Gulper shark fishing will be allowed for seven months every year from December 1 to June 30, the Fisheries Ministry has announced.

The government has reintroduced the gulper shark fishery, and a management plan and a fishery planning regulation were issued.

Gulper shark fishery was re-established after 15 years and nine months of a ban on fishing any type of sharks in the Maldives.

The Maldives has been a popular "shark sanctuary" destination among tourists for the past 15 years.

Last week, more than 60 local and international organisations and 50 scientists called on the government to halt plans to re-establish the gulper shark fishery.

An open letter addressed to President Mohamed Muizzu and Fisheries Minister Ahmed Shiyam said the plans would cause "irreversible harm."

"We have carefully reviewed the draft management plan and regulation and concluded that the proposal would provide minimal benefits to a small number of actors while causing irreversible harm to local populations of gulper sharks and to fishers who rely on a healthy ocean for their livelihoods, as well as to the tourism sector that underpins the Maldivian economy," it stated.

All three gulper shark species present in Maldivian waters are listed as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the gulper shark is an endangered species. It has now been decided to include the gulper shark in Appendix II of the Convention.

If gulper sharks are listed on CITES Appendix II at the upcoming COP20 meeting in November-December 2025, exports of any gulper shark and their derivatives would require a scientifically grounded Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) as well as catch and trade quotas.

But Adhadhu understands that the Maldives government has not stored the information needed to conduct such a study.

This means that the gulper shark fishery might be forced to stop after a while.

Gulper shark species take over 20 years to reach sexual maturity, meaning they must survive in a changing ecosystem for decades before they can reproduce. The gestation period for a gulper shark is approximately two years.

They are endangered primarily due to a dangerously low reproductive rate and intense fishing pressure.

The gulper shark fishery began in the Maldives in the 1980s. Studies show that the number of sharks decreased by 50 percent in the 10 years since the fishery was introduced. The fishery was banned in 2010. At that time, 38 fishing vessels were involved in the fishery.