle shark from ending up on any more fishing lines.