The oceans around South Africa’s coast are home to 98 shark species. Most of them are harmless and rarely seen. Only a few species have been implicated in bites on humans.
Sharks are apex or top predators that play a vital role in maintaining marine biodiversity.
Bycatching or incidental capture in fishing nets poses the biggest threat to sharks, dolphins, and turtles.
The National Action Plan for Sharks strives to:
- Ensure that shark catches from directed and non-directed fisheries are sustainable.
- Assess threats to shark populations, determine and protect critical habitats and implement harvesting strategies consistent with the principles of biological sustainability and rational long-term economic use.
- Identify and provide special attention, in particular to vulnerable or threatened shark stocks.
- Improve and develop frameworks for establishing and coordinating effective consultation involving all stakeholders in research, management and educational initiatives within and between States.
- Minimise unutilized incidental catches of sharks.
- Contribute to the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function.
- Minimize waste and discards from shark catches following article 7.2.2. (g) of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.
- Encourage full use of dead sharks.
- Facilitate improved species-specific catch and landings data and monitoring of shark catches.
- Facilitate the identification and reporting of species-specific biological and trade data.
Go to the action plan here
Help protect our apex sea predators by:
- Supporting sustainable seafood choices. Overfishing reduces the food source for sharks that rely on bony fish as their primary food source.
- Support sustainable fishing because it helps to maintain healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and minimises impacts on endangered, threatened, and protected species.
- Choose shark-free cosmetics and nutritional supplements: e.g., squalene, an ingredient in some skincare products, is sourced from shark liver oil. Commercial chondroitin, a supplement for arthritis, comes from shark cartilage. Read the labels carefully.
- Stop plastic pollution by not using single-use plastics (straws, balloons, shopping bags, and water bottles). Research indicates that South Africa is the 11th worst contributor to marine plastic pollution. Between 15,000 and 40,000 tonnes of plastic are carried to our oceans annually.
