Filling data gaps with fisher-contributed secondary fins in Honduras
In 2011, Honduras declared all its waters a shark sanctuary. In 2016 an amendment permitted the commercialisation of sharks caught incidentally by indigenous fishers. This maintains livelihoods but also creates a new challenge: ensuring compliance and monitoring the status of populations. Monitoring tools remain scarce and it is unclear which species are being landed and whether these captures truly fit the definition of incidental. Alpha is evaluating the feasibility of collecting secondary fins as a monitoring tool to generate crucial data about incidental captures, thus helping to better understand fishing impacts and support effective management to protect shark populations in the region.
Alpha Sevilla
I was born in a small city in Honduras. From a young age, I constantly asked myself how things worked and why the world is the way it is. Curiosity guided me, and gradually a conception of nature as the be-all and end-all came to mind. This perspective made the world fascinating and even more intriguing.
It was that curiosity that eventually led me to sharks, creatures that are the product of millions of years of evolutionary engineering that shaped them into one of the essential architects of marine ecosystems. Along with sharks, there are communities I...
Filling data gaps through fisher contributed secondary fins in Honduras
This project aims to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an anal fin monitoring programme to strengthen fisheries management, improve landing data and support the Fisheries Department in remote areas like La Moskitia.
La Moskitia is a centre for shark fishing, which intensifies before Easter to meet the demand for dried shark meat known as cecina, placing pressure on populations. In 2016, a legal amendment permitting the incidental capture of sharks created new enforcement challenges. By collecting secondary fins as a monitoring tool, this project will generate crucial data on the incidental capture of sharks, help to improve understanding of the impacts of fishing and support effective management to protect shark populations in the region.
In 2011, Honduras declared all its waters a shark sanctuary, making it a model for shark conservation in the Americas. In 2016, however, an amendment permitted trade in sharks that are caught incidentally by indigenous fishers. Although this allows livelihoods to be maintained, it also creates a new challenge: to ensure compliance with incidental capture regulations and to establish a monitoring programme that assesses the status of shark populations.
Currently, monitoring tools are scarce, especially in remote areas, which means that we don’t know which species are being landed, how big the catches are and whether they truly fit the definition of incidental. This is particularly worrying for species like great and scalloped hammerheads, which are listed as Critically Endangered but are still caught without restrictions because in Honduras there is high demand for dried shark meat (known as cecina] during Lent. This creates a fishing season in the months before Easter, and the greatest pressure falls on La Moskitia, which is where most of the extraction occurs to satisfy national demand.
This project aims to evaluate the feasibility of implementing an anal fin monitoring programme to strengthen fisheries management by working directly with fishers and the Fisheries Department. A key component of the project is building local monitoring capacity and ensuring that results are disseminated to decision-makers, so that management for shark conservation is based on solid evidence.
- To generate real data on the incidental capture of sharks in La Moskitia. Working with fishers to measure sharks when they are landed and to collect anal fins will help us understand which species are being caught, their sizes and how they were captured. This information is critical for guiding fisheries management.
- To test the collection of anal fins as a monitoring tool in remote areas. By training fishers to collect secondary fins, we evaluate whether this method can be used as an official monitoring mechanism in hard-to-reach regions.
- To build a sense of shared responsibility for shark conservation. By engaging with fishers and training them we will strengthen local knowledge and get communities and fishers involved in conservation efforts.