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Subject: Sharks: no trade protection at U.N. conference

Author:
Jim Day

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Date Posted: 956170218PDT

Saw this at Beac Bum's Coastal Sharkfishing

Sharks get no trade protection at U.N. conference

By Kieran Murray

NAIROBI, April 18 (Reuters) - The great white shark, immortalised in the Hollywood film Jaws, was denied protection from its hunters on Tuesday when a U.N. conference voted down a proposal to regulate trade in the feared ``man-eater.''

The 150-nation conference also rejected separate proposals to impose restrictions on trade in the basking shark and the whale shark, which can reach 18 metres in length and is the world's largest fish.

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States led the calls for protecting sharks at a meeting in Kenya of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Their proposals won majority support but fell short of the two-thirds needed for adoption as they met opposition from countries involved in the fishing industry or which provide large markets for shark fins and other shark products.

Opponents argued it would be difficult for fishermen to avoid catching specific species of sharks and that none of the three was in danger of extinction.

``The information is fatally flawed,'' one Japanese delegate said during the debate, adding that any nations concerned about shark populations in their waters should protect them properly without asking CITES to do the job for them.

``If trophy hunting is the problem, why don't you control it? If bycatch (from commercial fishing) is the problem, why don't you control it?'' he said.

Conservationists said they had been beaten by the fishing industry putting pressure on Asian and Latin American nations to block the proposals.

GREENPEACE BLAMES FISHING LOBBY

``It was the pressure of the fishing lobby. They brought all their countries in line,'' said Peter Pueschel of Greenpace International.

Great white sharks have a reputation as man-eaters. A few humans a year are killed by sharks, which live mainly on seals, penguins, turtles and large fish.

Nevertheless, an international trade in its powerful jaws and teeth has played a part in forcing down great white shark populations. Its jaws sell for up to $50,000 and individual teeth fetch up to $60.

Basking sharks and whales sharks are hunted for their fins, which fetch high prices in Asia for shark fin soup.

The basking shark can grow to 10 metres in length with fins up to two metres high. Some fins fetch as much as $15,000.

20:14 04-18-00

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