Fishing nations agree to protect basking and white sharks, cut mako quotas, and improve compliance process

Seville, Spain. November 24, 2025. After a record number of proposals focused on sharks, this year’s meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) ended with new protections for basking and white sharks, reduced catch limits for South Atlantic shortfin makos, and procedural advances for enforcing shark measures. For the seventeenth year, efforts to strengthen ICCAT’s shark finning ban were thwarted.

“New retention bans for basking and white sharks will close gaps in the protection of these globally threatened species by bolstering national bans and helping countries to fulfill obligations under environmental treaties,” said Ali Hood, Director of Conservation for the Shark Trust. “We’re hopeful that the new commitment to ensure fishermen promptly and carefully release these sharks will spark development of safe handling protocols for maximizing survival. We thank the UK for carefully shepherding these safeguards to final adoption this week.”

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