Greenland fishers and conservationists clash over culling Greenland sharks

Mixed · 2Fishers and conservationists in Greenland are in dispute over whether to cull Greenland sharks, which tangle in fishing gear and take fish from halibut and cod fishers. 1 2 Mixed · 2Earlier this year the Avannaata municipality, whose administrative seat is Ilulissat, approved a plan to cull 1,000 sharks, offering 300 Danish krone for each shark heart. 1 2 Mixed · 2The plan was dropped after the Greenland government questioned its legality, but conservationists fear a cull could return. 1 2

Left · 1The municipality's mayor, Lars Erik Gabrielsen, said the aim was to safeguard fishers' income and the catch so that people can keep eating foods they have relied on for generations. 1 Mixed · 2Henrik Jensen, a 27-year-old halibut fisher near Ilulissat, said he has lost about 6,000 hooks this year, sometimes losing 30,000 krone (£3,440) in a day, and that sharks cut his lines. 1 2 Mixed · 2Timotheus Petersen, chair of the fishing association in Kullorsuaq, said a longline costs 1,599 krone and that when sharks cut lines, fishers cannot finish fishing and must buy new gear. 1 2

Left · 1The Guardian reports that Avannaata cited earlier bounty schemes: one in the former Aasiaat municipality in the early 2000s that paid 200 krone, and one in the former Uummannaq municipality from 1986 to 2001 that, according to a 2007 Danish Technical University report, brought in 19,697 hearts. 1 Mixed · 2The Greenland shark can reach six to seven metres and live more than 400 years. It is believed to mature at about 150, and is still recovering from targeted fishing for its liver oil, which ended in the 1960s. 1 2 Mixed · 2Prof Nick Dulvy of Simon Fraser University called a cull of a couple of thousand sharks "a disaster" and said the species is probably the most biologically sensitive in the ocean to overfishing. An estimated 3,500 are caught as bycatch globally each year, and the population is in decline. 1 2

Mixed · 2Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat (ONKN) argues a cull would not solve the problem because sharks migrate long distances and removed animals would be replaced by others from elsewhere. 1 2 Mixed · 2ONKN director Jenseeraq Poulsen said the underlying pressures are structural, including too many boats on a pressured quota, rising costs and no alternative employment, in an industry that accounts for about a quarter of Greenland's GDP. 1 2 Mixed · 2Jensen also pointed to "ghost lines", lost or discarded gear that is too heavy to pull up, as a cause of gear damage, and blamed declining halibut size on offshore trawlers; the Guardian cites the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources as saying average halibut size is falling each year even as prices rise. 1 2

Mixed · 2Alternatives include ghost-gear clean-up, a gear-loss compensation scheme and funded trials of acoustic shark deterrents, which ONKN favours. Rebekka Nygård Bak, an adviser to Greenland's fisheries ministry, said bycatch-friendly equipment rules and better bycatch reporting could be next steps. 1 2