Italy's growing taste for shark meat is a threat to the endangered predators, shark lovers say.
Italy is now Europe's second-biggest importer of shark flesh and the fourth biggest in the world after Spain, South Korea and Hong Kong, according to the Shark Alliance, an international coalition for saving sharks.
Italians get about two thirds of their shark meat from Spain, which has led a 22% surge in worldwide shark catches in the last decade.
As a result, the Alliance said, a third of European shark populations - species such as the spurdog, the potbeagle, the angel shark, the mako and the blue shark - are now threatened.
But "despite the immediate threats facing sharks, there are few limits in Europe on shark fishing and quotas are routinely set far in advance of scientific advice," the Alliance says in a new report.
Shark Alliance and the Italian marine conservation group Marevivo urged the government to frame a new "emergency plan" for sharks.
In 1999, Italy and the rest of the EU adopted an action plan for shark preservation drawn up by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, but this has proven largely ineffective, Shark Alliance and Marevivo say.
"Sharks grow slowly, have few offspring and struggle to recover once their numbers have been decimated," said Marevivo Chair Rosalba Giugni.
Shark Alliance's Domitilla Senni said Italy shouldn't only launch its own action plan but should get Europe to follow suit.
ITALIAN PLAN 'READY'.
ICCRAM, Italy's marine research institute, reacted to the criticism by saying it had had a plan "ready for seven years".
ICCRAM Chair Silvio Greco said the institute was "poised to update its data so as to deliver the plan to the environment ministry by the end of June".
The plan would glean fresh information on shark numbers and propose measures to cut the impact of over-fishing, pollution and other factors, Greco said.
He noted that sharks were top of the food chain and their dwindling could have a severe knock-on effect on marine ecosystems, with "uncontrollable results".
Despite its growing appetite for shark meat, Italy is not one of the main over-fishing culprits, Shark Alliance said - nor is it especially guilty of dodging an "all but meaningless" EU ban on finning, in which shark fins are dumped and the bodies dumped at sea.
"Shark fins, exported for fin soup, are now among the most expensive seafood products in the world, fetching up to 500 euros per kilogram," Shark Alliance noted.
Led by Spain, the EU is a major exporter of fins to China.
"An effective finning ban is essential to protect sharks from overfishing," said Shark Alliance's Sonja Fordham.
But that in itself would not be enough, she said, calling for a "comprehensive EU plan of action for conserving Europe's shark populations".
Spain catches about double the number of sharks compared to the EU's second-biggest shark fisher, France.
Britain and Portugal also have sizeable shark-fishing fleets.
