Dogfish Sharks Threatened (sample letter on web)

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I received this from another list.

 

Sharon

 

Dogfish Sharks Threatened (sample letter on web)

 

SOURCE: WWF Conservation Action Network

Dogfish Sharks Threatened

 

We urgently need your help to protect the imperiled and vulnerable

Atlantic spiny dogfish shark. Tomorrow the Atlantic States Marine

Fisheries Commission, which works to promote and protect fisheries of

the 15 Atlantic seaboard states, will meet to decide whether to extend a

much-needed emergency closing of state waters to dogfishing.

 

Unfortunately, there is a good chance they will not extend the closing.

Even worse, they may consider schemes to allow unsustainable dogfish

catches in state waters.

 

Please go to

http://takeaction.worldwildlife.org/dogfish/

 

to send a

free message to the executive director of the commission and to the

commission's Massachusetts representative urging them to extend the

emergency fishing closure. (Massachusetts, the top dogfishing state, is

pushing for increased dogfishing; its representative needs to know that

residents in East Coast states care about dogfish sharks.)

 

The demise of the Atlantic spiny dogfish is being driven by the

international demand for its meat and other shark products that fueled

sharply increased dogfishing in the 1990s in waters off the mid-

Atlantic states and New England. Now, federal scientists estimate that

even with strict controls it will take close to two decades for the

population to rebuild to a commercially sustainable level.

 

Because of their larger size, female dogfish sharks are more in demand

than males. This constitutes a double threat for the survival of the

species because these sharks take at least 10 years to reach sexual

maturity. Fewer and fewer are being given the chance to live that long.

Please act today.