CEBU CITY—Local government officials, coastal community representatives, environmental groups, marine scientists, resort owners, divers, and other tourism industry representatives gathered at the Cebu Provincial Capitol Friday to make a global call for the protection of thresher sharks.
The call is being made a week before delegations from different countries meet in Johannesburg, South Africa for the 17th Conference of Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora from September 24 to October 5.
“Thresher sharks are an essential link in our way of life, especially for coastal communities like those we have around Cebu and, indeed, most of the Philippines. They bring us life and livelihood, and so they are more valuable thriving in our seas rather than slaughtered and eaten on our plates, said Dennis Bryan Bait-it, coordinator of Migo sa Iho (Friends of the Sharks), a local enforcement group deputized to enforce fisheries law around the Shark and Ray Sanctuary of Monad Shoal and Gato Island.
The groups are calling for the inclusion of thresher sharks in Appendix 2 of CITES, which would place the species under global protection and also means automatic protection in the Philippines as stipulated in the Amended Philippines Fisheries Code.