KOTA KINABALU, Oct 5 — Dashing Sabah’s hopes for a shark sanctuary, Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said a ban on shark finning was not necessary because the industry did not exist in Malaysia.
The minister said that sharks were not being actively targeted by local fishermen, making calls for a ban on shark finning redundant.
“It is not like tuna where there is an industry to catch them. Sharks are normally caught by accident when they enter the fishnets along with the other fishes.
“I don’t think they are purposely caught for their fins, which means, in perspective, there is no need to enforce a ban because the industry doesn’t exist,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters when met after officiating a meeting with the Sabah Agriculture Excos, here today.
However, he said his ministry was willing to discuss a proposal to set up a shark sanctuary in Semporna and other shark populated areas in Sabah.
Local environmental and conservation groups have been pushing for an amendment to the Fisheries Act that would enforce such a ban since 2012, which was on hold pending the federal government’s decision on the issue.
Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, who was also pushing for the amendment, said that the shark population in Sabah has declined by 80 per cent over the past three decades.
A study by conservation organisation Traffic said that Malaysia caught 231,212 tonnes of sharks from 2002 to 2011, the eighth highest globally, and accounting for 2.9 per cent of the total global reported shark catch during that period.
The Sabah Shark Alliance earlier this year also issued a statement saying over one third of all large oceanic shark species like hammerheads in Malaysian waters are threatened with extinction.
