28 May 2014: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released the first in a series of guides meant to assist with the identification and reporting of deep-sea by-catch, especially in regard to sharks, rays, skates, chimaeras and cold water corals. The first manual in the series focuses on cartilaginous species in the Indian Ocean.

FAO notes that sharks and certain groups of sponges and cold-water corals that are important to ecosystems can be impacted by boats trawling for fish in deep-sea fisheries. Johanne Fischer, FAO, highlights that, “scientists and fishers alike can have trouble identifying [by-catch] as there are few identification tools available. Instead they tend to lump species together as ‘deep-sea sharks’ when they report their catches.”

The guides are meant to compliment and support the implementation of FAO’s International Guidelines for the Management of Deep-sea Fisheries in the High Seas. The publications were drafted by FAO’s Deep-sea Fisheries Programme in close collaboration with FAO FishFinder and with financial support from Norway and Japan. [UN News] [FAO Press Release] [Publication: Identification Guide to the Deep-sea Cartilaginous Fishes of the Indian Ocean]