Atlantic Shark Fisheries 



Unit 



6 



JOHN POFFENBERGER 



NMFS Southeast Fisheries 

 Science Center 



Miami 

 Florida 



INTRODUCTION 



Sharks have been managed under a Federal fisher- 

 ies management plan (FMP) developed by the Na- 

 rional Marine Fisheries Service for the Secretary 

 of Commerce since 1993 (NMFS, 1993, 1996). 

 Since then, management activities tor shark spe- 

 cies have escalated and currentlv inckide annual 

 shark evaluation workshops and meetings ol the 

 Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel. A draft 

 Fishery Management Plan tor tunas, sharks, and 

 swordfish was proposed in 1998, and will be ti- 

 nalized in 1999 (NMFS, 1998). This new frame- 

 work will replace the 1993 shark FMP 



Species and Status 



Currently, Atlantic shark fisheries are divided 

 into three management groups: 1 ) Large coastal 

 sharks, which include tiger, lemon, smooth ham- 

 merhead, scalloped hammerhead, great hammer- 



head, blacktip, sandbar, dusky, spinner, silky, bull, 

 bignose, Caribbean reel, Galapagos, night, 

 narrowtooth, and nurse; 2) small coastal sharks, 

 which include Atlantic and Caribbean sharpnose, 

 finetooth, blacknose, bonnethead, smalltail and 

 Atlantic angel; and 3) pelagic sharks, which in- 

 clude longfin and shortfin mako, blue, porbeagle, 

 thresher, bigeve thresher, oceanic whitetip, 

 sevengill, sixgill, and bigeve sixgill. 



Of these three management groups, species in 

 the large coastal group are overutilized and, con- 

 sequently, they are the subject ot more intense 

 management attention than the other two groups. 

 In 1997, possession of five additional species of 

 large pelagic sharks was prtihibited (i.e. whale, 

 basking, sand tiger, bigeye sand tiger, and white 

 sharks). Species in the pelagic and small coastal 

 groups are considered to be fully titili/.ed. Rough 

 indications ot the status of these three manage- 

 ment groups are presented in Table 6-1. 



Determining the quantity of sharks that are 



School of hammerhead 

 sharks. 



1 2 1 



