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A hammerhead shark swimming.
© NOAA |
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1993: Shark Catch Is Limited for the First Time
In April 1993, the National Marine Fisheries Service implemented the first Fishery Management Plan for sharks of the Atlantic Ocean. The plan divided sharks into three “management units”: large coastal sharks (22 species), pelagic sharks (10 species; pelagic means living in the open ocean rather than coastal waters), and small coastal sharks (7 species). Large coastal sharks such as dusky, sandbar, and blacktip sharks, were subsequently determined to be overfished, the other categories “fully fished.”
The plan:
* limited the commercial harvest of these 39 species to two 6-month-season quotas for each unit
* set limits on recreational catch (four large coastal or pelagic sharks per vessel, per trip; five small coastal sharks per person per trip)
* required permits to be obtained and catch to be reported
* prohibited the “finning” of these 39 species (a practice in which the valuable fins are sliced off the living fish, which is then thrown back into the sea to sink and die).
Though the quotas appeared drastic to shark fishermen, they were still twice as high as the sharks’ reproductive rate. The first six-month quota was met in only twenty-eight days.
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