Malaysia ranks 15th among the world’s top 20 shark catching nations. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we provide 2.95% of the world’s total shark and ray catch.
At least one endangered shark species the scalloped hammerhead ranks among the top 10 most commonly taken shark species in Malaysian waters, according to a recent report by World Wide Fund for Nature and the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Many others on that list are close to qualifying, or likely to qualify, for a threatened category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in the near future. They include the spadenose shark, brown-banded bamboo shark, spot-tail shark, Indonesian bamboo shark, blackspot shark, milk shark, graceful shark, sicklefin weasel shark and grey bamboo shark.
The report An Overview Of Shark Utilisation In The Coral Triangle points out that landings of sharks and rays have increased over the years in the context of a decreasing fishing fleet. This, it says, indicates that sharks are desirable, targeted species.
It is difficult to prove whether fishermen are actively seeking to catch sharks or are mainly taking sharks as incidental catch of other fishing activities, says Mary Lack, fisheries management consultant and one of the authors of the report. However, the high value and strong demand for shark fins certainly makes sharks attractive and targeting of sharks cannot be ruled out.
Not targeted
The Fisheries Department, however, says sharks are not a targeted fishery in Malaysia, but rather bycatch in the fisheries of other commercially important species. Its data showed that shark landings fluctuated from 5,677 tonnes in 1991 to 9,165 tonnes in 2005, and 5,975 tonnes in 2011. Its figures from 2004 and 2005 show that sharks make up less than 1% of the total marine landings.
Gopinath Nagaraj, fisheries consultant at Fanli Marine and Consultancy, says increased landings in themselves do not necessarily mean that sharks are being targeted; it could be the result of increased fishing efforts, for example, boats going out longer or further. Shark landings have been stable over a 20-year period from 1991-2011. The increase observed in 2005 could be due to natural surges in population. The problem here is that there is no species breakdown, and we don’t know how individual shark species have fared over the years.
Gopinath says most sharks are caught as bycatch, partly because shark densities are too low in the peninsula to justify a dedicated shark fishery. He says the main elasmobranchs (cartilaginous fish which includes sharks and rays) caught in the country are skates (ikan pari). He notes that there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that sharks might be sought after in the deep waters off Sabah’s east coast, but iterates that sharks are not entirely caught for their fins as the poorer communities in Sabah do consume the fish as food.
Many of Malaysia’s shortcomings, iterated in the report, are not unique. A long-standing gripe among many of the world’s top shark catching nations is the lack of species identification within catch and trade data that is reported to the FAO. There is a lack of management guidelines in place for shark species only the whale shark is afforded protection by the Fisheries (Control of Endangered Species of Fish) Regulation 1999. Also, Malaysia is reported to have failed to meet the shark catch reporting requirements to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, its regional fisheries management organisation (sharks are also caught by long line and purse seine tuna fleets).
The sustainability status of shark catching looks clear cut. When Malaysia’s National Plan of Action for Sharks was released in 2006, it noted that landings of sharks in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia had already exceeded the maximum sustainable yield, a term which refers to the maximum level at which a natural resource can be routinely exploited without long-term depletion. (The situation in the east coast was not assessed.)
It is unlikely that an update on the maximum sustainable yield for shark fisheries will be done. The Fisheries Department has said it would be impractical because of the fish’s relatively low numbers and the fact that they are not considered a targeted fishery.
A review of the National Plan of Action for Sharks is due by the end of this year. Since the release of the first report, awareness campaigns and research initiatives aimed at increasing our knowledge of local shark species have been initiated. One commendable effort is the establishment of anti-trawler artificial reefs between 2006 and 2011, to protect 115 breeding and nursery ground sites for sharks and rays.
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