Loblaws seafood ban could disrupt shark research

[Animal 0]

Loblaws seafood ban could disrupt shark research

Grocery store chain to stop selling shark, skate, orange roughy and sea bass

Monday, February 8, 2010
CBC News

Loblaws' decision to stop selling some seafood in the interest of
conservation could disrupt research into porbeagle sharks off Nova Scotia
that relies on a managed fishery, a shark scientist says.

The grocery store chain, which owns the Atlantic Superstore, announced last
week it will no longer sell skate, orange roughy, sea bass and shark ‹ four
types of fish it deemed unsustainable.

Steve Campana, a shark researcher at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography,
said the company might have good intentions to promote sustainable
fisheries, but its ban could interfere with research that helps protect
shark populations.

Scientists rely on fishermen with specialized gear, such as those in Sambro,
near Halifax, for a lot of their research, Campana said. They work together
to capture sharks and tag them, so that the sharks can be tracked by
satellite.

Any trend toward restricting markets for the sharks could disrupt the
well-managed fishery and the scientific work that makes that fishery
possible, he said.

"I can understand the concern of the company for sharks in other parts of
the world because many of those shark populations are in danger. Luckily, in
Canadian waters, [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] has taken a very
strict line to allow a sustainable fishery on the sharks," Campana told CBC
News.

The fishing quota for porbeagle shark is "very tiny," and the population is
recovering as a result, he added.

Thanks to their co-operation with fishermen scientists now know that once
the sharks leave Canadian waters, they go to the Sargasso Sea, near the
Bermuda Triangle, to have their young, said Campana.

"Without knowing where they had given birth, we were concerned that we might
inadvertently wipe out their spawning potential or perhaps, more
dangerously, have an international fishery catch them," he said.

Though most of the shark meat caught off Canada's East Coast is sold in
Europe, Campana worries that Loblaws' decision to ban certain seafood could
prompt markets around the world to follow suit.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2010/02/08/ns-shark-superstore.html