{"id":161940,"date":"2025-06-06T03:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T03:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161940\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T03:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T03:46:09","slug":"endangered-sharks-being-killed-at-alarming-levels-in-pacific-greenpeace-claims-after-cutting-20km-of-vessels-longline-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161940\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered sharks being killed at alarming levels in Pacific, Greenpeace claims, after cutting 20km of vessel\u2019s longline | Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Endangered sharks are being killed at alarming levels in the Pacific and industrial fishing is putting marine biodiversity at increasing risk, Greenpeace<\/a> has claimed, after its activists disrupted a Spanish vessel operating north of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The campaign group said activists on the Rainbow Warrior this week observed a longline fishing operation by the Playa Zahara in the South Fiji Basin.<\/p>\n

Georgia Whitaker, a senior campaigner with Greenpeace Australia Pacific, was on board during the operation. She claimed the activists watched as the vessel hauled in and killed three endangered mako sharks in half an hour.<\/p>\n

She said a small crew, including a trained shark handler, boarded a support boat to approach the Spanish vessel and released 14 animals caught on its line \u2013 among them eight near-threatened blue sharks, four swordfish and an endangered longfin mako shark.<\/p>\n

The activists also removed more than 210 hooks and 20km of longline.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace activists free a blue shark caught on a longline in the Pacific Ocean. Photograph: Paul Hilton\/Greenpeace<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was devastating seeing these beautiful creatures being caught, often on their gills, in their mouth, by huge baited hooks,\u201d Whitaker said. \u201cThey were fighting for their lives and then minutes later you\u2019d see blood spilling over the side of the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitaker said the vessel\u2019s crew told Greenpeace they were acting legally and primarily targeting swordfish.<\/p>\n

According to the European Union\u2019s reporting to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the Playa Zahara caught more than 600,000kg of blue shark<\/a> in 2023 in the Pacific Southwest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patricia Rodr\u00edguez, a spokesperson for Viverdreams Fish, the company that owns Playa Zahara, said in a statement the boat acted in accordance with international law and capturing species such as the mako shark and blue shark was not prohibited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe species mentioned by Greenpeace are within the quotas and limits allowed by the competent authorities, and the capture, handling and unloading procedures are controlled and documented, by all the systems established by the EU and Spanish authorities,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n

The statement accused Greenpeace of \u201ca campaign of disinformation\u201d, violating maritime laws, stealing the fishing gear and posing risks to crews on both vessels by its intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur company is strongly committed to the sustainability of marine resources and regularly collaborates with scientists, independent observers and fisheries authorities to ensure compliance with conservation standards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A Greenpeace analysis<\/a> has estimated that almost half a million blue sharks were caught as bycatch in the Pacific Ocean last year \u2013 the highest number recorded since 1991.<\/p>\n

\"GreenpeaceGreenpeace releases video of group disrupting longline fishing operation near New Zealand \u2013 video<\/p>\n

The same report found nearly 70% of EU longline catches in the region in 2023 were blue sharks.<\/p>\n

World leaders will meet in Nice next week for the UN ocean conference to discuss the high seas biodiversity treaty<\/a>, which Australia signed in 2023 but is yet to ratify.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace has urged the government to ratify the treaty within the first 100 days of its second term. The treaty requires 60 countries to ratify it before it comes into force, but as yet only 32 have done so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shark fishing is a lucrative global trade, worth an estimated $1bn annually<\/a>. Global demand for shark meat has doubled in the past two decades<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the level of exploitation was alarming, given more than one-third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction globally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSharks are important in the ecosystem, they typically occupy the top of marine food webs,\u201d he said. \u201cSteep population declines will cause food webs to potentially become unstable and ultimately collapse, there is a clear impact their loss could have on food security for a lot of nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Greenpeace shark handler frees a blue shark caught on a longline. Photograph: Paul Hilton\/Greenpeace<\/p>\n

Guida said the creation of no-take marine sanctuaries was essential \u2013 to preserve marine life and to understand how ecosystems respond to the combined pressures of overfishing and the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese sanctuaries act as controls,\u201d he said. \u201cThey help us compare areas impacted by fishing with those that are not, which is critical to building resilience in ocean wildlife and managing our fisheries in a rapidly changing world, such that we reduce our impact on different species.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Endangered sharks are being killed at alarming levels in the Pacific and industrial fishing is putting marine biodiversity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-161940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114634370984357236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}