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The Shark Trust

The Shark Trust’s purpose is to safeguard the future of sharks, skates and rays through positive change.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Sustainable fishing in the EU: state of play and orientations for 2026

29 Aug 2025

The Shark Trust welcomes the chance to respond to this consultation regarding sustainable fishing in the EU. Elasmobranchs sharks, skates and rays are a complex and diverse subclass of Chondrichthyes, the cartilaginous fishes. Elasmobranchs represent over 1200 described species. Some seen as wildlife: e.g. Basking Sharks valuable commercial species up until the mid-1990s, but now heavily protected; others as valuable commercial fisheries: e.g. several skate, rays and coastal sharks caught as wanted bycatch in mixed fisheries; but many occupy a middle ground between these descriptors: such as Porbeagle, a once valuable commercial species, now considered Critically Endangered yet still targeted by anglers. Elasmobranchs life history strategies - many species exhibiting slow growth rates, late age of maturity, and small litter sizes - leave them especially susceptible to overfishing, which is driving a third of shark species toward extinction (Dulvy et al., 2021), with further impacts including habitat destruction and climate change amongst others. The challenges for shark and ray populations are intrinsically linked to the strength of the fishing industry and the often inadequate and inconsistent approaches to fisheries management. Comprehensive fisheries management is required to prevent overfishing of elasmobranchs. Oceanic sharks are some of the most iconic and functionally important species in our ocean and are very economically important to the EU fleet, especially in high seas fisheries. They are exceptionally threatened by overfishing and urgent collective action between fishing nations is required to ensure their long-term sustainability. The EU must show leadership across all aspects of sustainable fisheries by: setting TACs below MSY, negotiating sustainable sharing agreements with coastal states, gathering more data to inform sustainable fisheries management and continuing to champion shark-specific management measures such as fins naturally attached. This is not an exhaustive list, please see our attached statement for our feedback in full.
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Meeting with Eva Maria Carballeira Fernandez (Head of Unit Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) and ClientEarth AISBL and

15 Jul 2025 · Recommendations on how to address shortcomings in the ICES advice and requests

Meeting with Caroline Roose (Member of the European Parliament) and Sciaena - Ocean # Conservation # Awareness and SHARKPROJECT Germany e. V.

18 Nov 2022 · Mesures de conservation requins makos

Meeting with Carmen Preising (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius)

21 Oct 2021 · ICCAT & Mako: Shark League

Meeting with Agne Razmislaviciute-Palioniene (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius), Carmen Preising (Cabinet of Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius)

2 Mar 2021 · Management of Atlantic Shortfin Mako in the context of the EU & ICCAT

Meeting with Andras Inotai (Cabinet of Vice-President Karmenu Vella)

30 Mar 2017 · Our Ocean Conference 2017, shark finning, shark conservation management