News

A notice by the Cayman Islands Department of Environment reminding the public shark fishing is illegal

Despite recent efforts to curb illegal shark fishing by officials from the Cayman Islands Department of Environment, more dead sharks have surfaced—this time in a cooler. An anonymous tip was received and followed up on resulting in the discovery of 8 dead Cuban dogfish sharks—some with fins removed. After a spike in illegal shark fishing, the DoE had put out posters reminding the public that it is illegal to kill or harm sharks in Cayman waters. 

As a deepwater species that only reproduces a few times in its life, the Cuban dogfish is quite vulnerable to fishing. This incident comes shortly after other incidents on Cayman Brac. Other species targeted in recent months were a nurse and lemon shark—one was found with signs of stabbing and a rope wrapped around its head while another shark had a knife inserted into its head. 

Read more here.