Recommendation GFCM/42/2018/2 on fisheries management measures for the conservation of sharks and rays in the GFCM area of application, amending Recommendation GFCM/36/2012/3.

Contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties shall adopt fisheries management measures to ensure adequate conservation status of sharks. To this end, the obligations of the contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties include: (I) keeping on board, transhipment, landing and marketing at first sale of sharks in a way that species are recognizable and identifiable, and (II) monitoring and registration of the catch, incidental catch and, whenever appropriate, release of these species. The prohibitions for the conservation of sharks are listed in Part III as: (I) finning, (II) beheading and skinning of specimens on board and before landing, (III) purchasing, offering for sale or selling shark fins which have been removed, retained on board, transshipped or landed in contravention of this recommendation, and (IV) fishing activities carried out with trawl nets within 3 nautical miles off the coast. Contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties shall ensure a high protection from fishing activities to elasmobranch species listed in Annex II of the SPA/BD Protocol of the Barcelona Convention, which must be released unharmed and alive. Specimens of shark species as listed in Annex II of the SPA/BD Protocol cannot be retained on board, transshipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold, displayed or offered for sale. Information on fishing activities, catch data, incidental catches, release and/or discarding events for shark species listed either in Annex II or Annex III of the SPA/BD Protocol, shall be recorded by the ship owners in the logbook and these information shall be submitted to the GFCM Secretariat by the national authorities of the contracting parties and cooperating non-contracting parties.