On November 18th, the nation of Kiribati announced the establishment of a shark sanctuary that bans all commercial shark fishing in the country’s national waters. The sanctuary is 3.4 million square miles, the second largest sanctuary in the entire world. The Pacific Ocean sanctuary covers an area larger than the country of India.
The Caribbean islands of St. Maarten and the Cayman Islands have both announced that their exclusive economic zones are now closed for commercial shark fishing, Pew Environment reports. The islands of Curacao and Grenada have also committed to enact similar legislation this year too.
Over 8,500 square miles of shark sanctuaries have been declared surrounding the Dutch Caribbean islands of Bonaire and Saba. The announcement was made on September 2nd by Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Sharon Dijksma. The sanctuaries are only the 11th and 12th of their kind in the world and will also include marine mammal protection. (Image from Shutterstock )
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reports that the government of Madagascar has created the country’s first shark sanctuary. Antongil Bay, the largest bay in Madagascar, now offers protection to 19 species of shark and also restricts international fishing trawlers from fishing in the area.
The British Virgin Islands, which is comprised of approximately 60 islands and cays, has announce plans to protect shark species by creating a shark sanctuary within its waters. All commercial fishing of all shark species in the waters of the BVIs will be banned. Image from Shutterstock.
Shark Savers has announced that the decree that created the Raja Ampat Shark and Ray Sanctuary has been written into provincial law by the Raja Ampat parliament. The sanctuary was originally created in September 2010 by use of a local Bupati decree, after the council was presented with an 8,500 strong petition. Since then, Shark Savers, Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy, WildAid, CORAL, Papua Diving and Misool Eco Resort have campaigned to get it enshrined in a more permanent and enforceable law. The resulting legal framework is the first of its kind in Indonesia and the Coral Triangle.