Seafood Watch Seafood Report Sharks and Dogfish With a focus on: Blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) Common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) Dusky smoothhound/smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) Shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) Spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) © Monterey Bay Aquarium Final Report December 21, 2005 Stock Status Update June 9, 2011 Santi Roberts Fisheries Research Analyst Monterey Bay Aquarium SeafoodWatch® Sharks & DogfishReport June 9, 2010 About Seafood Watch® and the Seafood Reports Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® program evaluates the ecological sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood commonly found in the United States marketplace. Seafood Watch® defines sustainable seafood as originating from sources, whether wild-caught or farmed, which can maintain or increase production in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or function of affected ecosystems. Seafood Watch® makes its science-based recommendations available to the public in the form of regional pocket guides that can be downloaded from the Internet (seafoodwatch.org) or obtained from the Seafood Watch® program by emailing [email protected]. The program’s goals are to raise awareness of important ocean conservation issues and empower seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. Each sustainability recommendation on the regional pocket guides is supported by a Seafood Report. Each report synthesizes and analyzes the most current ecological, fisheries and ecosystem science on a species, then evaluates this information against the program’s conservation ethic to arrive at a recommendation of “Best Choices,” “Good Alternatives,” or “Avoid.” The detailed evaluation methodology is available upon request. In producing the Seafood Reports, Seafood Watch® seeks out research published in academic, peer-reviewed journals whenever possible. Other sources of information include government technical publications, fishery management plans and supporting documents, and other scientific reviews of ecological sustainability. Seafood Watch® Fisheries Research Analysts also communicate regularly with ecologists, fisheries and aquaculture scientists, and members of industry and conservation organizations when evaluating fisheries and aquaculture practices. Capture fisheries and aquaculture practices are highly dynamic; as the scientific information on each species changes, Seafood Watch’s sustainability recommendations and the underlying Seafood Reports will be updated to reflect these changes. Parties interested in capture fisheries, aquaculture practices and the sustainability of ocean ecosystems are welcome to use Seafood Reports in any way they find useful. For more information about Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports, please contact the Seafood Watch® program at Monterey Bay Aquarium by calling (831) 647-6873 or emailing [email protected]. Disclaimer Seafood Watch® strives to have all Seafood Reports reviewed for accuracy and completeness by external scientists with expertise in ecology, fisheries science, and aquaculture. Scientific review, however, does not constitute an endorsement of the Seafood Watch® program or its recommendations on the part of the reviewing scientists. Seafood Watch® is solely responsible for the conclusions reached in this report. Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports are made possible through a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. 2 SeafoodWatch® Sharks & DogfishReport June 9, 2010 Executive Summary Sharks are generally slow-growing, late-maturing organisms that give birth to very few young, and are thus well-recognized as being vulnerable to fishing pressure. However, several species of shark of importance to the U.S. market, including the large coastal blacktip shark, and several small coastal species, grow more quickly and so are thought to be able to withstand higher fishing pressure. U.S.-caught sharks More than 80% of all sharks (excluding spiny and smooth dogfish) landed in the U.S. are from the Atlantic. This percentage and all percentages in the text and tables below do not include unidentified sharks (in NMFS landing data), which account for 36% of Atlantic landings and only 2% of Pacific, North Pacific, and West Pacific landings. Thus, Atlantic landings are likely considerably more than 80% of total U.S. landings, and estimates of landings of any given species are very approximate (at least in the Atlantic). Large coastal and small coastal sharks make up approximately 90% of Atlantic shark landings. Of these, the large coastal sandbar and blacktip sharks comprise the majority (probably 80% or more), although more precise estimates are confounded by the high level of unspecified sharks and by likely mis-identification of sharks due to the removal of all identifying characteristics at sea. The multi-species nature of the directed shark and reef fish fisheries is one of the major concerns of these fisheries. Some of the shark stocks appear to be in healthy condition, notably the Gulf of Mexico blacktip and the small coastal finetooth shark. However, sharks considered to be in critical condition, including the large coastal sandbar and the small coastal blacknose shark, are also caught and landed along with healthy stocks in the multispecies fisheries. For this reason, all large coastal and small coastal multispecies fisheries that catch sharks are deemed of critical stock status. In addition, most of the large coastal sharks are also particularly slow- growing and late-maturing even for sharks, and so are inherently vulnerable to overfishing. Regardless of the other Seafood Watch® (SFW) criteria, the high conservation concern rankings for inherent vulnerability and status of stocks warrant an overall recommendation of “Avoid” for all these fisheries, including the directed shark drift gillnet and strikenet fishery, and directed shark and reef fish bottom longline fisheries. Common thresher sharks and shortfin makos are landed on both coasts of the U.S., and combined account for less than 10% of Atlantic shark landings but the majority of Pacific shark landings. These and some other pelagic species are faster growing and mature earlier than the large coastal species, and so are not as inherently vulnerable to fishing pressure. In the Atlantic, the stock status of both species is highly uncertain, but studies indicate serious declines in thresher shark stocks and declines up to 50% in shortfin mako shark stocks. Both of these stocks are thus deemed to be in poor condition. While the gears used to catch these pelagic species have very little impact on habitat, they currently have critical bycatch of sea turtles (pelagic longline fishery) and bottlenose dolphins (mid-Atlantic gillnet fishery). Bycatch concerns thus warrant an overall recommendation of “Avoid”, regardless of other criteria. Common thresher sharks and shortfin makos comprise the majority of shark landings on the Pacific coast (excluding dogfish). Little is known about the stocks of shortfin makos in the Pacific, but managers believe that the stock(s) is probably not overfished and not experiencing 3 SeafoodWatch® Sharks & DogfishReport June 9, 2010 overfishing. No robust stock assessment has been conducted for West Coast common thresher, but recent increases in catch-per-unit-effort rates indicate the stock is improving and the stock is also considered to be not overfished and overfishing not occurring. The stocks are a moderate conservation concern. Off the West Coast, common threshers and shortfin makos are both primarily landed in the California drift gillnet fishery as no pelagic longlining is currently permitted in state or federal waters (although there may be a small quantity of shark entering the U.S. from Californian pelagic longliners operating on the high seas). Both are also landed in Hawaiian pelagic longline fisheries. Despite improvements in the nature and extent of bycatch in both the California drift gillnet and Hawaiian pelagic longline fisheries, serious concerns remain over the sheer quantity of bycatch in the gillnet fishery and of threatened and endangered sea turtle bycatch in the pelagic longline fishery. As bycatch in the only severe concern in these fisheries, common thresher and shortfin mako from US fisheries in the Pacific are deemed a Good Alternative. U.S.-caught dogfish Spiny dogfish are caught on both coasts of the U.S., while smooth dogfish are caught only on the Atlantic side. Almost 90% of total U.S. dogfish landings are of spiny dogfish, with Atlantic fisheries currently accounting for approximately two thirds of this amount. Spiny dogfish are among the slowest-growing and longest-lived sharks known, especially in the Pacific, and so are inherently vulnerable to fishing. Management of the Atlantic spiny dogfish fisheries is conducted on behalf of the New England and Mid-Atlantic states by the Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission. The regime has a history of state non-compliance and state rejection of scientific advice, leading to overly high fishing pressure. As a result, stock status experienced serious declines throughout the 1990s. However, recent management actions in the early 2000s, including significant quota reductions, appear to have had a positive impact on Atlantic spiny dogfish stock. In 2009, the abundances reached levels high enough for the stock to be considered rebuilt, and annual quotas have been increased by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Atlantic spiny dogfish are caught in several