According to the federal fisheries managers a new rule will definitely lower the fishing quotas for sandbar, porbeagle and other large sharks to rebuild depleted species. The new rule is expected to publish in the Federal Register on June 24. It is said that it would lowers the sandbar shark annual commercial quota from 1,017 metric tons to 87.9 metric tons. The porbeagle shark quota would lower from 92 metric tons to 1.7 metric tons per year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also plan new regional quotas for the other large coastal sharks, which will be set at 390.5 metric tons in the Gulf of Mexico region and 187.8 metric tons in the Atlantic region. According to the new rules all sharks to be offloaded at the dock with all fins naturally attached.
NOAA official told that the new provision would improve enforcement against shark finning, where fishermen remove the highly valuable fins from sharks at sea and discard the rest of the shark carcass overboard. It will also improve species-specific data collection for future stock assessments. The new rule require all fishing for sandbar sharks will take place as part of a shark research fishery with about 10 commercial fishing boats participating each year.
According to NOAA new rules were necessary because latest stock assessment found the sandbar sharks were depleted and the rate of fishing was too high. Jim Balsiger, acting assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service, opined that the latest stock assessments show we need to take strong conservation measures to stop overfishing on sandbar and other sharks to allow these species to rebuild.
