THE HAGUE, the Netherlands—Delegates to an international conservation group have rejected an EU plan to protect two species of sharks, the spiny dogfish and porbeagle.

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The UN Food and Agriculture Organization lobbied against the EU plan, leading a number of delegates to change their votes. The group’s assistant director general, Ichiko Nomura, argued that the fisheries for the two species can be managed.

Sarah Fowler of the World Conservation Union said that after stocks of the porbeagle—a large shark found in the North Atlantic—were fished out in European waters, fishermen began catching the species on the other side of the Atlantic.

“It took only six years to deplete that fishery; and it has not recovered,” she said.

Sharks reproduce slowly, making them vulnerable to overfishing. The spiny dogfish, a small schooling shark, often appears in British fish and chips shops, labeled as rock salmon.  --Bloomberg

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Two species of sharks fail to qualify for protection

THE HAGUE, the Netherlands—Delegates to an international conservation group have rejected an EU plan to protect two species of sharks, the spiny dogfish and porbeagle.