SOS attend international conference in Brussels

Following its acceptance of membership to the recently formed Shark Alliance, Save Our Sharks (SOS) attended the first anniversary and inaugural meeting of the Shark Alliance member groups in Brussels.
Around 35 delegates from 6 countries, U.K, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Holland attended plus the directors and staff from the Pew Charitable Trusts, who financed the meeting.

Save Our Sharks were represented by Nigel Proctor (on behalf of the SOS committee) who met up at Brussels airport with the Sea Anglers Conservation Network (Scotland) representative, and SOS liaison officer Denis Kelly.

“Fins On”

One of the principal proposals that came out the conference is to be headed “Fins On” where the aim is to have sharks landed whole. There will be a drive to raise public awareness of the issue, and we will try to capitalise on the IUCN red listing, and create further publicity.

“Shark Week”

Another proposal is to hold a “Shark Week” in each member country, where each country’s members create a project to involve the community, schools, museums, aquariums and the like to raise awareness of shark issues.

There will be more to follow on the above shortly

There were many other issues and points made, however, these are the principal ones

• Strive to raise public awareness of shark related issues,
• Create adequate publicity and maintain the pressure,
• Educate journalists away from ‘sensationalism’ without portraying sharks as an animal they clearly are not, they are apex predators, not cuddly, loveable ‘toys’,
• Pre-influence the journalist way of thinking prior to ‘shark week’ and Ocean Day,
• Feed the media with facts and data to ‘force’ the attention on sharks prior to EU discussions on shark management,
• Similarly with CITES,
• Important to maintain ‘shark friendly’ states and get them to lobby less friendly countries,
• Lobby the UK to dispense with its ‘special permits’,
• Ensure that the Shark Alliance has a high profile at the release and showing of the new shark film,
• Don’t alienate the fishing industry,
• Work with fishermen, more is likely to be achieved at a faster rate,

Denis and Nigel were made extremely welcome and clearly treated as being amongst equals, if but a little less experienced in the ways of policy and lobbying. Nigel stated after the meeting that, “We have made significant moves along the pathway of shark conservation and have little to fear in the future, in terms of acceptability, we have a lot to offer and should not be afraid to push forward with our objectives, we can gain a great deal from liaison with the other member groups of the Shark Alliance, however, we also have a great deal to offer as well”.

At the conference Nigel reiterated the high level of importance UK anglers attached to sharks, skates and rays, making the point that the bad old days of trophy fish were long gone. He finished off by indicating our commitment and referencing the prohibition on the landing of tope along the English east coast (c 200 miles of coastline) which to the best of our knowledge is the first full protection, and or prohibition on the landing of any shark species in European waters. This brought about a warm and consensual round of applause, which probably indicates that we are not outcasts any more, but highly regarded and welcome members of an important Shark Alliance.

Well done to Nigel and Denis for helping to put recreational shark fishing on the front-line of European shark conservation

The next few months

We are in for a quiet time in Scotland until after the elections but there is much to do, in England and Europe. We will be writing to our members shortly with more details, please get involved.

• Liaise with the Shark Trust to organise a “Shark Week” to raise public awareness with the overall goal of banning the removing of fins at sea.

• Lobby Defra to stop handing out special permits which allows finning on Porbeagles. Both of the above are part of the “Fins On” campaign.

• Keep pressure on Defra to announce the results of the tope consultation.

• Build up a case to take to the EU to implement tope management across Europe.

• Remind Defra of their intention to implement a maximum landing size on rays, skate and spurdog.

• Keep pressure on the Scottish Exec. to have the Firth of Lorne, Sound of Mull and surrounding lochs and waters designated as a Spurdog nursery area.

• Lobby the EU to have the 25 per cent by catch on rays implemented in all UK waters.

• Continue with the red tape to get SOS listed for charitable status. Once achieved we can apply for grants to help with the campaigning and administrative costs.