Mexico recently gained a new set of rules to protect marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and mantas. The new protections have many benefits, but they fall short of prohibiting the removal of fins from shark carcasses on fishing vessels, leaving the practice of shark finning legal.
The rules, known collectively as "NOM 029, Responsible Fishery of Sharks and Rays," were approved by Mexican President Felipe Calderon in February.
For more than six years, non-governmental organizations, lead by Defenders of Wildlife, Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental, and Comarino fought for marine mammal and sea turtle protections, including rules to spare the animals from unintentional death in shark fishery nets and equipment. Boat collisions and entanglements in fishing gear are significant threats to marine mammals and sea turtles, many of which are endangered.
The new rules:
- Prohibit the catch of endangered sharks and mantas, such as the white shark, whale shark, or the giant manta.
- Protect shark breeding sites and sharks during breeding seasons.
- Protect migration routes of whales and critical habitats, such as San Ignacio, from shark fishing equipment, including using nets during whale seasons.
- Protect dolphins and sea lions from becoming entangled in shark fishery nets.
- Protect beaches used by sea lions to breed or rest.
- Refine the size and shape of hooks on longlines and prohibits nets to protect sea turtles from being caught.
- Prohibit shark fisheries from entering nesting sites during sea turtle nesting seasons.
Welcomed by the international community as a step forward in ocean conservation, the protections aren't complete. Every year, millions of sharks are killed specifically for their fins. Over the past 20 years, the wasteful practice of shark finning has contributed to the decline of most large shark species. A collapse of the shark populations would not only be devastating for the species, but would likely have an adverse impact on many other species in the ecosystems sharks inhabit. Non-governmental organizations are working to make additions to the new rules to prevent shark finning.
