Protected Dusky Sharks Decimated by Fishing (Op-Ed)

Amanda Keledjian, Oceana | April 22, 2014 11:44am ET

Amanda Keledjian is a marine scientist at Oceana, the largest international conservation organization working solely to protect the world's oceans. She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

With upwards of 100 million sharks killed around the world every year, it's no surprise that their numbers have plummeted. In fact, a quarter of the world's shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

One species of concern is the dusky shark, a wide-ranging species commonly found along continental coastlines in tropical and temperate waters. Dusky sharks can grow to be 14 feet (4 meters) long, and mainly feed on bony fish, squid, and other sharks and rays. Several characteristics make this species of shark particularly vulnerable to over-exploitation, including the fact that dusky sharks do not give birth to many pups each year. The dusky shark also takes 20 years to reach maturity, making it one of the slowest growing of known sharks.

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Government to impose new limits on shark fishing

The government plans to require almost all sharks landed by recreational fishermen off the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to measure at least 8 feet from nose to fork in the tail, a move that some recreational fishermen said will end their sport but that conservationists say is needed to save an imperiled species.

The debate over how best to protect the dusky shark — which can migrate hundreds of miles in a season but whose juveniles return every summer to the mid-Atlantic — highlights the complicated task of recovering shark species.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has prohibited the catch of dusky sharks since 1999, but scientists found its population to be so depleted that it will take 100 years for it to recover.

The dusky shark, which averages nearly 12 feet in length and 400 pounds, takes two decades to reach sexual maturity and has small litters every three years, which makes it vulnerable to overfishing.

The environmental group WildEarth Guardians has petitioned to list the dusky shark under the Endangered Species Act.

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