Imagine the outrage! Gorilla fists used as ashtrays for the powerful, parts of a tiger’s anatomy used as an aphrodisiac, whales hunted to the brink of extinction and then dolphins herded into some Faroe or Chinese bay to be butchered in a sea of blood.
All of these events make front-page headlines and action is taken by worldwide environmental agencies to protect these animals as best they can. Why is this so for these mammals? Is it just that they are all beautiful and exhibit that puppy dog factor, that clinches them support from the ordinary person in the street.
Not so sharks, even though I personally think they are the most fantastic creatures. They don’t look cute. They are butchered in their millions every year (100,000,000 TO BE PRECISE). Often this happens in the most barbaric way by cutting the fins from living sharks and dumping the dying shark back over the stern to its terrible fate. THIS IS NOT RIGHT! And by destroying populations of Apex predators, ecological disasters are likely to happen as a result.
We are responsible for clearing out the seas; Fish stocks that have survived for millions of years have been wiped out in the last hundred years by mans highly efficient but totally unsustainable fishing methods. Now whilst white fish have lasted a bit longer under the pressure of commercial fisheries, sharks are in serious trouble after only 25 years.
Sharks mature sexually only after 15 to 25 years. It is very likely that the sharks we pull out of the water have never mated and therefore have not replaced themselves. Added to that, unlike whitefish, swordfish and tuna fish that produce billions of eggs when they spawn, sharks only produce between 2 to 80 pups. This strategy has been highly successful for millions of years. It does not however, make the prognosis for the shark’s future bright in the light of the commercial onslaught they now face from the finning fleets. This over fishing machine now targets sharks as a resource. 25 years ago there was no large-scale shark fisheries. But now with a demand for shark fin soup in Hong Kong and Asia, catches have risen another 11%! It’s not just Asia though. Closer to home in Europe, France operates a large shark Fishing fleet, and along with Spain, imports a vast amount of shark products from fins, to highly prized liver oil.
In the last 25 years between 66% and 90% of the world shark populations have been destroyed (that is TOTALLY WIPED OUT). Now I haven’t really had the chance to see sharks in the wild and the decimation of these animals really tics me off. 20 years ago I was in a Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh. I didn’t think I was ever going to see a real shark, so I seriously contemplated ordering a bowl of shark fin soup. I even remember asking the waiter what type of shark was used. “Basking Shark” was the answer. I think it was at that point that my interest in the soup disintegrated, thankfully! BUT just to let you know what bits of shark I would have found in the soup. The answer a big fat nothing. Shark fin is used as a thickener, an eastern version of CORNFLOUR! 100,000,000 sharks per year are butchered in the most barbaric fashion for an eastern version of a thickening agent.
The one chance I have had to see sharks was in the Maldives. Usually sustainable fishing is practiced there BUT on Baa Atoll where I stayed, a dive guide nearly looped the loop when we saw a white tipped reef shark on a dive. A fishing operation even here had decimated the shark population to the extent that dive guides were no longer seeing them. EVEN IN THE REMOTE MALDIVES ISLANDS!
Divers and people who love the sea and its creatures are fairly clued up on the shark and its real forms of behaviour. But the public at large still fear sharks and have chellos thumping away in their heads whenever sharks are mentioned. The public needs to be enlightened to the true nature of sharks and hopefully public support will swell as a result.
Divers often use boats that are frequented by anglers. I am happy to note that a dive boat I use enforces a catch and release policy for sharks that are caught. Anglers around the world are starting to get their act together by returning marlin and shark alive, protecting that precious resource which is highly important to their business, just as they are to diving and shark diving operations.
Sharks are a very necessary predator in the sea. They keep in check populations of sick, injured and weak fish. This keeps populations of the next link down in the food chain in check. If this was to stop, smaller fish and other creatures would be targeted by a temporary explosion of larger fish, until they eliminated the next link down in the food chain. Then there would be the possibility that the whole food chain in the marine environment would collapse.
What can the average person do to help? Well I won’t eat in restaurants that serve shark products, the same with supermarkets. People power has made Disney think again in Hong Kong and shark fin is off the menu at that theme park. Only eat tuna, which is dolphin friendly. This ensures that these fish have not been caught in gill nets, which has a bycatch kill of 6.6 million blue sharks annually, not to mention other sharks, turtles, ray’s, dolphins, marine bird’s etc.
It’s got to be stopped and the sharks must be saved. Diver magazine in 1997, in the year of the reef, brought out SOS stickers for our sharks. Perhaps its time to do this again. We can’t allow the shark to disappear!
We really need better managed shark fisheries to save these amazing creatures and perhaps our oceans!.
Here are some statistics that will sadden all divers.
The EU finning ban is among the weakest in the world.
Information supplied from-
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) RED LIST
Northeast Atlantic porbeagles and Mediterranean shortfin makos classify as Critically Endangered.
Northeast Atlantic shortfin makos and Mediterranean thresher sharks are considered Vulnerable.
North Atlantic blue shark (which ranges across the entire ocean basin) heightened from Near Threatened to
Vulnerable. Blue shark catch rates have also declined markedly in the Mediterranean.
SAVE OUR SHARKS SOS SOS SOS SOS!
Mike Clark
