Assessing multiple sources of data to detect illegal fishing, trade and mislabelling of elasmobranchs in Greek markets
Introduction
Currently about ¼ of all sharks, rays and skates are facing an elevated extinction risk, primarily because of their overexploitation from fisheries [1]. Due to that, global public awareness and perception of elasmobranchs, especially sharks, is gradually shifting towards their conservation rather than exploitation [2]. Paradoxically at the same time, the demand for elasmobranch products is still rising [3,4]. In 2011 global shark fisheries value was estimated around 1$ US billion [1], excluding the value of elasmobranch products consumed domestically, which may potentially comprise the vast majority of the captures (around 2 million tons) [1], as well as the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) portion of the catches [2]. Thus, official data may underestimate the total commercial harvests and misrepresent the current level of shark exploitation. Considering that most elasmobranch species are not legally protected and still marketable, consumer awareness for sustainable and responsible consumption has the potential to serve as a bottom-up management tool for the conservation of such species.
Intentional and accidental mislabelling has aggravated the problem of elasmobranch trade that occurs in several markets around the world [[5], [6], [7]]. For instance, in South Africa threatened shark species are sold as “ocean fillets”, while in Brazilian and Portuguese markets the name “cação” is commonly used, referring to any small shark species [7,8]. Mislabelling of sharks and rays has also been recorded in Europe. Shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), porbeagle (Lamna nasus), and thresher sharks (Alopias spp.) have often been found to be labelled as swordfish (Xiphias gladius) due to their highly palatable meat [9], while in France, Germany, Spain and Italy different shark species are sold under the common names “saumonette”, “schillerlocken” or “seeaal”, “cazon” or “moixima” and “palombo” or “spinarolo ”, respectively [[10], [11], [12]]. In addition, in Italy mislabelling of elasmobranchs has been recently recorded at the Italian “free fish market”, where sellers used simple labels with the local or Italian names of the products [13].
The consequences of accidental mislabelling can affect consumers [14], but more importantly the marine ecosystems, jeopardising the conservation of highly threatened species [14]. In general, mislabelling may cause severe ecological ramifications when provoking the depletion of threatened species or creating economic incentives for illegal fishing [15], setting thus a biased reference point for sustainability. The latter is the case of the authentication of Mustelus spp. products in the Greek fish markets that are sold under the label “Galeos” together with all the other protected shark species that can be found in open markets [16]. Greek seas host a remarkable biodiversity of elasmobranchs, whilst their conservation status is to a large extent unknown, with the latest formal assessment carried out in 2009 [17]. Elasmobranch species are not a primary fisheries target in Greece, and they are mostly caught incidentally as by-catch [18]. Their catches are often deliberately or unintentionally misreported or misidentified while they are recorded in aggregated categories within other group of elasmobranchs (e.g. dogfish, rays nei, etc.), compromising accurate reporting about this taxon. The lack of baseline information for elasmobranch fisheries (e.g. data from field surveys, catches, consumption) highlights the importance of using all possible sources of information, conventional (official data from fisheries landings) and unconventional (social media), complemented with the use of genetics in order to validate scientific knowledge, set a baseline about the existence of illegal trade and illegal fishing and empower scientists and stakeholders (e.g., Refs. [19,20]). It is also important to note that the consideration of economic data (fish prices and import/export quantities) could provide significant insights into the motivation for mislabelling [21] and the market itself.
The present paper has collected and integrated different types of information aiming to describe the Greek market of elasmobranchs, to investigate the potential illegal fishing, trade and mislabelling and to identify “weak spots” in the current legal framework for proposing future actions that could advance elasmobranch conservation in Greece. Finally, some aspects on the conservation status of the species are taken into consideration.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The scarcity of data regarding elasmobranch fisheries triggers towards the use of multi-disciplinary information such as: (a) official landing, import and export data, (b) review and evaluation of the in-force legislation, (c) social media and (d) collection of tissue samples for DNA analysis in auction and fish markets.
Relevant applied legislation
According to EU legislation, all marketed fisheries products should be clearly labelled with their nominal scientific name, the common name in the official language of the Member State marketed, plus the FishBase Information System or the ASFIS database of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the fishing gear and the state of the product (frozen, fresh etc.), when relevant [36,37]. The aforementioned regulation was transposed in Greek law through the Ministry of Rural Development and
Discussion
Our study reveals the existence of illegal fishing, illegal trade, misreporting and mislabelling of elasmobranchs in the Greece using various sources of information. Although fishery product consumption in Greek fish market is small compared to the mean European ratio (17.3 vs 25.7 kg/person in 2015, respectively [47]) and the mean annual price remained stable and unchanged for a decade (2006–2017) (Fig. 2a), Greece is among the top-three South European Mediterranean countries in elasmobranch
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that illegal fishing, mislabelling and illegal trade of elasmobranchs are taking place in Greece, with the potential this to be an extensive practice. The analysis of the existing legislation, both for fisheries and for trade reveals the lack of cohesion that in several cases undercovers mislabelling and illegal trade. The aim of this work was not only to identify such problems, but also to provide solutions and future steps that can advance elasmobranch conservation in
Acknowledgements
We would like to warmly thank all those that contributed to our work, the fishers and the fishmongers that reported their catches and donating samples of elasmobranch products, respectively. In addition, we would like to thank OceanCare and Shark Foundation/Hai-Stiftung (Grant number: 2019-01-04/1) for supporting our work on unravelling the complex situation of elasmobranch fisheries and market in Greece.
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