NPOA - National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks in the Maldives

NPOA - National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks in the Maldives

Year of publication 2015

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 45 p.

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) Sharks are a group of about 1,100 species of mostly marine fishes (Compagno, 2001). Estimates on the global annual harvest of sharks vary considerably from 700,000 to 1.5 million tonnes and the only real consensus is that data on the fishery are chronically lacking (Frisk, et al., 2001; Stevens, et al., 2000). Sharks in general, are extremely vulnerable to over-fishing due to their slow growth, late maturity, long reproductive cycles and low reproductive output (Musick , et al., 2000). Increased worldwide exploitation of shark species with scientific evidence proving declining shark populations and few countries managing their shark fisheries, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations developed a set of guidelines to ensure the management and conservation of sharks. These guidelines became the International Plan of Action on Sharks (IPOA-Sharks). IPOA-Sharks was endorsed by the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in 1999. IPOA-Sharks is voluntary and all FAO membe r countries involved in directed and non-directed shark fisheries are encouraged to develop a National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (NPOA-Sharks).