EU quota brings new fears for the porbeagle shark

Simon de Bruxelles, Times Online 20 Dec 07;

The EU has agreed a fishing quota that conservationists fear could lead to porbeagle sharks being wiped out.

The Council of Ministers had been urged to impose tough restrictions to allow porbeagles, which are slow-growing, a chance to recover from decades of unrestricted overfishing.

Britain led the way by agreeing to accept a total allowable catch of only four tonnes, equivalent to 20 large sharks weighing an average of 200kg (440lb) each. The EU proposed initially a total quota for Europe of 422 tonnes, but by the time a deal was agreed yesterday lobbying by France and Portugal had increased that to 586 tonnes, about 3,000 adult sharks.

The porbeagle, a close relative of the man-eating great white, is prized in France and sells for £2 a kilo. Its fin is also increasingly in demand in the Far East for shark-fin soup.

Numbers have declined by an estimated 90 per cent because of overfishing, but attempts to introduce quotas have until now been strongly resisted. The porbeagle is listed as “critically endangered” by the World Conservation Union, the IUCN.

France, which has the only dedicated porbeagle fishing fleet, based on the Île d’Yeu, an island off Brittany, has the lion’s share of the quota. Spanish and Portuguese fishermen also catch porbeagles to sell to the French.

Relatively little is known about the shark. A mature adult is about 9ft long with a distinctive barrel chest.

A recent study suggests that Britain’s porbeagle population is likely to be hit hard. Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust, said yesterday: “I can’t see any justification for going for a higher figure when we are talking about a species that is red-listed as critically endangered.”