By Jeff Franks
HAVANA | Sat Sep 11, 2010 6:02am EDT
HAVANA (Reuters) - A team of U.S. scientists and environmentalists met
with Cuban officials this week to discuss a proposed alliance, including
Mexico, to protect the Gulf of Mexico's declining shark population.
The meetings were a product of both improved U.S.-Cuba relations and
concern that only a joint effort by the three nations that share the
gulf can protect sharks, whose numbers are said to be down as much as 50
percent for some species.
"The Gulf of Mexico is one ecosystem, it's not just the U.S. gulf. The
shark is a highly migratory fish that moves between the countries and it
is troubled," said Pamela Baker, gulf policy advisor for the New
York-based Environmental Defense Fund, which is spearheading the effort
along with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida.
Shark populations have fallen worldwide, primarily due to overfishing to
satisfy China's demand for shark fin soup, which is rising as China
becomes more prosperous, scientists say.
An estimated 73 million sharks are being killed annually mostly for
their fins, the EDF said in a recent publication.
Still unknown, said shark expert Robert Hueter at the Mote Marine
Laboratory, is the effect of the massive BP oil spill this summer in the
Gulf of Mexico.
Sharks were able to swim away from the spill, but it drifted into
estuaries and coastal areas where juvenile sharks spend their early
lives, so damage to the population may not be obvious for a while, he
told Reuters on Friday.
While sharks have a fearsome reputation, they are critical to ocean
ecology, particularly around coral reefs, he said.
The EDF and Mote are promoting the joint use of "catch share" programs
where fisherman can catch allotted percentages of a biologically
sustainable number of sharks each year.
That program, which is already being used for some species in the United
States and Mexico, is enhanced if marine sanctuaries are created, said
EDF senior attorney Dan Whittle.
PRACTICAL, POLITICAL HURDLES
They said officials in all three countries have been receptive to the
idea of a gulf alliance, but there are practical and political obstacles
to overcome.
In Cuba's case, it needs a system to collect information on the number
and species of sharks caught, and once it has that, a catch share
program that fits Cuba's communist economy will have to be developed,
Baker said.
Baker, Hueter and fellow Mote biologist John Tyminski took University of
Havana students to several ports to show them how to identify and record
fish data, which they will now do for a four-month pilot project.
One fisherman with 35 years experience in Cuban waters said they were
catching fewer and smaller sharks, a typical sign of overfishing, Hueter
said.
As they dried dozens of shark fins in the sun, the fishermen said the
fins were all for export. A kilo sold for 50 convertible pesos, which is
equivalent to $54 or three times the average Cuban monthly salary.
Enforcement of catch share programs may be difficult in both Mexico and
Cuba due to limited resources, Baker said.
The program will also have to navigate the minefield of U.S.-Cuba
relations, which have warmed modestly under U.S. President Barack Obama
but remain complicated.
The U.S. has imposed a trade embargo against the island since 1962 and
forbids most Americans from traveling to Cuba.
The Obama administration is encouraging more "people-to-people" programs
to increase contact, so it has become easier to get licenses and visas
for scientists to travel between the two countries, Whittle said.
But U.S. regulations prevent such things as the hiring of Cuban
scientists or the purchase of a boat, he added.
It likely will be several years before the conservation program can be
fully in place, Baker said.
(Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
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