Sharks have been over-hunted in some parts of the world and for this reason the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has instituted a voluntary International Plan of Action (IPOA) for Conservation and Management of Sharks. This proposes guidelines for individual countries to develop into National Plans of Action (NPOA) that will improve the data collection, monitoring and management of shark fisheries and ensure their long-term sustainable use.

Experience has shown that shark stocks can be sustainably harvested to provide stable fisheries. As with other marine resources, sound management is required to avoid declines in population. The FAO’s Fisheries Department and Committee on Fisheries aim “to facilitate and secure the long-term sustainable development and utilization of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture.” The FAO plans include assessments of shark stocks so that sustainable, vulnerable or threatened stocks can be identified and given special attention.

Under pressure from animal rights groups, CITES has placed the whale, basking and great white sharks onto its Appendix 2 even though the scientific evidence for doing so is, at best, dubious.

In the United States, shark fishing has been drastically restricted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) since 1993. Its quotas and other regulations have reduced commercial shark fishing by up to 80 per cent. The fishermen argue that the NMFS grossly underestimates shark populations, using data produced by animal rights groups and flawed statistical modeling.

One obvious result is that shark attacks on humans have increased as expanding shark populations have been forced to feed closer to shore (where shark fishing is, in any case, prohibited). Opponents of commercial fishermen in the U.S. Atlantic regions maintain the International Shark Attack File which disingenuously understates the number of shark attacks on humans by categorizing them as “provoked” or “unprovoked”.