CEBU’S water is home to whale sharks—the world’s largest fish—dolphins, sea cows and marine turtles, and to another amazing creature of the sea—thresher shark.
Stakeholders—including local government officials, coastal community representatives, environmental groups, marine scientists, resort owners, divers and other tourism industry representatives—gathered at the Cebu Provincial Capitol in Cebu on Friday to call for the global protection of thresher sharks through their inclusion on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) list of threatened species.
The call was made a week before an international meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the 17th Conference of Parties to the CITES from September 24 to October 5.
In a statement, Dennis Bryan Bait-it, coordinator of Migo sa Iho (Friends of the Sharks), a local enforcement group deputized to enforce fisheries law around the Shark and Ray Sanctuary of Monad Shoal and Gato Island, said thresher sharks are an essential link to Cebuanos’ way of life, especially for coastal communities. The conference participants said thresher sharks should be included in Appendix 2 of CITES, in order to place them under global protection, including in the Philippines, as stated in the Amended Philippines Fisheries Code.
Thresher sharks are vital not only to marine ecosystems but also to tourism in coastal communities. However, their population is currently threatened by illegal fishing, trading and bycatch.
“We are calling on the 182 parties to the Convention for a ‘yes’ vote in Johannesburg. The inclusion of thresher sharks for protection under CITES is an opportunity to prevent unsustainable fishing and protect our marine tourism industry,” said Malapascua Barangay Chairman Rex Novabos, who is also the current president of the Association of Barangay Captains in the Municipality of Daanbantayan.
AA Yaptinchay, director of Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines, said thresher sharks are in real danger of being caught in both targeted and nontargeted fisheries, as well as through bycatch.
“It would be a global embarrassment not to support the CITES proposal for its protection, given its iconic status within the diving community in the Philippines. These sharks are clearly more valuable alive than dead,” he said. Monad Shoal, near the Island of Malapascua in Cebu’s Daanbantayan municipality, is the only place in the world where thresher sharks could be viewed with certainty on a daily basis. Thresher sharks have become the main feature of the scuba-dive tourism industry in Malapascua, which accounts for most of Daanbantayan’s economy, securing the livelihood of many in the municipality and its neighboring communities.
“Threshers are not just fish species that brings in tourism income, but is for us a very important icon of hope that deserves global attention and protection. Their presence has turned Malapascua Island into a major dive-tourist attraction, helping local residents to recover after the devastation that tropical typhoon Yolanda brought in 2013,” said Ahmad Clay Escolar, chief of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office.
Cebu is the only province in the Philippines that bans the catching, selling, possession and trading of all shark species and their derivatives. Cebu also hosts the country’s first, and currently only, shark and ray sanctuary.
“Sharks are valuable for both their ecological and economic value, especially for an archipelago like the Philippines. We absolutely need to ensure that their population in our seas are not depleted,” said Director Andres Bojos of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Visayas.
Besides Cebu, thresher sharks are also urged for local protection in Batangas City; Panglao, Bohol; and Palawan.
Local protection in these provinces, however, is not enough, as thresher sharks could still be fished, hunted and traded unconditionally elsewhere. Thresher sharks’ meat is consumed locally. The fins are sold internationally, for use in shark-fin soup.
“Sharks have long languished from misinformation and the bad reputation they received from thriller monster movies. But they are vital to marine ecosystems. Their protection under CITES also means that threshers will automatically be protected under Section 102 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Amended Philippine Fisheries, until such time a scientific study allows it to be traded under strong monitoring and regulation,” said Vince Cinches, Philippines Oceans campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons