Countries to finalize conservation plan for migratory sharks
February 8, 2010 10:42 pm
By Catherine J. Teves
MANILA, Feb. 8 – Delegates from the Philippines and other countries are meeting in Metro Manila to finalize a conservation and management plan (CMP) for boosting international cooperation on protecting endangered migratory sharks from possible extinction.
They are targeting to enhance conservation and management efforts as international monitoring indicates these sharks' population is declining mainly due to commercial exploitation of such animals and habitat degradation.
Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (DENR-PAWB) director Ma. Theresa Mundita Lim said the final CMP version that delegates hope to agree on will be annexed to the non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) countries concerned target to adapt this week also in Manila for better migratory shark conservation worldwide.
"This MOU will show how CMP will be implemented," she said Monday on the side of the technical meeting which DENR-PAWB, the Philippines' Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, United Nations Environment Programme and the Convention on Migratory Species secretariat are spearheading.
Lim raised urgency of protecting and conserving migratory sharks as she warned of a marine ecological disaster if these become extinct.
She said sharks are atop the aquatic food chain so extinction of these predators will cause other marine species' population to balloon out of control.
"There'll be ecological imbalance," she said.
Extinction will also adversely affect eco-tourism in the Philippines and other countries where migratory sharks are sighted.
"We'll likewise lose one good indicator of the marine environment's health – migratory sharks go to waters where there's plenty of plankton and small fishes to eat so surge of the crustacean population in areas where these species once abounded is a negative sign," she said.
Migratory sharks are hunted mostly for the fins.
Such fins are used to make shark's fin soup, a popular Chinese food.
The CMP delegates will discuss several issues.
These include improving understanding of migratory sharks, reducing direct and incidental fisheries-related causes of shark mortality, improving effectiveness of science-based ecological management, increasing public awareness about threats to sharks and habitats where these are as well as enhancing cooperation on shark protection.
The plan will also cover promoting implementation of CMP and the MOU. (PNA) RMA/CJT/utb
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