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| Indonesia is the top shark-catching country in the world, which stokes concern over the cruel and wasteful act of shark-finning. (EPA Photo/Hotli Simanjuntak) |
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A recent
report by wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic shows that Indonesia
continues to be the biggest shark-catching country in the world, based on UN
Food and Agricultural Organization data.
Indonesia’s
average annual reported shark catch in the past decade represents more than 13
percent of the reported global catch. Up to 65 percent of Indonesia’s catch is
taken from the Pacific Ocean and the remainder from the Indian Ocean. In the
Indian Ocean, Indonesia owns the major shark fleets, with average catches
fluctuating between 8,500 to 16,500 tons per year in recent years.
Most sharks
are predators in coral reef and ocean ecosystems, sitting on top of the food
pyramid and helping control the balance of the marine environment.
Losing one
of these predators leads to uncontrolled population growth of other species.
Sharks eat sick or wounded organisms to help maintain the ecosystem’s health.
Without them, the entire food chain would collapse.
The
practice of shark-finning has drawn a lot of attention and reactions. And since
social media has made it even easier to report incidents, tourists and divers
are now able to post their holiday observations.
Likewise,
the progress made in the United States and Hong Kong on increasing consumer
awareness and the reduced availability of shark-fin soup in restaurants are
also receiving a lot of media attention. There is now an increasing outcry for
governments to stop shark-finning.
“Finning”
is a callous and careless practice in which sharks are caught, their fins
sliced off, and their bleeding bodies thrown back into the water where they die
a slow and painful death. Not only is this a cruel practice, it is illegal,
inefficient and a waste of food resources.
Scientists
have also joined the international community’s call for urgent action on the
shark-fishing industry, acknowledging that the market for shark fins will
continue to grow because increased buying power will create a bigger consumer
base. On top of that, target species in shark fisheries grow slowly and mature
late with few offspring, hence they are easily overfished.
The
Indonesian government has had few legal tools in the past decades to prohibit
or restrict shark fishing. Traffic suggests that the increase in shark and ray
fishing in Indonesia has outgrown existing fisheries management approaches.
The only
regulation and law enforcement related to shark fisheries and shark products
was for sawfish and the implementation of the regulations was only applied to
monitoring and banning the rostrum trade rather than to regulate trade of other
parts of the body as it was considered too difficult to identify the species.
Pursuant to
its membership in the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, Indonesia was
mandated to develop a national plan to protect sharks. Recognizing the
importance of developing management regulations specific to shark fisheries, a
research project funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural
Research on artisanal shark and ray fisheries in Eastern Indonesia and their
relationships with Australian resources, was undertaken in 2004 to develop a
national plan of action.
The plan
identifies key issues for shark and ray management in Indonesia and broad
strategies to address these as well as the competent authorities. However,
there are two big challenges underlying the implementation of the plan for
sharks.
First is
the considerable illegal shark fishing in Indonesian waters and some cases of
corruption on the part of those charged with enforcement, and second is the
predominance of the artisanal sector in shark catch.
Without the
willingness to change, and without any strong legal basis to protect sharks and
ban finning, the national plan of action for sharks is not being implemented.
Recently,
the directorate of fisheries resources at the Ministry of Marine Affairs and
Fisheries agreed to promulgate regulations — but not until 2013.
WWF is
identified as a partner in implementing the initiatives identified in the plan.
We examined the laws on animal welfare and protection, and determined that even
without a viable national plan of action, certain provisions of existing laws
on animal welfare could be applied to implement a ban on shark-finning
now.
The two
most prominent laws that support a ban on shark-finning are the Indonesian
criminal code and Law No. 18/2009 on husbandry and animal health.
Article 302
of the Indonesian criminal code prescribes imprisonment for up to nine months
for anyone guilty of maltreatment of animals, which means anyone who “without
reasonable objective or by overstepping what is permissible in reaching such
objective, with deliberate intent” commits an act toward an animal resulting in
illness longer than one week, mutilation, serious harm or death.
Clearly,
finning is a mutilation, and even if one were to argue that harvesting of shark
fin for soup is a “reasonable objective,” finning can hardly be considered a
permissible way to achieve it.
Law
No.18/2009 on husbandry and animal health contains potent provisions on animal
welfare that clearly apply to sharks. Sharks are “animals” and “wild animals”
under the law. The law’s definition of animal welfare is to protect animals
“from any unreasonable action … against an animal that is beneficial to human
beings.” Article 66 states that animals must be kept free from ill treatment,
torture and misuse, subject to penalty. “Misuse” is defined as obtaining “satisfaction
and/or profit” from animals by utilizing them “unreasonably,” e.g., “pulling
out a cat’s claw.” Cats can live without their claws; sharks cannot live
without their fins.
Provisions
on animal welfare apply to “all types of animals that bear backbone,” and even
to spineless animals that can feel pain, such as crabs. If crabs are entitled
to fair treatment, surely sharks deserve legal protection from finning.
While the
well-being argument will surely raise many eyebrows in a country where sharks are
seen as man-eaters, and pro-poor development strategies are not supportive of
restricting access to more or less free-for-all natural resources, the public
should be aware that it is illegal, under existing animal welfare laws, to fin
sharks, and that the government has neglected its obligation to implement the
national plan of action.
Proper
management regulations on shark fisheries need to be enforced, allowing only
for quota-based culling of shark populations that are not at an overfished
level.
In absence
of any such comprehensive data, the government should consider completely
banning all shark fishing, allow for stocks to recover, develop a meaningful
stock monitoring program and only allow for shark fishing of species that are
proven to be in healthy stock status, by communities in coastal areas with
small-scale gear, in support of sustainable fisheries and livelihoods of those
who need it most. It’s time for the government to act.
Dr. Lida
Pet-Soede is a leader of the WWF’s Coral Triangle Global Initiative in Jakarta.
She oversees a diverse team working in cooperation with the governments,
private sector and coastal communities of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Papua New Guinea, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
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