A municipal Greenland shark bounty that would have paid fishers to kill 1,000 of the animals was scrapped earlier this year, but fishers are still pressing for relief from shark-related losses, according to Yahoo News. The debate returned to the spotlight after a Guardian account on Oct. 5.
In February, Avannaata Kommunia’s council voted to pay 300 Danish kroner per Greenland shark heart, Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat said. The offer was aimed at 1,000 sharks and was to be funded with 300,000 kroner from a pest-control account. Greenland’s government later concluded the municipality had no legal basis for the scheme, and the plan was abandoned, Sermitsiaq reported.
Commercial fishing is a pillar of Greenland’s economy, and seafood dominates its exports. Fishers say the sharks snarl longlines, ruin pricey gear and make off with halibut and cod already on the hooks.
Henrik Jensen, who fishes for halibut out of Ilulissat, said he has lost about 6,000 hooks so far this year, according to The Guardian. “Sometimes we lose 30,000 Danish krone a day,” Jensen said.
Avannaata Mayor Lars Erik Gabrielsen defended the push. “We need to safeguard the income of fishermen and the catch so that we can continue to eat the foods that we have relied on for generations,” Gabrielsen told The Guardian.
Scientists and conservation groups say a large-scale cull would be risky because Greenland sharks grow and reproduce extremely slowly. Oceans North says the animals are believed to reach sexual maturity at roughly 150 years old, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the species as Vulnerable in a 2020 assessment.
Greenland shark researcher Julius Nielsen also cautioned against the plan. “Initiating a bounty system of this magnitude is a risky path,” Nielsen said in the Oceans North release. The species was heavily harvested in the 19th and 20th centuries for shark-liver oil, The Guardian noted.
Oceans North also argued that culling in one area would offer only temporary relief. Tagging research indicates the sharks can travel as much as 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) in a year, so animals from other regions would move in. The group warned that discarded carcasses and fish waste could draw even more sharks to fishing grounds.
Conservation advocates are urging alternatives, including:
Rebekka Nygård Bak, an adviser to Greenland’s Ministry of Fisheries, Hunting, Agriculture and Self Sufficiency, told The Guardian that improved bycatch reporting and bycatch-friendly gear regulations could be part of future efforts. The Guardian also noted that a future cull remains under discussion.
Fishing pressure is a recurring threat to slow-growing species. Our column on why overfishing is central to shark survival covers the broader picture.
The bounty is off the table for now. The harder question of how Greenland can protect both its fishing economy and one of the ocean’s slowest-reproducing sharks is still unresolved.
Source: Yahoo News, Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat
