A decision described as “historic”. The Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species, held in Panama on Friday, pledged to protect some fifty species of sharks threatened by the booming trade in their fins in Asia. On the last day of this 19th Conference (COP19) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), delegates from 183 states and the European Union (EU) decided in plenary to regulate the fisheries of 54 species of squirrel sharks (Carcharhinidae) and hammerhead sharks (Sphynidae).
These sharks have been listed on Appendix II of CITES, which by consensus severely restricts trade in certain species, despite reservations expressed by Japan about the protection afforded the blue shark as it is not an endangered species. The Japanese delegate expressed his country’s “serious concern” about the consequences of this decision, which is considered “detrimental from a social and economic point of view” for his country’s fishermen.
The protection of these sharks, demanded by the EU and fifteen countries including Panama, was the most debated decision at the summit, which began on November 14. As the debates progressed, it became an emblematic measure of the conference and several delegations had stuffed sharks placed on their desks.
Shirley Binder, the Panamanian delegate, argued that the sharks now benefiting from CITES protection represent “about 90% of the market” for shark fins. This market, centered in Hong Kong, exceeds half a billion dollars a year (€483 million). The fins can be sold for $1,000 per kilo in East Asia to make soups very famous in traditional Chinese gastronomy.
conservation measures
“This will be remembered as the day we reversed the trend to prevent the extinction of the world’s sharks and rays,” the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said in a statement. “This historic list of around 100 heavily trafficked species will lead to the national level protection measures these species desperately need. The critical next step will be to implement these lists and ensure they translate into stronger trade and fisheries management measures as soon as possible.
The only dissonant voice within environmental protection organizations, the French NGO Fondation Brigitte Bardot, in a press release, denounced “a large crowd who have shown once again that CITES is not intended to protect wild animals, but their international ones.” to orchestrate trade by trying to fix with a few band-aids the ecological disaster it is causing”.