A preview of NOAA’s forthcoming July 16 announcement to allow an increase of shark takes has stunned this environmentalist.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration intends to increase the amount of Large Coastal Sharks than can be retained per boat or trip from three sharks per day to a whopping 36! This represents a 400% increase in the allowed landings of sharks for the remainder of the season.

Why? According to NOAA it is “to promote equitable fishing opportunities in the Atlantic region, while allowing quota to be harvested throughout the year”.

For many years, the environmental outcry has been against the practice of shark ‘finning’.

Some estimates claim that over 65 million sharks a year are killed, many only for their fins to make the popular and expensive delicacy called sharkfin soup.

As with the majority of ocean fish, most of a shark’s body is edible. A large shark can feed a family for a month. However, a fisher often gets more money for just the fins than for the rest of the shark.

Sharks are heavy and take up a lot of space on ships at sea.

A vessel that maxes out at five sharks can easily hold the fins of fifty sharks instead. Thus evolved the diabolically cruel practice of cutting off a living shark’s fins while at sea. The squirming shark’s mutilated body is tossed back into the ocean to drown slowly or be horribly crushed by ocean depths.

Why dismember a living shark?

It is much more time and cost efficient than waiting for the shark to die. Sharks can survive for hours out of the water … not comfortably of course and not without suffering debilitating damage. A ‘quick-kill’ entails several minutes of shark-head beating with a metal pipe or baseball bat. On a crowded and active fishing vessel tossed about by the sea, wildly swinging an object around is not recommended. Neither is firing spear guns or firearms into a fish on deck.

Slicing fins off living sharks became the fastest and most efficient method of creating a 12 oz. bowl of soup.

Virgin Islands fishers have not been reported as engaging in the practice of finning sharks.

Large Coastal Shark sales are to a small local population that prefers a thick juicy fillet over a few water-soaked chunks of spiced fins. There still exists a market for VI fishermen selling shark-skin for deck shoes and shark oil for burning and medicine among some Eastern Caribbean islands. So, in the Virgin Islands, the entire shark is typically sold and used.

However, given the magnitude of world-wide shark slaughter, some island residents are of the opinion that every shark counts. Whether the shark is being finned or landed whole, fishing them contributes to the decimation and eventual extinction of most sharks.

Below is what NOAA has to say on the matter.

You can also download the NOAA report , scheduled to be published on July 16, as a PDF report from this federal government link or on our website HERE.

JULY 11, 2017

Atlantic Region Increased Large Coastal Shark Retention Limit to 36 Sharks per Trip and Regulation Reminders The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) is increasing the retention limit for the commercial aggregated large coastal shark (LCS) and hammerhead shark management groups for directed shark limited access permit holders in the Atlantic region from 3 to 36 LCS other than sandbar sharks per vessel per trip as of July 16, 2017.  This adjustment is intended to promote equitable fishing opportunities in the Atlantic region, while allowing quota to be harvested throughout the year.  All other retention limits and shark fisheries remain unchanged in the Atlantic region. The retention limit will remain at 36 LCS other than sandbar sharks per vessel per trip in the Atlantic region through the rest of the 2017 fishing season or until NOAA Fisheries announces via a notice in the Federal Register another adjustment to the retention limit or a fishery closure.  This retention limit adjustment affects anyone with a directed shark limited access permit fishing for LCS in the Atlantic region. NOAA Fisheries wants to remind commercial shark fishermen of the following regulations: Sharks must be landed with fins naturally attached, including dorsal, pectoral, pelvic, anal, and caudal fins (§635.30(c)(1)). While on a vessel, the head and viscera of the shark may be removed, but the backbone cannot be removed, and the shark cannot be halved, quartered, filleted, or otherwise reduced (§635.30(c)(2)).  Additionally, once landed and offloaded, sharks that have been halved, quartered, filleted, cut up, or reduced in any manner may not be brought back on board a vessel (§635.30(c)(3)).  In other words, sharks cannot be cut up to be used as bait. All federal permit holders must land sharks to federally-permitted dealers (§635.31(c)(1)). All sharks that are not being retained must be released in the water in a manner that maximizes survival (§635.24(a)(6)). This notice is a courtesy to the HMS fishery participants to help keep you informed about the fishery.  For further information on this retention limit adjustment, contact Lauren Latchford, Guý DuBeck, or Karyl Brewster-Geisz at 301-427-8503. The information will also be posted on the HMS website at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/species/sharks/news/shark_news_2017.html. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms

Liked it? Take a second to support Climate Change V.I. on Patreon!