Endangered Sharks Being Killed at Alarming Rates in the Pacific, Warns Greenpeace

Endangered sharks are being killed at alarming rates in the Pacific, and industrial fishing is placing marine biodiversity at increasing risk, Greenpeace has warned, following an intervention by its activists involving a Spanish vessel operating north of New Zealand.

The environmental organisation said that campaigners aboard the Rainbow Warrior this week observed a longline fishing operation conducted by the Playa Zahara in the South Fiji Basin.

Georgia Whitaker, a senior campaigner with Greenpeace Australia Pacific who was on board at the time, claimed the activists witnessed the vessel haul in and kill three endangered mako sharks in just 30 minutes.

A small crew – including a trained shark handler – launched a support boat to approach the Spanish vessel, having already released 14 animals caught on its line. These included eight near-threatened blue sharks, four swordfish and an endangered longfin mako shark.

The activists also removed over 210 hooks and 20km of longline from the ocean.

“It was devastating seeing these beautiful creatures being caught, often on their gills, in their mouth, by huge baited hooks,” Whitaker said. “They were fighting for their lives and then minutes later you’d see blood spilling over the side of the boat.”

Whitaker stated that the vessel’s crew told Greenpeace they were fishing legally and primarily targeting swordfish.

According to the European Union’s reports to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), the Playa Zahara caught more than 600,000kg of blue shark in the Pacific Southwest in 2023.

Patricia Rodríguez, a spokesperson for Viverdreams Fish – the company that owns the Playa Zahara – said in a statement that the vessel had acted in accordance with international law, and that catching species such as mako and blue sharks was not prohibited.

“The species mentioned by Greenpeace are within the quotas and limits allowed by the competent authorities, and the capture, handling and unloading procedures are controlled and documented, by all the systems established by the EU and Spanish authorities,” Rodríguez said.

The statement accused Greenpeace of conducting a “campaign of disinformation”, of violating maritime laws, stealing fishing equipment, and endangering the safety of both crews through its intervention.

“Our company is strongly committed to the sustainability of marine resources and regularly collaborates with scientists, independent observers and fisheries authorities to ensure compliance with conservation standards,” she said.

A Greenpeace analysis has estimated that nearly half a million blue sharks were caught as bycatch in the Pacific Ocean last year – the highest recorded figure since 1991.

The same report found that nearly 70% of EU longline catches in the region in 2023 were blue sharks.

World leaders are set to gather in Nice next week for the UN Ocean Conference, where discussions will include the high seas biodiversity treaty. Australia signed the treaty in 2023 but has yet to ratify it.

Greenpeace is calling on the Australian government to ratify the agreement within the first 100 days of its second term. The treaty requires ratification by 60 countries before it can come into effect; so far, only 32 have done so.

Shark fishing is a highly lucrative global trade, estimated to be worth around  $1bn annually annually. Global demand for shark meat has doubled in the past two decades.

Dr Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, described the level of exploitation as deeply concerning, particularly one-third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction globally.

“Sharks are important in the ecosystem, they typically occupy the top of marine food webs,” he said. “Steep population declines will cause food webs to potentially become unstable and ultimately collapse, there is a clear impact their loss could have on food security for a lot of nations.”

Guida stressed the importance of establishing no-take marine sanctuaries – both to protect marine biodiversity and to better understand how ocean ecosystems respond to the combined pressures of overfishing and climate change.

“These sanctuaries act as controls,” he said. “They help us compare areas impacted by fishing with those that are not, which is critical to building resilience in ocean wildlife and managing our fisheries in a rapidly changing world, such that we reduce our impact on different species.”

 

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