Blue shark fishery in Vigo: sustainability and conservation in jeopardy.
Anyone observing the port in Vigo, Galicia, Spain, will see numerous Portuguese and Spanish fishing vessels unloading blue shark, swordfish and tuna almost daily. Wait - blue shark? For the past six months, the blue shark has been listed in the appendix of the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES): endangered species listed there may only be traded sustainably. For blue sharks in the Atlantic, this is not the case.
Nevertheless, the blue shark continues to be caught, landed, traded and exported in the EU. Since November 2023, 1,273 tonnes of blue shark with a sales value of nearly 2.5 million euros have been landed in Vigo alone. The average price per kilogram is between €1.80 and €2.70 ... standard fish prices that do not in the slightest reflect that this is completely unsustainable fishing.
The fleet in Vigo is currently eligible to reapply for the MSC label. Back in 2016, the MSC certifier Bureau Veritas waved this through without comment, even though sustainability could not be certified even then. A joint effort by several NGOs prevented the certification at the time: the fleet "voluntarily withdrew" its application before the backlash became too severe.
According to our information, a new attempt to obtain the label is currently being planned, this time also including the blue shark, which played only a minor role as bycatch during the 2016 certification process. We will attempt to prevent this! The ARD broadcasted an interesting documentary as part of the "Story im Ersten" series on the subject at the time - unfortunately, the documentary has lost none of its urgency today:
