Feds: New Rules Would Protect Threatened Dusky Sharks 

COURTESY OF NOAA

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The federal government is releasing new rules designed to protect threatened dusky sharks from being accidentally killed by fishermen.

Dusky sharks are large sharks that are down to about 20 percent of their 1970s population off the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. The proposal includes measures such as requiring some fishermen to use certain kinds of gear that is less likely to kill the sharks.

The sharks are in decline in part because of years of harvesting them for their meat, oil and fins. It’s already illegal to fish for them off the U.S., but they sometimes get caught as bycatch.

Environmental group Oceana says the new steps might reduce the number of sharks killed, but they don’t go far enough.

Dusky sharks range from Maine to Florida.

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