Porbeagle shark trade in EU (with Bernard Seret, 2014)

Porbeagle shark trade in Europe: behind the curtain!

Romain Chabrol1& Bernard Séret2

Fisheries consultant « Upwelling » Paris (e-mail: romain.chabrol@upwelling.fr)

IRD – UMR Ecosystèmes marins exploités, MNHN-Paris (e-mail: seret@mnhn.fr)

WGEF-ICES – IPMA, Algès - 16-23 June 2014    

Since 2010, the catch and the retention of porbeagle sharks are forbidden in EU waters ….  

But porbeagle can be found on fishmonger’s stalls !

Where do they come from ?

Imported ? Incidental catches ? Illegal fishing ?  

Do incidental catches could explain the occurrence of porbeagle on the markets ?    

From WGEF2014

In 2010, EU introduced 8 digit commodity codes (CN8) for porbeable products: 03026560 : porbeagle shark, fresh 03037560 : porbeagle shark, frozen 03042965 : frozen filets of porbeagle shark     but to make thinks easier, EU changed the codes in 2011: 03028130 : porbeagle shark, fresh 03038130 : porbeagle shark, frozen 03048955 : frozen filets ofpPorbeagle shark   Reasons of this change ???  

Reported trade by Spain under the 3 NC8 porbeagle codes (2010-2013). Volumes in tons.

Poebeagle 2010 2011 2012 2013 Imports EU (Spain & Italy) from Japan, Norway, South Africa, Namibia & Morocco

20 30 27 23

Exports from EU (mostly from Spain) to Morocco

68 73 148 5

Recorded porbeagle trade from 2010 to 2013

A rather low level of imports and exports to and from EU…

Recorded porbeagle trade from 2010 to 2013���  

Porbeagle 2010 2011 2012 2013 Spain exports mostly to Italy (90%)

1231 2666 2032 1117

Spain imports from Portugal (90%)

1390 1691 1959 1067

… but high levels of trade within EU, mainly between Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Hypothesis 1 These products are porbeagle illegally caught

by EU fleets Considering the very low level of extra EU imports, catches in EU waters are suspected. The declared landings (incidental catches) are too low to explain these amounts. Also frozen catches are often landed in private cold stores and do not pass through the public auction markets. But the traded quantities are too high !���

Hypothesis 2 These products are porbeagle legally caught

by extra EU fleets Most countries do not have some specific codes for porbeagle and do not have a fishing ban for this species. Porbeagle could then be exported to EU under the general shark commodity codes and then legally traded inside EU markets. But 40% of the trade is made of fresh porbeagle; this indicate a close Atlantic origin.  

Hypothesis 3 These products are not porbeagle

but shortfin mako

The import-export balance and the amount of fresh product tend to indicate that these sharks are caught by EU fleet. But instead of porbeagle it could be shortfin mako! Why ? 1)  important catches of makos in the Portuguese and Spanish

long-line fisheries 2)  there is still a demand for porbeagle meat according to

wholesale fish merchants, so commodity codes for porbeagle could be used to market mako shark and satisfy the demand.

3)  it is hardly conceivable that the numerous actors of the fishing industry could have misidentified the two species since 2010 although they have some similarities and sometime confusing vernacular names.

•  None of these hypothesis is satisfying. •  Most probably the trade data includes some real

catches of porbeagle in EU waters, and misuses of commodity codes.

•  At this stage of our investigations, we could not find out why importers / exporters take the risk of using the commodity codes of a forbidden species in their business !

Conclusions