New Shark Conservation Rules Take Effect

Today, new shark fishing rules, developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, take effect in the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.  The long-awaited measures include significant cuts in commercial fishing quotas for some of the region's most seriously overfished shark species, such as sandbar and porbeagle sharks.  These species are in demand for not only their fins, but also for their high-quality meat.   Scientists estimate that these populations will need 70-100 years (respectively) of low fishing pressure to recover from their current depleted state.   It is not yet clear if the Atlantic dusky shark – another seriously overfished species for which fishing was prohibited in the late 1990s – is making significant progress in its estimated 100- to 400-year recovery.

As mentioned yesterday, today is also the first day under a stronger Atlantic and Gulf shark finning ban; fishermen in this region are now required to bring sharks to the dock with their fins still attached, to ensure none were finned.   The sharks most likely to fall victim to shark finning, in the U.S. and around the world, are usually species with good-value fins, but low-value meat (such as hammerhead and blue sharks).

The new U.S. Atlantic rules hold lessons for other shark fishing countries: that the fins-attached strategy for ending shark finning is a measure whose time has come, and that mismanagement of shark fisheries can take many decades to repair.   Conservationists are urging governments in other parts of the world, particularly Europe, to take notice.

PHOTO: A sandbar shark. (Photo by George Grall/ National Geographic/ Getty Images )

Post your questions for Sonja in the Comments section below.  She will be checking in to give you answers.

Comments

[Joan Faszczewski]

We need sharks they balance the nature in the ocean. Its terrible how we respect them. These animals move gracefully. They remind me of submarines just floating in the water just watching what kind food they want.

[Patrick]

Sharks are my favorite animal.It is fun to reaserch them.My favorite week of the whole year is sharkweek.Please help them to live.

[Bryan]

I just have one question .. that i believe has yet to be addressed.. about "shark attackes".. and even after watching shark feeding frenzy".. it seemed to me that there are a lot of variables that seperate .. men from women... what are the percentages of women vs men being attacked, and when "women" go in to the water... hmm i guess i'm just going to ask . were they in estrus? blood and all?

just a question. i dont think that question has been addressed ... but it could be. in both a family/scientific way

[Kaycee Kadow]

Sharks are just like Humans, Sharks only Attack because we are in their territory, we dont like Bears for example to come in our back yard, Us humans are the reason some species of sharks are dying off, I belive Fishing Sharks should be ilegal everywhere, Sharks should have just as many rights as humans do....

[rion]

I THINK SHARKS ARE VERY COOL THATS WHAT IM GOING TO BE WHEN I GROW UP IF ANY ONE HAS THAT JOB TELL ME ABOUT IT

[Kay Johnson]

Hi Sonja = More news about shark attacks today. How much risk is there? Why should we protect sharks who attack humans? Thanks, KJ

[cindy]

im posting here because Discorvery channels "customer avoidance system" works very well.
they dont want to hear bad comments. they just want more channels flooded with reruns to gather more profits.
------------------------------

here's some questions I’ve sent to the Discovery Channel Corporate suits that they have totally
ignored, and we know why they don't have answers.
It's because The Discovery channel isn't here to provide quality programming. they are in the
business of flooding the air waves with as many channels as they can so they can have more
commercials in between reruns to generate more profit

Why does Discovery channel keep using the phrase ALL NEW ? ... I keep seeing the same
episodes aired SEVERAL TIMES A DAY on ALL the discovery channels.

In December, when Discovery was stepping up the advertising hype for the up coming new year
schedule. Im pretty sure I heard the words "ALL NEW" used during EVERY SINGLE
commercial break.
Over and over and over... "ALL NEW"

Discovery... when are you going to air all this "NEW" programming you keep advertising ?

When are you going to stop insulting viewers with OLD FOOTAGE from previous years. aired
on programs with nothing but a NEW TITLE and Host ?

Its not just Discovery. its most all channels.

The History Channel isnt the History channel anymore. They need to rename it to
"Oh No ! what if another meteorite comes channel"
Or The tsunami Channel.

National Geographic channel.. ALL NEW Episodes of the Dog whisperer. 6 times a day, 7 days a
week. over and over and over.
why not just air the dog whisperer 24/7 and call it Dog whisperer channel.

American Movie channel... ALL NEW ?
They are airing the SAME MOVIE 3 times in a row, back to back... Let me say that again.

THE SAME MOVIE... BACK TO BACK... 3 times in a row ?

The person who came up with that wonderful idea,
Still has his Job ?

Any fool would think... "maybe if we aired 3 "DIFFERENT MOVIES" In stead of the SAME
ONE 3 times, back to back... our viewers, who might be buying the products advertised in between those
movies, would stay on the channel instead of changing it. Hmmmm ... WOW...imagine that

what surprises me the most is the Advertisers paying HUGE money to have their product aired on
National TV, are putting up with it.

I could use the word Boycott here but we know Americans are to lazy to get off their bums and
actually do something about it.

that’s why we pay nearly five dollars for 16 ounces of grain turned into a box of cereal.

If everyone stopped buying cereal for ONE MONTH it would pile up to the rafters, then
amazingly that 5 dollar box of cereal would sell for 2 bucks.

Keep paying $80.00 per month to watch reruns, Or stand up and do something about it.

[Fred Smilek]

Great to see the sharks that we love so much getting more protection.

Fred Smilek

Email- Fred_Smilek@yahoo.com
Webpage- http://sites.google.com/site/fredjsmilek/

Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan.

[R. Wells EMT-P]

I would like to know why it is that Bull Sharks frequent fresh waters and no others?

[Anja]

I have just been watching Discovery Travel & Living on TV in Asia, where shark's fin soup has been praised by the Discovery presenter as 'delicious' and 'good for you'! Knowing where the shark fins come from, about the cruel practice of shark finning and the fact that many kinds of sharks are endangered, Discovery Channel extremely disappoints me. How can it be that Discovery is featuring this blog, Shark Week, etc. on the one hand, and promote shark's fin soup on the other hand?

[ken]

I would not trade every shark in the ocean for that 8 year old boy that died. No one miss the dinosaurs
Ken