Marine Life & Conservation
Calls for Marine Stewardship Council to raise bar on shark finning
A recent report criticises the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for failing in its stated ‘zero tolerance’ approach to shark finning and calls for urgent reform.
Shark populations globally are on the brink of collapse under fishing pressure: an estimated 63—273 million sharks are killed each year and numbers of oceanic sharks have dropped by 71% since 1970. A major driver of this unsustainable exploitation is the existence of a lucrative global shark fin trade. Shark finning is illegal across many jurisdictions but bans vary in their effectiveness and enforcement and the practice continues across the ocean, including in MSC-certified fisheries.
This report analyses existing approaches used to enact finning bans, concluding that it is now well-established that the most effective means of banning shark finning is by requiring that all sharks must be landed with Fins Naturally Attached (FNA). Dr. Iris Ziegler of Sharkproject International said:
“Shark finning is a practice which, by its nature, takes place under the radar. The incidences we are aware of may be just the tip of the iceberg. It is absolutely crucial that fisheries require Fins Naturally Attached. This is the only effective means of eliminating shark finning as it closes loopholes and provides the strongest possible foundation for detecting incidences and removing bad actors from fisheries: if monitoring detects fins on board, it is immediately clear that a breach has taken place and sanctions can be imposed.”
An FNA policy is in place in 19 of the world’s 43 foremost shark fishing nations, and is a requirement in jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, United States, European Union, Canada, Costa Rica, South Africa and Brazil. In contrast, this report criticises the MSC, one of the world’s leading seafood sustainability eco-labelling schemes, for failing to fully implement the ban on shark finning it had announced in 2011. The authors are also concerned that MSC has failed to implement a Fins Naturally Attached policy for all certified fisheries that interact with sharks, despite clear global sustainability trends and multiple calls from stakeholders in the decade since the announcement.
Susan Millward, Marine Program Director, Animal Welfare Institute said:
“Fins Naturally Attached is no longer merely ‘best practice’ but increasingly a bare minimum expectation for sustainable fisheries management. It is truly shocking that instead of taking the lead and driving global action against shark finning, the Marine Stewardship Council instead lags more than a decade behind the cutting-edge. MSC may claim to have ‘zero tolerance’ towards shark finning but this rhetoric is not yet matched by its requirements.”
As the MSC continues its five-yearly Fisheries Standard Review with the publication of a potentially revised Standard scheduled for next year, this report concludes by providing recommended actions. The report strongly urges MSC to revise its Standard such that:
• Evidence of shark finning must preclude a fishery upfront from entering the MSC certification process.
• Any fishery interacting with sharks must, as a prerequisite, have a Fins Naturally Attached policy with no exemptions in place at the time of certification.
• Based on objectively verifiable criteria, the risk of finning occurring needs to be assessed and the extent of monitoring and surveillance required for that fishery should be defined according to risk categories (low, medium, high)
Katie Woodroffe of Shark Guardian said:
“It is time for the MSC to listen to stakeholders and seize the opportunity of the Fisheries Standard Review to raise the bar by requiring Fins Naturally Attached as a prerequisite for certification – with no exemptions! In the face of mass extinction, we need to be doing everything in our power to stamp out the horrific practice of shark finning. Fleets around the world have successfully implemented Fins Naturally Attached and demonstrated it to be a feasible and effective solution. There is absolutely no reason why fisheries which have been MSC-certified, or which aspire to certification, should not follow suit.”
For more information on the work of Shark Guardian visit their website by clicking here.
Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth by Sonke Johnsen
What an unexpected surprise! A book that combines a clear passion for the ocean with humour and the deft touch of a true storyteller. Johnsen gives a wonderful insight into the life of a deep sea marine biologist , the weird and wonderful animals encountered in this mysterious world, the trials and tribulations, in a way that makes you feel you have been sat at a table chatting about his work over a pint or cup of tea.
Even for divers, the deep blue open ocean can feel inaccessible. It is one of the least studied places in the universe. In this book that deep blue ocean and its inhabitants is brought to you with warmth and wit. And even the most well-read will come away with new facts and information. Johnsen’s goal is one that resonates throughout: Before we as scientists can ask people to preserve this important and fragile habitat, we need to show them that it’s there and the beauty of what lives in it. He does just that.
This is a book that combines the scientific with a deeply personal story. You feel what it is like to work out in the open ocean and get to know the animals that reside there. With descriptions that allow you to really imagine what it feels like being out there in the blue.
What the publisher says:
The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the seafloor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to anglerfish with bioluminescent lures that draw prey into their toothy mouths. Into the Great Wide Ocean takes readers inside the peculiar world of the seagoing scientists who are providing tantalizing new insights into how the animals of the open ocean solve the problems of their existence.
Sönke Johnsen vividly describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, such as gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, catching food while not becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities. He interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.
Into the Great Wide Ocean presents the sea and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before and reminds us that the rules of survival in the open ocean, though they may seem strange to us, are the primary rules of life on Earth.
About the Author:
Sönke Johnsen is professor of biology at Duke University. He is the author of The Optics of Life: A Biologist’s Guide to Light in Nature and the coauthor of Visual Ecology (both Princeton). Marlin Peterson, who created original illustrations for this book, is an illustrator and muralist who teaches and illustrates in many styles and media. He also specializes in giant optical illusions such as his harvestmen mural below the Space Needle in Seattle, and his full portfolio can be found at marlinpeterson.com.
Book Details
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Hardcover
Price: £20.00
ISBN: 9780691181745
Published: 7th January, 2025
This week only – your donation to the Shark Trust will be doubled – at no extra cost to you!
This week only – your donation to the Shark Trust will be doubled – at no extra cost to you!The Shark Trust are raising vital funds for their Community Engagement Programme: empowering people to learn about sharks and rays, assisting the scientific community take action for elasmobranchs, and bring communities together to become ambassadors for change.
Every £1 you give = £2 for shark conservation. A donation of £10 becomes £20, £50 becomes £100! Help us reach our target of £10,000, if successful, this will be doubled to £20,000 by the Big Give.
Every donation makes DOUBLE the impact!
Monty Halls is backing this week of fundraising “Cousteau called sharks the “splendid savage of the sea”, and even through the more benign lens of modern shark interactions it remains a good description. The reefs I dived thirty years ago teemed with sharks, the perfect result of 450 million years of evolution. Today those same reefs are silent, the blue water empty of those elegant shadows. But hope remains that if one generation has created such devastation, so the next can reverse the damage that has been done. The Shark Trust are at the forefront of that fight.“
To find out more about the work of the Shark Trust visit their website here.
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