North Atlantic fishing nations have pledged to better protect the endangered shortfin mako shark by ending overfishing from 2022 and helping stocks to rebound over the next 50 years.

At the conclusion of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) this week, countries agreed "to end overfishing immediately and to gradually achieve biomass levels sufficient to support maximum sustainable yield by 2070," according to a statement late on Tuesday.

Shortfin mako sharks are particularly overfished in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean and are classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of threatened species.

Prized for their meat, fins, and for sport fishing, shortfin makos are exceptionally valuable. Unlike their longfin counterparts, shortfins grow slowly and reproduce later, leaving them especially vulnerable.

The ICCAT, a coalition of 50 countries including some of the world's largest fishing nations, also set itself a quota of 62,000 tonnes of bigeye tuna in 2022, and 110,000 tonnes for yellowfin tuna.

It will also hold reviews in 2022 with an eye to producing renewed quotas in 2023, according to the statement.

The Pew Charitable Trusts conservation group welcomed this week's outcome.

"By nearly any measure, this meeting was a success, shows that real progress can be made despite the challenges of the pandemic, and the fishing operations, other stakeholders, and wildlife impacted by ICCAT decisions will be better for it," said Pew's Grantly Galland.

However, Atlantic shortfin makos have been so critically overfished in recent decades that populations are set to continue to decline until at least 2035, even with the new measures, Pew added.

Related Links
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

How corals react to climate change
Bochum, Germany (SPX) Nov 15, 2021
PhD student Fabian Gosser from the Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity has been studying how corals react to changing environmental conditions and how their stress response could contribute to the survival of the reefs. The RUB biologist's research focuses on the phenomenon of polyp bailout, i.e. the expulsion of small, bud-like individual corals called polyps. Under stress, the colony of polyps that form a stony coral dissolves. The individual polyps can then settle elsewhere ... read more