Stop shark fisheries in Peru

The Peruvian shark fishery is unsustainable

Specialists from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned in 1997 that the populations of more than seventy shark species are suffering a sharp decrease and asked for the listing of eleven species of sharks on the Annexes of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species (CITES).

Up to now only three of these species are protected by CITES:

White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)
Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus)
Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)

All three species do exist on the Peruvian coast in offshore areas.

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Page author: Stefan Austermühle

Reviewed by: Sean Minns

Last updated: 2010.06.20.

In Peru, principally nine species of smooth hounds (Fam. Triakidae) are commercially fished, as well as Blue sharks (Prionace glauca), Short-fin Mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus), Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) and Hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna zygaena). According to official landing statistics, the number of smooth hounds being fished has decreased steadily during the last 20 years, most probably being an indication of severe over-fishing.

The graphic below shows the landings of “tollo”, a group of seven species of dogsharks, clearly declining. It also shows the slowly rising catches of other shark species (tiburon).

Nevertheless the fishing engineers of the Peruvian Fisheries Research Institute IMARPE (Instituto del Mar del Peru) still promote shark fishing and finning. In the eyes of IMARPE, shark fisheries are underdeveloped and sharks are seen as a future resource to be further exploited. They base their opinion on experimental fishing operations, implemented in 1995 and 1996, on shark landing statistics from one port from 1996 to 2002 and on shark landing data from another port from 2004 – all of this being insufficient and already outdated information.

In 2006 the Peruvian vice ministry of fisheries and the Peruvian fisheries research institute IMARPE announced that they would elaborate a National Action Plan for the Management and Conservation of Sharks. In 2010 – four years later – there is still no sign of such a plan.

The only management measure taken so far are minimum catch sizes for a few shark species. Nevertheless in 2007 for example IMARPE published that sharks landed in Pucusana port are mainly juveniles. The landing of great numbers of undersized juveniles is perhaps the best indicator of overfishing. However so far nothing has been done to change this.

Meanwhile shark fishing in Peru continues unregulated and unmonitored, apart from some restricted studies in a few ports. There are no catch quotas, no catch controls and not even catch statistics are published. There is no population estimate and no shark research going on.

While worldwide concern is growing about the consequences of the cruel shark fining, IMARPE promotes it on its website, because the fins are of “high value on the international market” and because this fishery creates employment.

To promote shark fishing without any knowledge about the size of the shark population in Peruvian waters, without any analysis of the ecological consequences of such fishing and without any environmental impact analysis however, is a recipe for failure, overfishing, species extinction and the following severe environmental impacts.

The Peruvian government is failing to act according to several of the principles of sustainable fisheries formulated by Mundo Azul based on the principles for sustainable fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):

Emergency measures must be taken whenever a fishery means a serious threat to the sustainability of fishery resources or the marine environment.
The government and the resource users must protect and conserve marine and aquatic resources. The right to fish comes with the duty to do it in a responsible way in order to assure nature conservation and efficient management of living marine resources.
Fisheries must not endanger the survival of any species or population; neither must it cause failure in the recuperation of an overfished, threatened or endangered species or population.
The capture of non-target species or of juvenile and undersized specimen (by-catch) must be reduced to levels near zero.

So far the Peruvian government hs completely failed to conserve sharks.

What needs to be done:

It is evident that shark fishing, shark bycatch in the long-line industry and shark fining are depredating the oceans with possible catastrophic consequences for the sharks themselves and the health of the ocean in general. The capture statistics published by the Peruvian government show a clear drop in the shark populations being fished. Therefore we urge:

The Peruvian Vice-Ministry of fisheries and the Peruvian marine research institute IMARPE need to change their policies and attitudes towards shark fishing.
Instead of blindly promoting shark fisheries, the Institute of the Peruvian Sea (Instituto del Mar del Peru – IMARPE) should promote marine conservation, as it states publicly in its Vision and in its Mission.
There is an urgent need for long-term ecological population research programs (instead of experimental fisheries) in order to estimate current population sizes and distribution areas of sharks in Peruvian waters.
As long as there are no scientific results on population size of sharks in Peru all shark fishing MUST be prohibited based on precautionary reasons.

Finally: In Peru, long-line fishing not only targets sharks directly, it also endangers dolphins as artisan fishermen kill dolphins for bait, a fact never really investigated, but many times confirmed to Mundo Azul field staff by artisan fishermen themselves. A long-line fishing boat may catch up to five dolphins per trip. The real number of dolphins caught however is not known. These fisheries might cost the lives of thousands of dolphins in Peru. Research about this topic is urgently needed.

Sign our Mundo Azul online petitions:

Stop exporting shark fins from Peru

Ask the Peruvian company R.Muelle SA in Callao, Peru to stop exporting shark fins.

Stop shark finning in Peru and elsewhere

Ask the peruvian Vice-Minister of Fisheries to ban shark finning in Peruvian waters and work for a ban of shark finning in international waters

Stop shark fishing in Peru

Shark fishing in Peru is unmanaged and unsustainable. Shark populations are declining. Ask the Vice-Minister of Fisheries to ban shark fishing till a truly sustainable management scheme has been set up.

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