Ny EU-lovgivning skal sikre, at færre døende hajer kastes over bord fra en fiskekutter, efter at de har fået skåret deres finner af, skriver flere nyhedsmedier torsdag.
Selv om det allerede er ulovligt at skære den fangne hajs rygfinne af og smide resten af den døende fisk tilbage i havet, er det nemt for fiskerne at gøre det uden at blive opdaget. Som reglerne er nu, er det nemlig lovligt at bringe selve hajen og dens finne ind i forskellige havne.
Men fremover skal hele hajen landes i samme havn, så fiskerne ikke kan slippe af med den døende haj ved at smide den overbord.
The shark-friendly resolution was adopted by the European Parliament with 566 votes in favour, 47 against and 16 abstentions, reports BBC online Thursday.
“Parliament’s vote represents a major milestone in the global effort to end the wasteful practice,” said Sandrine Polti, EU shark policy adviser for the Pew Environmental Group and the Shark Alliance.
Shark finning (afskæring af finner) is driven by the fact that the animals’ fins are highly valuable in comparison with shark carcasses (kadavere).
As severed fins could be easily stored, it made economic sense for fishing vessels to remove the fins at sea, rather than bringing the entire animal – which would quickly fill a vessel’s cold storage areas – into port.
It is estimated that fins can sell for between 16 and 70 euros per kilogramme in Asia.
The EU’s global catch of sharks ranks second only to Indonesia, yet the European Commission has committed itself – under the EU Action Plan for the Conservation and Management of Sharks – to adopt the necessary measures to conserve shark species and to minimise waste and discards from shark catches.
Finning is deemed cruel because the fins are often removed while the animal is still alive – it then drowns when it is thrown back into the sea.
Conservationists argued that the issuing of Special Fishing Permits (SFPs) that allowed fins to be removed at sea prevented the EU ban, introduced in 2003, from becoming fully effective.
According to European Parliament data, the largest number of SFPs issued to date were to Spanish and Portuguese vessels (1266 and 145 respectively, between 2004 and 2010)
