Maldives bans shark fishing

The statutory ban will apply to all Maldives waters, over the area of the islands’ economic exclusion zone which covers about 90,000sq km.

It builds on a shark fishing ban moratorium adopted in 1998 to cover seven atolls and extended in March last year to 22km off any Maldives land mass.

The Maldives will become the second country to introduce such a ban, Micronesia’s Palau having done so last September over a large exclusion zone of 596,000sq km, stretching 322km out from its shores.

Both Palau and the Maldives have introduced the measure for the sake of the marine ecosystem, locally and internationally, and to maintain their attractions as scuba diving holiday destinations.

Hitherto, all shark fishing in the Maldives has been for the export of fins. But, according to the Government, exports have reduced by 80 per cent in the past 12 years.

This is not a reflection of a collapsing market but of scarcer stock in Maldives waters. Fishermen, the country’s Fisheries and Agriculture minister Ibrahim Didi told press, now “understand that it isn’t a sustainable fishery”.

Meanwhile member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are in Doha, Qatar for the organisation’s Conference of the Parties.

On the table is a proposal to grant protected status to eight species of sharks, which would bring restrictions through internationally agreed controlled fishing rather than total bans on trade.

The proposals have come from the EU, for the porbeagle and spiny dogfish; and from the USA for the oceanic whitetip, dusky, sandbar and three hammerhead sharks – the great, scalloped and smooth.

It is proposed that the sharks be added to CITES’ Appendix II, in order to protect them from over-fishing for a lucrative global trade in shark products, mainly fins.

Under Appendix II, trade in the sharks would be limited to what are judged to be sustainable levels, through the requirement of export permits whose stipulated limits fisheries would need to heed.

The two-week conference concludes on 25 March.

Related links
Maldives adopts blanket shark-fishing ban
Palau’s sea change for sharks
Maldives brings in protected areas
Making a point in the Maldives