Contact: Gordon Helm                     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                         10/29/98

Member countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, meeting in Rome, reached agreement today on an International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.

The plan sets down concrete and specific steps to improve the conservation of sharks and shark-like species (skates and rays) at the national, regional and global levels, calling for national shark management plans by early in the year 2001. States are to conduct assessments of sharks taken as directed and incidental catches and, if called for, develop national shark management plans based on the precautionary management approach.

"This International Plan of Action should establish sound management practices world-wide for a vulnerable category of fish that, in most of the world, are not managed at all," said chief U.S. negotiator Terry D. Garcia, assistant secretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere. "The United States pressed for and achieved a plan that features the use of the precautionary approach, which provides for management measures based on the best available scientific information, but does not postpone management decisions when data are less than perfect. Further, the use of regional fishery management arrangements is encouraged to ensure the international coordination of shark management," Garcia added.

The plan provides guidelines to states for conducting the preliminary assessment of sharks taken within their waters of national jurisdiction and in preparing national shark management plans. It also provides for improved management of shark catches of all kinds, better data collection and monitoring of the status of sharks, the minimization of waste, and improved conservation and management of all shark populations.

The meeting in Rome is also developing international plans of action for the management of fishing capacity and the reduction of seabird bycatch in longline fisheries. Although all three plans are voluntary in nature, the process of their development is designed to lead to their endorsement by consensus at the FAO Committee on Fisheries Meeting next February and adoption by the FAO Conference in November 1999. The meeting extends through Friday.