Dot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at the Creation of a Vast Pacific Shark Preserve

Here?s a Dot Earth postcard from the South Pacific, describing the final step in the creation of a vast international sanctuary for sharks. It?s written by Jessica Cramp, a young woman who, after working as a biologist in a drug discovery laboratory in San Diego for nearly a decade, decided it was time to pursue her?passion for marine life. Cramp is now the program manager for the Pacific Islands Conservation Initiative, a nonprofit environmental group based in the Cook Islands:

I?m writing from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, an idyllic tropical paradise of 26 square miles in the South Pacific. But my focus isn?t the beauty; it?s the sharks.

Sharks are in trouble around the world.?Not because they are a menace, but because overfishing is outpacing their reproductive capacity?(see ?New Estimates of the Shark-Fin Trade?).?While some nations are adopting shark fin bans, there?s another approach developing in the South Pacific.?

Like separate pieces of a puzzle, French Polynesia, Tokelau and American Samoa recently created enormous shark no-take zones in their territorial waters.?Separately, these are huge accomplishments, but when the Cook Islands ? the only country with waters bordering the other three ? joined the party, the largest contiguous shark sanctuary in the world was created.

I joined Pacific Islands Conservation Initiative (PICI) in May, 2011, as the volunteer program manager. My goal was to advance the shark sanctuary campaign devised by PICI founder Stephen Lyon a number of years ago.? Steve and I agreed that if we consulted the local community and they didn?t want to protect sharks from commercial exploitation, we?d walk away.? But they did want sharks protected, and in the end the campaign received overwhelming support.

Progress still took time. Let?s face it, I?m no Jacques Cousteau and sharks are not as cuddly as dolphins. Thankfully, a few prominent community members?who understood the scientific and cultural implications of shark protection ? and spoke in the local language on their behalf ? bolstered our efforts. We even managed to gain the support of local fishermen?even though they said they were?terrorized by sharks on occasion in their traditional canoes. Commercial longline boat operators also endorsed the plan.

We made sure that the proposed shark regulations protected the rights of the artisanal fishers, had no economic impact on the country, eased fisheries enforcement, and had resounding popular support. But after countless meetings, the Ministry of Marine Resources still hesitated to ban commercial fishing of all species of shark.

We reached a turning point when a local news story reported that three tons of shark fins were found during a routine inspection on an Asian vessel, and the ministry still chose not to act.? The campaign gained momentum locally, and in turn, provided us more international recognition and ultimately, more resources.

Inspired by a Los Angeles Times article about our efforts, Michael Balster, an environmental attorney from the Paul Hastings Group,?offered to work pro bono for a year drafting the regulations which later became law.

The Pew Environment Group afforded us the resources to visit the outer islands? communities.? We received support from every island we visited, including some we weren?t able to reach, because ? coupled with evidence of overfishing ? sharks are revered as guardians in Cook Islands culture.

On 12/12/12, after more than a year and a half of advocating for sharks, I was sitting in the observer?s box in the Cook Islands Parliament when?The Minister of Marine Resources, the Honorable Teina Bishop, chose to act.

He announced with pride that the Cook Islands were declaring all 771,000 square miles of their exclusive economic zone, an area of sea the size of Mexico, a protected area for all sharks, rays and skates (see ?Regulations Explained?). There are still issues to address ? such as nearby high-seas fishing and the challenges in patrolling such a large protected area.

But sanctuaries are now established as a critical tool for reducing shark mortality, and in the South Pacific, the combined efforts of small island nations are adding up to an enormous advance in marine conservation.

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Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/a-closer-look-at-the-creation-of-a-vast-pacific-shark-preserve/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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