Article by Support Our Sharks (02 March 2013)
The most accurate assessment
to date of the impact of commercial fishing on sharks suggests that
between 63 and 273 million are being killed each year, with an
average of approximately 100 million.
The researchers suggest that
this rate of exploitation is far too high.
“This is by far the most comprehensive estimate of shark mortality yet,”
said Dr. Boris Worm (Lead author). He goes on to add, ”...because we consider all sources
of mortality, from direct fishing, finning, and discard mortality.
The estimate was derived by crunching numbers from almost 100
publications on the catches and mortality of sharks.”
The research has been
published in the Journal Marine Policy.
Researchers admit that
establishing the true level of global shark fishing is extremely
difficult, as the quality of the data is poor. Many sharks that are
caught have their fins removed at sea with the body dumped
overboard. These sharks are often not included in official reports.
The study estimates a
mortality range of between 63 and 273 million sharks in 2010, with a
median estimate of 100 million.
While the number of sharks
being caught has not changed substantially between 2000 and 2010,
the authors of the research argue that the commercial fishing fleets
are simply changing location and the shark species they target in
order to keep up with demand. The fear is that eventually these
shark species will crash.
Fuelling the concern is the
fact that many of the species that are most threatened are very slow
to reproduce.
There is a very low level of mortality that sharks can withstand before their population trend becomes negative, which is exactly what has been happening. They are not reproducing fast enough to keep up with the rate they are been pulled out of the ocean.
The biggest driver for shark
fishing has been the demand for shark fin soup, a product that is
seen as a luxury item among Chinese communities.
While fins are still being
cut off sharks at sea, several countries including Canada, the US
and the European Union have tried to restrict this by law.
The problem is that the fins
are so valuable that now people are not 'finning' the sharks at sea
but they are simply keeping the whole thing. But it is still dead;
the finning bans have not stopped the root problem.
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