Sharks at increasing risk of becoming fishing bycatch

Researchers call for urgent action to protect large species in international waters

Australian Associated Press, The Guardian – 25 July 2019

The world’s shark populations are at increasing risk of becoming bycatch of international fishing fleets, which harvest them in open oceans where no legal protections exist, Australian researchers have said.

Prof Rob Harcourt, from Macquarie University, said large sharks were more vulnerable to longline fishing and called for urgent action to protect them by implementing management strategies on the high seas.

Harcourt joined colleagues from Australia and 25 other countries to collect and collate data from nearly 2,000 sharks tracked using satellite transmitter tags.

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Courtesy of Guardian News and Media Ltd.

For more information on the Bycatch Management Information System (BIMS) operating in the Western and Central Pacific, visit SustainPacFish.net.