PAPEETE (FRENCH POLYNESIA)-Good news for sharks in the South Pacific. Not only has the government of French Polynesia included the mako, the last shark that was not protected in its waters, on the list of fish banned from capture or trade in its vast territorial zone in the South Pacific. It also will create the world’s biggest shark sanctuary.

Two mako sharks
Two mako sharks. Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries Service. Flickr/Creative Commons.

The move was announced at the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in Manila, where nations also agreed to take steps to protect whale sharks from tuna nets.

Also a vast area will be created to make up the world’s biggest shark sanctuary. At more than 4.7m km² of ocean, this designation doubles the size of the area already protected by all six existing shark sanctuaries,, so predicts the Pew Environment Group.

And so another important step will be made in shark protection. According to WWF, about 73 million sharks are killed every year, mainly for their fins – a practice that has brought a third of shark species into the category of threatened, or near-threatened, with extinction.

The United States already banned finning in its waters in 2000 and several American states have banned the trade in shark fins.

The European Union (EU) has had a finning ban since 2003, but in March endorsed even tighter shark fishing rules that would force fishermen to bring sharks to port intact.

In November, the EU said it would maintain for another two years a total ban on fishing for endangered deepwater shark species. It applies to EU waters and to EU boats in international waters.