As part of the Operation Albacore III, Central African authorities seized a Senegalese-flagged, but Spanish-linked, long-line fishing vessel over fishing a large quantity of blue sharks that are classified as ‘near-threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), although the long-liner was licensed to fish for ‘tuna and similar species’.
According to data provided by Sea Shepherd, on 22 September, local authorities from the Central African island state of São Tomé and Príncipe boarded the fishing vessel in a joint operation with Sea Shepherd conservationists and Gabonese law enforcement officers for Operation Albacore III.
Fishing line tracers, which are the monofilament segments that support the fishing hooks, were reinforced with steel wire, thereby underlining the suspicion that the targeted species of the liner was mainly sharks, not tuna. Steel snoods are used to prevent sharks from biting through the fishing line to escape.
Fish onboard were also found gutted and processed, which is a violation of São Toméan fisheries regulations when advance approval has not been sought, which the vessel did not obtain. Approximately two tons of sharks – including shark fins severed from their corresponding torsos – were discovered by inspectors.
This arrest is the fourth shark-finning bust carried out over the past two years, three of which were the direct result of joint operations between São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon and Sea Shepherd.
Given how sensitive shark species are to over fishing, coupled with the fact that 15% of shark species in the Atlantic are now endangered, it is alarming that industrial fishing vessels, many from Europe, continue to massacre sharks under the guise of tuna licenses,
…noted Sea Shepherd Director of Campaigns Peter Hammarstedt.
Shark species are particularly vulnerable to overfishing because they’re slow to grow, late to mature, and breed small numbers of offspring.
São Toméan fisheries regulations that prohibit processing of sharks at-sea and the European Union Finning Ban are existing conservation measures that ensure shark bodies are not discarded at sea to make room for the more valuable shark fins, therefore allowing far more sharks killed. Sharks are being killed in increasingly large numbers to meet a demand for fins to make shark fin soup.
Sea Shepherd works with authorities in African coastal states in unique joint patrols that allow shark finning operations to be uncovered through critical boardings and inspections at-sea.
