Publication Abstract

There is a long history of exploitation of pelagic sharks by European fisheries. Fisheries for basking
shark (Cetorhinus maximus) and porbeagle (Lamna nasus) were well established in northern areas (e.g. off Norway) in the early 20th century. Although targeted fisheries for basking shark have now ceased, porbeagle is still taken in locally important directed fisheries in the Celtic Sea. Tuna and billfish fisheries, which expanded in recent decades, harvest shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), blue shark (Prionace glauca), and a variety of other pelagic sharks, with some of these fisheries targeting sharks at certain times/areas. Prior to the late 1990s, most European nations reported catches as “sharks not elsewhere identified”, and only in recent years has species-specific data become available. There is currently little biological sampling of commercial pelagic shark catches by fisheries laboratories, although there are some tag and release programmes for sharks. In recent years, the ICES Working Group on Elasmobranch Fishes has begun to collate available data on landings and from other data sources, and a brief overview of progress to date is given.