This year’s meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) wrapped on November 18th with a dramatic showdown over shark finning.
SeaChoice partner organization Ecology Action Centre was in attendance advocating for this crucial fishing rule: requiring all Atlantic fishing nations to bring sharks to port with their fins still attached — the “fins-naturally-attached” policy. This rule would strengthen enforcement, improve shark identification, and help end the wasteful practice of shark finning at sea in the Atlantic.
ICCAT did manage to finalize protections for devil rays, mantas, and whale sharks, took steps to improve countries’ compliance with existing requirements to report and limit shark catch and adopted a Management Procedure for North Atlantic swordfish.
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