Join Shark Stewards urging the United States Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service Martha Williams to support inclusion of blue shark (Prionace glauca) for inclusion into Proposal 37 in the family Carcharhinidae (Requiem sharks), as proposed.

It is urgent to include this species under Appendix II to limit the wanton killing of blue sharks to supply the shark fin trade.  US Fish and Wildlife is considering withdrawal of support for Proposal 37 which includes the Requiem shark family in which the blue sharks are included due to pressure from the tuna fisheries. Blue sharks are commonly caught as bycatch on longlines and in purse seines, killing hundreds of thousands of sharks each year. Although finning is illegal in US fisheries, the high value of shark fins is leading to the rapid decline of this species.

Three families of sharks are being considered for new listings of sharks and rays at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora (CITES) Convention of the Parties (CoP19) in Panama, November 14-25, 2022.

Over 75 species of sharks and rays are being newly listed to Appendix II including several critically endangered species impacted by overfishing, loss of habitat and mislabeled/misidentified or obfuscated as look-alike species mixed in the shark fin trade with more common species

Blue sharks 

II REQUIEM SHARKS
Carcharinidae (19 lead species) including river sharks and grey reef sharks.

• At least 35 species in the Family have been documented in Hong Kong fin markets, representing 46% of all species.

• New research shows that 37% of shark species are now threatened with extinction, the second highest threatened percentage among vertebrate groups on the planet (IUCN  2021).

• Listing the entire Family greatly facilitates enforcement.

Distribution: Together the 19 lead species have a global distribution.

• Population: The 19 lead species are all classified as Critically Endangered or Endangered (IUCN 2019, 2020, 2021).

• Threats: Primary threat to these species is unsustainable and unregulated fisheries and retention for the global fin and meat trade.

• Trade: The lead species were all found in a study of the global fin trade,[1],[2],[3],[4] with several found in very large numbers.

 The lead species are likely to all meet the criteria for an Appendix I listing with widespread declines exceeding 70%, and in some cases regional extinction.

• Listing the entire Family greatly facilitates enforcement.The 19 lead species meet criteria for Appendix II (RC 9.24 (Rev. CoP17), criterions A and B, Annex 2(a)

▪ high levels of international trade

▪ trade levels already caused population decline

▪ required to ensure that harvest from the wild is not reducing the wild population to a level at which its survival might be threatened by continued harvesting or trade.

As one of the most overfished large pelagic sharks globally and the highest represented in the shark fin trade, we support the inclusion of blue sharks in Proposal 37 and urge US Fish and Wildlife to back this inclusion at CoP19.

 

Learn more about sharks and CITES