Sharks are safer in the Pacific Ocean, thanks to Micronesia's establishment of the world's second-largest shark sanctuary. The protected area, equal in size to India, will help strengthen the marine ecosystem and economy.
Venezuela set forth a series of measures this week to protect sharks within its waters. Most significantly, commercial shark fishing is now prohibited throughout the 3,730 square kilometers (1,440 square miles) of the Caribbean Sea that make up the popular Los Roques and Las Aves archipelagos, whose pristine beaches and coral reefs make it a diving and fishing attraction.
A new global scientific review shows that simple changes in fishing gear could significantly reduce the large number of sharks unintentionally caught in the world’s oceans.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands is now home to the world’s largest shark sanctuary. The Nitijela, the Marshallese parliament, unanimously passed legislation last week that ends commercial fishing of sharks in all 1,990,530 square kilometers (768,547 square miles) of the central Pacific country’s waters, an ocean area four times the landmass of California.
Matt Rand, director of Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group, issued the following statement on 7 September 2011 in response to the shark sanctuary designation made by Tokelau, an island territory in the South Pacific.
Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation for the Pew Environment Group, issued the following statement on August 8, 2011 in response to Chilean President Sebastián Piñera’s signing of Chile’s ban on shark finning.