ISPRA for Sharks in danger: the first Conference of the Sharks MoU signatory countries of the Bonn Convention

The overfishing and not properly managed, and in particular the market for shark fins for the oriental cuisine, are leading to dramatic and rapid collapse of population sharks.

The shark fins are in fact one of the fish products of high commercial value, even reaching over 500 Euro / Kg. The high value of fins compared to the low value of the meat create an economic incentive to practice, useless, wasteful and barbaric, to reject into the sea the bodies of sharks, often still alive, after removing the fins themselves

Aware of the urgent problems and dramatic conservation of sharks worldwide, the Convention on Migratory species (CMS, also known as the "Bonn Convention") has launched a few years ago a Memorandum of Understanding for the conservation of migratory sharks (Sharks MoU).

The first conference of the signatory countries of the Sharks Mou was held in Bonn 24 to 27 September 2012, attended by over 50 countries (including Italy) and more than 20 international organizations for the conservation of sharks. The meeting was chaired by Fernando Spina, ISPRA Research Director and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the CMS

The negotiations were complex, but finally achieved the very important result of the adoption, by consensus, of a shark conservation plan international migration, which provides for the adoption of models of sustainable harvest of sharks and the prohibition of removal of sun fins. In this prospective, and positive confirmation of the excellence that characterize ISPRA in the field of shark research at the international level on the appointment, as one of two representatives from Europe as part of the Advisory Committee that will represent the Sharks MoU scientific reference, of Mr. Vacchi Marino, Director of Research ISPRA.

For more details of the meeting

http://www.iisd.ca/cms/sharks/mos1/