Wednesday, June 04, 2014

A Win for the Blue Shark!

 
Well said Riley.

As I said, he might be the next big thing.
IF he navigates the pitfalls - which includes steering well clear of the rabid shark loons out there!
We shall see! :)

Anyway, enjoy!



7 comments:

Angelo Villagomez said...

Banning finning won't reduce mortality.

Riley said...

Hi Angelo, but I'm sorry, you couldn't be more misinformed. On average, 900T of blue sharks are caught every year in NZ waters. Thats between 60,000 and 100,000 individuals. 90% of these arrive to the side of the boat alive and if released approx 78% will survive. Historically in NZ waters, 99% of blues caught were being finned and dumped. This has reduced recently to the 70% mark and dropping due to reduced demand and price. If finning is banned, 78% of the 90,000 alive individuals will survive (thats 70,000 sharks Angelo). These numbers are direct from fisheries. Please refrain from personal opinion when making posts.

Angelo Villagomez said...

That's not opinion. There is no correlation between banning finning and releasing sharks. This policy will reduce the cruel handling of sharks and make it easier for fisheries managers to count how many were killed, but it will likely not reduce mortality.

It is worth pointing out that New Zealand has one of the better management systems for sharks. They set catch limits and prohibit take of some endangered species, which are preferred management policies for countries that can afford to implement them.

DaShark said...

Angelo, agree of course - that's the rule.

But this may be the exception confirming it.
From what I understand, the fishermen don't want to land those Blues & have agreed to release them alive when they bycatch them.

Plus, as Riley states in the video, there are no stock assessments and thus those Sharks cannot be properly managed & should be left alone til the data have been collected.

Sunkita said...

Hi, one for Riley - where did you get that figure about NZ blue shark finning rates dropping down 70 % of those caught? In what year? I had thought it was a lot less, based on anecdote and the comments of Nathan Guy, and would love to get hold of some hard data on it. I heard different figures bandied around and have yet to see a source. Cheers

Sunkita said...

*"Down to 70 %", that is. Typo

riley said...

Hi Sunkita, if you dive into the massive amount of MPI literature, primarily the most recent 'Commercial catch composition of HMS 2013 MPI report MP Francis' (This publication is available on the Ministry for Primary Industries websites at: http://www.mpi.govt.nz/news-resources/publications.aspx http://fs.fish.govt.nz go to Document library/Research reports)
you can see the data. Its describes discard rates being 33% for blues, however cation into taking one piece of data at a time, given the shift from high numbers of foreign fleet historically with high retention/finning %s versus more recent shift to domestic vessels who release more. From personal chats with tuna SLLers at port here in Auckland, they described how prices for fins out of NZ are too poor to make it worth their while, linked to drop in demand overseas