SSACN NEWS RELEASE
The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN – www.ssacn.org) recently announced the launch of the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP – www.tagsharks.com) which will provide a central location for gathering the data necessary to fight for the protection of the shark, skate and ray species found within Scottish coastal waters.
Over the past few years, the stocks of many species of shark in Scottish waters have become severely depleted and the SSACN has long campaigned for Scottish governments to provide real leadership outside the commercial sector and work with them to develop programmes aimed at regenerating the stocks of interest to recreational sea anglers.
So far there has been a high degree of reluctance to act, though now the EC has recently adopted a Community Plan Of Action for sharks which places the emphasis on the member states to gather data for a deeper understanding of sharks & their role in ecosystems and fisheries, there may be additional pressure to do so.
“The SSTP programme will help fill many of the serious gaps which remain in our understanding of shark biology” said Ian Burrett, SSACN’s Project Director, “Tagging is one of the few non-destructive assessments of sharks available and will help provide some of the much needed data for species migrations, growth rates, stock populations, make-up and fluctuations.”
The SSTP will initially combine the current Common Skate and Tope data gathering efforts of SSACN and other groups, and then extend them to include additional species such as Bull Huss, Spurdog and Rays. The resultant data will be made available via an interactive website to allow immediate feedback regarding previous captures, distances travelled etc.
Jane Dodd, Marine Project Officer for SNH in Oban said: "I’m delighted that all the data on the sharks and rays caught by recreational anglers in Scotland will be held in one place. That way we can make sure the data is as complete as possible to learn the most about the species and that the anglers get some feedback on the great work they are doing."
SSACN will be running a series of special tagging events each year to promote the tagging programme and to raise the awareness of the need for shark protection.
Already planned for June 13th -15th this year is Sharkatag 2009 (http://www.ssacn.org/sharkatag/) which will see over 200 anglers tagging sharks each day in the Solway; planning is in progress for Tagathon 2009 which building on last years successful event, will be held around Loch Sunart in Autumn and where the focus will be on Spurdog.
Shark Trust Director of Conservation Ali Hood added: "The Shark Trust believes the angling community can be a valuable source of data and information, and in this vein the Trust supports well managed tag and release programmes. Good data is essential for effective species conservation and management, and the SSACN database should represent a positive addition to existing data sources."
