Migramar scientists from throughout the Eastern Tropical Pacific participated in a workshop in Manta, Ecuador, to discuss the developments of national Plans of Action for shark resources, and to provide technical advice on possible management measures.
Shark fishing - incidental or otherwise - is still commonplace throughout the region.
Countries presented their shark field guides – a first step in improving catch statistics. In many cases, onboard observers simply group all sharks together, making stock assessments almost impossible on a species level. It is hoped that these field guides, along with careful training, will improve our knowledge of what is caught by the large fishing fleets.
Presentations and discussion included the development of techniques to determine the species to which fins belong, genetic analysis of hammerheads in the region as part of a PhD thesis, and the issue of traceability.
Randall Arauz, from PRETOMA, highlighted the need for proper implementation of laws regarding private docks in Costa Rica, where there are difficulties to properly monitor the landings. Alex Hearn, from Charles Darwin Foundation, presented an overview of the migratory studies of sharks being carried out by the Migramar group – this was a talk presented by Prof. Pete Klimley at the AAAS Meeting several months earlier.
Click here to download the presentation.
The nations represented (from the USA down to Chile) had all made advances in the development of their Plans of Action – however, these advances tended to be in the area of field guides, training of onboard observers and better data collection.
Little has been done to date in terms of regulations which actually provide protection for the sharks, and any attempt to discuss minimum landing sizes or closed areas/seasons was met with strong opposition from the representatives of the fishing community, who believe that they have already done enough by providing information on catches.
Ecuador has banned the use of steel cables in longline fisheries, and this is hoped to reduce shark by-catch, but it was not clear whether sharks are really by-catch species for the artisanal fleet – a trip to the local landing beaches one morning found that sharks seemed to dominate the catch. Migramar’s Hector Guzman, from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, offered to lead an initiative to map out key nursery grounds for sharks along the coast, as a first step to analysing closed areas.
Overall, Migramar scientists were left with the impression that a start had been made towards better management and conservation of sharks, but that there was still an urgent need to adopt specific measures to protect certain species, including the scalloped hammerhead.
Download the summary of the meeting in Spanish here.
