Today, the European Parliament (EP) voted in Plenary in Strasbourg on the Pietikainen report, a circular economy report calling on the European Commission to increase its headline marine litter reduction target from 30% to 50% reduction by 2025. The report sends a vital message to the European Commission and Europe as a whole that the European Parliament is in favour of the circular economy as a way to greater resource security, increased jobs and growth, and to tackle marine litter.

The European Commission has today issued a headline reduction target for marine litter in Europe as part of its Communication on a Circular Economy. We believe that this target is inadequate and will need to be significantly strengthened to really tackle the problem of waste entering our seas.

New Zealand has boosted the protection of sharks by signing the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks.
Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry have signed the agreement today which aims to improve the conservation of seven migratory shark species vulnerable to over-exploitation.
“This international memorandum is the first global instrument of its kind, and we join 38 other countries in becoming a signatory,” says Mr Guy.

IATTC takes steps to safeguard rays, but leaves finning ban weak, and sharks under-protected
Guayaquil, Ecuador. July 3, 2015. Fishing nations at the annual meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) have taken concrete, groundbreaking steps to conserve Eastern Pacific manta and devil rays, but have failed to reach consensus on proposals to strengthen the region’s ban on shark finning (slicing off a shark's fins and discarding the body at sea) or on bids to curb fishing of hammerhead and silky sharks.

2015 marks the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and 40 years since movie goers were introduced to Hollywood’s portrayal of the great white shark in Jaws.
Within days of the release of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie‘ Jaws’ in June 1975, CITES entered into force.