Council saves sharks from knife

THE public outcry against plans by a Chinese businessman to start a shark fin drying plant at Walvis Bay appears to have swayed the Town Council, which rejected the application at its monthly meeting on Tuesday.

Council decided to rescind a decision it took on November 25 to lease one hectare of land near Rooibank to Microzone International for three years for its shark fin operation. Council received nine objections following an advertisement placed by the applicant as required by Council.The objections were taken as valid and motivated the decision to stop the transaction.The objections included a petition with 173 signatures, as well as a letter from the administrators of the UK Shark Tagging Programme and a European Parliamentarian, who all strongly condemned the unsustainable practice of shark finning.In his letter of objection, Nigel Farage, Member of the European Parliament, pointed out there had been an 80 per cent reduction in stocks of six shark species between 1986 and 2000.The main cause for the decline was overfishing as between 40 to 70 million sharks were caught for their fins every year.Jeri and Sue Drake of the UK Shark Tagging Programme, who assisted the National Marine Research Institute at Swakopmund in 2001 with the establishment of a shark tagging project for the bronzy shark, expressed grave concern over the proposed project.They indicated that it could lead to an ecological disaster.Sharks are slow to mature, breed infrequently, have a long gestation period and produce few young.”There are no sustainable shark fisheries anywhere in the world,” they said.Council further motivated its decision by saying that the financial input on the part of Microzone International would have been too small to have a significant impact on the local economy.”The opinion is held that it would be to the benefit of our marine resources if Council supports the efforts of all concerned role players to ban this practice.One cannot over-emphasise the fact that Namibia’s burgeoning angling industry will be seriously jeopardised if this destructive practice is encouraged by making land available for the drying of shark fins,” it was stated in the agenda.Namibia’s Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks came into force on March 3.The plan is based on the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks and includes specific actions on data collection, research, management measures, shared stock management and capacity building.Council received nine objections following an advertisement placed by the applicant as required by Council.The objections were taken as valid and motivated the decision to stop the transaction.The objections included a petition with 173 signatures, as well as a letter from the administrators of the UK Shark Tagging Programme and a European Parliamentarian, who all strongly condemned the unsustainable practice of shark finning.In his letter of objection, Nigel Farage, Member of the European Parliament, pointed out there had been an 80 per cent reduction in stocks of six shark species between 1986 and 2000.The main cause for the decline was overfishing as between 40 to 70 million sharks were caught for their fins every year.Jeri and Sue Drake of the UK Shark Tagging Programme, who assisted the National Marine Research Institute at Swakopmund in 2001 with the establishment of a shark tagging project for the bronzy shark, expressed grave concern over the proposed project.They indicated that it could lead to an ecological disaster.Sharks are slow to mature, breed infrequently, have a long gestation period and produce few young.”There are no sustainable shark fisheries anywhere in the world,” they said.Council further motivated its decision by saying that the financial input on the part of Microzone International would have been too small to have a significant impact on the local economy.”The opinion is held that it would be to the benefit of our marine resources if Council supports the efforts of all concerned role players to ban this practice.One cannot over-emphasise the fact that Namibia’s burgeoning angling industry will be seriously jeopardised if this destructive practice is encouraged by making land available for the drying of shark fins,” it was stated in the agenda.Namibia’s Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks came into force on March 3.The plan is based on the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks and includes specific actions on data collection, research, management measures, shared stock management and capacity building.