Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
Share this on
Nick Pelios
Freediver, Creator
Millions of sharks are killed every year, this is not news, but it is a story rife with inaccuracies and misconceptions. In this article, we take a closer look at the shark fin trade and what's being done to regulate this multi-billion dollar industry, according to Earth Touch.
Sharks are top predators, perfectly adapted to life beneath the waves. For over 400 million years they help regulate one of our most important resources, the ocean. But shark populations are under severe pressure and numbers are declining at an alarming rate. The biggest threat to their survival is overfishing, driven in part by a huge demand for their fins.
Shark fins are big business. A single fin can fetch as much as $300 a pound, but it's how the shark fins end up on the dinner table that's a hot topic in marine conservation and the cause of much confusion. Shark finning is the barbaric process of catching a shark, removing its fins at sea and then dumping the live shark back into the water to drown. In these cases, shark meat isn't worth the space it takes up in the boat, but thankfully not all shark fins are harvested in this cruel and horribly wasteful manner. So the question is “what's so special about shark fins”?
Shark fins are prized as an Asian culinary specialty. Shark fin soup, once a delicacy only the wealthy could afford, a recent economic boom in china caused demand to soar and the catch rate to skyrocket. In a move to stop illegal fishing and protect these animals from extinction, CITES, the international body that governs cross-border wildlife trade, took a vote in 2013 to regulate international trade on certain species of sharks. It was the culmination of years of work by various conservation bodies and resulted in extra protection for five shark species. What it means for these sharks is that only sustainable trade across borders will be allowed. It's really going to be a big step forward for shark conservation because these particular species are traded quite heavily across international borders. The listing is a great start for sharks but enforcing these laws can be difficult.
Shark fins are traded separately from the animal's body, making it tricky for the untrained eye to identify a species just by the fin. Dr. Chapman and his team developed an important tool that allows anyone to learn how to identify shark fins, a simple online guide. Customs and border control officials will have to be able to recognize fins from these species as they're being traded so that they could identify cases of trade without the proper permits. We really need to rethink the global shark fin trade. We can't just have stats, we really need to know by species and really by population in an effort to understand how the fin trade affects shark populations around the globe and where help is needed most.
Chapman and his team of marine CSIs are turning to DNA buried within fins to help crack the code. In shark fins, like all animal tissues, you'll find DNA, and that DNA can be sequenced, and that sequence has all kinds of information about the animal. Chapman calls it “zip coding” and it allows scientists to identify distinct groups of the same species living in different parts of the world. In 2006 the team took tissue samples from 62 hammerhead fins at a Hong Kong market and found that 15% of them were from the Western Atlantic near Brazil. It was an unexpected result suggesting that the overfishing of this endangered species was still a problem in that area.
Dr. Chapman also co-led a study on the species found in shark fin soup served in restaurants across the US. Out of the 51 bowls tested, 32 samples contained fins from species considered vulnerable by the IUCN, proving that the trade in threatened species was still a problem close to home. Through this fin forensics, governments will be better equipped to put the most effective legislation in place, targeted specifically at local shark populations. Knowing which sharks are being targeted is a crucial step in setting the right catch limits for sustainable fisheries, protecting the shark's ability to bounce back. Many countries have instituted finning regulations and in places where stricter controls have been implemented, like Australia and the US, shark populations are beginning to recover.
Demand reduction campaigns by conservation groups have also helped see shark fin soup begin to fall out of fashion. When the buying stops, the killing can too. The Chinese government has banned it at all state functions. Shark fins now fetch much less than they did a decade ago. These are encouraging developments for sharks. Their extinction would be catastrophic for the ocean and ultimately for humans.