Taiwan vows to protect sharks after critical report

Jan 27, 2011, 8:53 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan on Thursday vowed to reinforce measures to protect sharks after the country was criticised by an international conservation group for failing to reduce its catch.

The island was listed as the fourth-worst offender in a report released late Wednesday slamming the overfishing of sharks, which has undermined long-term efforts to preserve the threatened creatures.

'Taiwan has tried hard to protect sharks,' Huang Hung-yen, an official from the Fisheries Administration, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'But there is still room for improvement,' he said.

'We will reinforce laws and regulations and could even become a world leader in protecting sharks,' he said, but he stressed that Taiwan's own laws were already adequate and well observed.

'Shark finning is 100-per-cent prohibited,' he said, in reference to the practice of deliberately catching sharks, cutting off their fins and throwing them back overboard to die.

But sharks that find their way into the nets of Taiwan's 2,000 tuna trawlers are considered bycatch, and their fins fair game. Huang said that all sharks caught by the Taiwan fleet were within the rules.

He said improvements were possible regarding imported shark fins, which the government planned to require to carry certificates 'to prove the fins were legally harvested,' he said.

But he said banning shark fishing altogether, as called for by conservation groups, was impossible due to food security and livelihood needs.

'If we ban shark fishing, all the other fish will die and then there will be only sharks in the sea,' he said.

Shark fins are considered a delicacy in many East Asian countries, where they used for the gelatinous, flavourless soup which is an essential part of any respectable banquet.

A report released late Wednesday by British conservation group TRAFFIC and the US Pew Environment Group said Taiwan was responsible for 5.8 per cent of the world's total shark catch, ranking behind only Indonesia, India and Spain.

It said a high-profile action plan launched by the United Nations in 2001 had been unsuccessful in encouraging countries to cut back on shark fishing.

Up to 73 million sharks are estimated to be killed each year, with around 30 per cent of species at risk of extinction.

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