The federal government published an ordinance that authorizes the export of sharks isurus oxyrhynchus, popularly known as mako. The species is part of international lists of endangered animals and should enter the next Brazilian list of endangered species. The release worries experts.
The ordinance, signed by Jorge Seif Júnior, Secretary of Fisheries (part of the Ministry of Agriculture), and by members of the Ministries of the Environment and Economy, establishes quotas of 20.79 tons for the export of products, by-products and parts of mako and of 415.86 tons for whole sharks.
Shark fins are usually the main item of interest and drive a luxury market in Asia. In the case of mako, however, even the meat is usually appreciated. In 2015, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimated that shark-related products were worth about US$1 billion a year.
Brazil is the world’s largest consumer of sharks, normally sold under the generic nomenclature of dogfish.
Also known as the shortfin shark, the animal is classified as threatened on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list, in which a general decrease in the species’ populations is pointed out.
Due to its situation around the world, mako was recently placed in Appendix 2 of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna), of which Brazil is a signatory.
An analysis of the Politica por Integer project, which monitors regulatory acts by the government in the environmental area and is a partner of sheet in the Environmental Policy Monitor, also draws attention to the fact that Brazil has supported the listing of mako in the CITES appendix. The project classified the measure as flexibility.
Appendix 2 animals are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but this can happen if the trade is not closely monitored. According to the Convention, the international trade of the species included in this annex requires regulations and authorizations that should only be given if the authorities are sure that the commercialization will not be harmful to the survival of the species.
One of the problems of the ordinance, according to experts heard by the sheet, is exactly the question of being an endangered species. Risk assessments carried out by ICMBio already point out the vulnerability of the species, with inadequate management, unrestricted fishing and high value of meat, points that, according to the agency, lead to the requirement of precautionary measures. The municipality has already recommended the inclusion of mako in the next list of endangered animals in Brazil.
In any case, according to experts, banning the trade of an animal is not necessarily the way to preserve it. They say, however, that in Brazil there is a lack of data and inspection, which makes it reckless to authorize the export of a threatened species.
“It doesn’t mean that you can’t fish anymore. The whole question is knowing how much I can fish, where I can fish,” says Ana Paula Prates, a fishing engineer and representative of the Talanoa Institute and the project Politica por Intero.
How much and where are problems in Brazil. The country has not had official updates on fisheries stock statistics for more than a decade, which makes it difficult to monitor species and project potential commercial impacts.
“The whole world already recognizes the species as threatened. Sanctions are being implemented, as in the North Atlantic, where fishing was paralyzed”, says Rodrigo Barreto, secretary of Sbeel (Brazilian Society for the Study of Elasmobranchs) and a researcher who has studied mako for more than a decade.
“Here in Brazil it seems that it is comfortable for us to have no fishing statistics. And although we make this division into populations from the North and South Atlantic, there is evidence that there is a single population of mako.”
Along with the lack of fishing data, the characteristics of the mako, the target species for catches, pose more problematic issues in relation to fishing permits.
Risk analyzes place the mako as possibly the Atlantic shark most vulnerable to longline fishing (a method that has a strong main line of fishing with several hooks along its length).
The species has late sexual maturity, with females becoming fertile only around the end of the first decade of life or the beginning of the second, which makes the mako highly vulnerable to fishing.
A study carried out in Brazil and published in Plos One, in 2016, points out that most of the animals captured by boats on the Brazilian coast are juveniles, that is, they have not yet reached sexual maturity and, consequently, have not been able to reproduce.
Specialists also claim that another problem with the interministerial decree was its production process, which would not have followed the standard procedures for export authorization. They also draw attention to the fact that the measure has a retroactive effect, for animals caught until December 21 of last year.
To be exported, species of the Convention need to receive opinions attesting that export will not harm the survival of the species and verification of the scientific and administrative authorities of CITES, which in Brazil are Ibama and ICMBio, points out the analysis of the Policy for Integer.
This analysis process, however, was not completed.
THE sheet questioned the Fisheries Secretariat (part of the Ministry of Agriculture) and the Ministry of the Environment about the technical criteria for the standard and asked the Environmental Ministry for access to the documents that supported the release.
The Ministry of the Environment stated, in a note, that the publication of the ordinance is based on what is expressed in article 28 of decree 3.607/2000.
The article in question states that “the export of species included in Annexes II and III of CITES may be subject to contingencies to be jointly established by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, through the Secretariat of Foreign Trade, and by the Ministry of the Environment, which will determine the annual and semi-annual quantities, admissible for exporting the species”.
“This provision supersedes the usual procedure established by Articles 8 and 9, which provides for the ordinary procedures to be adopted for the export of species listed in Appendix II of CITES”, says the Environmental Department.
Articles 8 and 9 concern the participation of scientific and administrative authorities in the process of exporting or importing animals listed in the CITES annexes.
The Ministry of the Environment also states that the “isurus oxyrinchus it is not on the Official National List of Endangered Species of Fauna – Fish and Aquatic Invertebrates.” The list, however, has not been updated for some years.
“The established limits followed all established procedures and regulations,” says the ministry, which did not send the requested documents.
The Ministry of Agriculture has not sent responses so far.
