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On its final day of voting, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) voted to ban the fishing and sale of seven species of sharks.

The Oceanic Whitetip and six species of hammerhead sharks will now be protected in the Atlantic under ICCAT. If any of these sharks are caught, fishermen will NOT be allowed to keep them.

These sharks will join the only other species already on the ICCAT list – the Big Eye Thresher.

Oceanic Whitetip numbers have plummeted by half in the Gulf of Mexico and hammerheads have declined by half in the Mediterranean. Sharks are highly sought by fisheries to meet the huge demand for shark fin soup in Asia.

There were some compromises as the same level of protection was not extended to other vulnerable species. Canada played a key role in defeating the proposals for protecting Portbeagle Sharks. A US effort to enforce the bringing sharks to shore whole – not just the fins – also failed due to vigorous opposition by Japan.

While the conservation measures sound like a positive way forward, the shark species cited for protection represent only a small portion of Atlantic sharks from fishing vessels.

ICCAT also voted for greater research on research and data collection for some species along with a measure requiring fishermen to remove hooks and netting from turtles, and to keep records of accidental turtle bycatches. ICCAT will penalise member nations that fail to submit data on Shortfin Mako catches by 2013.

Predictably, the opposition to shark conservation came from the usual suspects; Japan, South Korea and China.

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