Shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10

Existing Protection or Other Status Designations

Protection of shortfin mako is limited to fisheries management regulations. In Atlantic Canada there is a non-restrictive catch guideline of 250 t for directed fisheries; however, there are no directed fisheries at the present time. There is no quota for bycatch in the Atlantic pelagic fisheries, which at present accounts for all the reported landings. Recreational fishing is restricted to catch and release. Removal of fins and discarding of the shark carcass at sea has been prohibited in Canada and the US for several years, and recently ICCAT imposed a regulation to prohibit finning on the high seas. Although on paper there appears to be some protection, in reality the shortfin mako in Atlantic Canada is not protected by catch limits because the catch guidelines apply only to directed catch, whereas all reported landings are actually bycatch (on which there is no limit). On Canada’s Pacific coast, longlining fleets are prohibited from retaining any shark species (with the exception of dogfish), thereby protecting shortfin mako from a directed fishery in the event of an increase in abundance in Canada’s Pacific waters. The IUCN assessed shortfin mako in 2000 and listed it as lower risk/near threatened (LR/nt).

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