6. Other comments

The addition of the basking shark to Appendix II of CITES is being proposed by the UK in order to ensure that future international trade and target and by-catch fisheries for basking shark are sustainable. The basking shark is now protected or partly protected within the territorial waters of the UK, USA, and New Zealand, and in Florida State waters. Legal protection is pending throughout the Mediterranean Sea and proposed in the territorial waters of other states. However, the species remains vulnerable to target fisheries once it moves out of these waters on migration. Unmanaged fisheries may, therefore, endanger the viability of legally protected populations of this vulnerable species. Available evidence already indicates that some basking shark populations are either very small, or showing a declining trend, or still at a low level following declines in previous decades. Recovery from depletion appears to be extremely slow and precautionary management is advisable for this species.

Basking shark products enter international trade and the fins are particularly valuable. Indeed, the high value of the fins in international trade is not only a major factor maintaining the viability of existing targeted fisheries, but also encourages incidental take in non-target fisheries which would otherwise remove fewer individuals from the population. No basking shark fisheries are managed, apart from a quota for the Norwegian fishery in European Union waters (which is not based on a stock assessment), and little or no fisheries or fisheries-independent research or monitoring is underway. This is despite the recognition by many countries that many fishermen are having to search for alternative quarry species as traditional fisheries decline, and that a valuable and vulnerable species like the basking shark is an easy potential target. Unfortunately, fisheries management plans are very slow to be introduced after a fishery has developed.

The recently agreed FAO International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks) acknowledges the increase in effort and catch of shark fisheries over the past few decades and that shark life histories make them vulnerable to over-fishing. Indeed, it recognises the need to pay special attention to vulnerable or threatened species, and to facilitate the identification and reporting of species-specific biological and trade data. However, the IPOA-Sharks is voluntary, and there is no mechanism, other than through a CITES listing, to enable the latter objective to be undertaken. A CITES Appendix II listing for the basking shark would enable Parties to fulfil part of the aims of the FAO IPOA-Sharks. It would require exporting Parties to ensure that international trade (which drives many fisheries) was not detrimental to the survival of that species. It would encourage fisheries management and research to be introduced where it is presently lacking, to ensure sustainability of catches.