The statistical report , compiled by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, crunched numbers of reported shark catches globally and used data from nearly former papers to estimate the number of unreported shark deaths every year.
In a moving range, the researchers were able to calculate that between 6. To put that range in perspective, researchers analyzed life data from 62 shark species and found that only 4.
Anything more than that threatens long term survival of species like the oceanic white tip, porbeagle and several kinds of hammerheads. The culprit is the proliferation of illegal shark finning that spiked in the s to feed appetites for shark fin soup, a delicacy in parts of Asia on par with fine truffles or expensive caviar.
While some sharks are allowed to be caught, illegal shark finning occurs when fisherman cut fins off live sharks and dump their bodies into the open ocean to avoid declaring the full animal at port and surpassing fishing quotas.
The million sharks was actually a conservative estimate. To combat such numbers, most countries have authority to regulate around their own coastlines and the catches brought into their ports.
But after a United Nations panel recommended earlier this year that governments get serious, CITES officials will meet this week in Bangkok to consider finally phasing in protections. Continued demand for shark fin soup, dumplings, and other shark fin dishes served in restaurants around the world perpetuates the practice of finning, resulting in an estimated 73 million sharks being killed each year for their fins alone.
Because of the high commercial value of shark fins and the relatively low value of shark meat, fishermen often take only the fins and leave the rest of the body behind—an extremely cruel and wasteful practice. Typically, sharks are finned alive—brought aboard fishing vessels to have their fins sliced off, then thrown back into the sea, where they suffocate, bleed to death, or are eaten by other animals.
Appallingly, the animals are usually conscious through much of the ordeal. Approximately 50 million more sharks die annually as bycatch in unregulated fisheries, often through the use of destructive and indiscriminate fishing methods such as longlines, gillnets, and trawls.
The international shark fin trade is largely unregulated, so sharks caught accidentally are routinely killed for their fins. Although over shark species appear on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, less than half receive global protection through trade restrictions. Scalloped hammerhead sharks are listed under the EPBC Act, the piece of Australian law that governs how we protect endangered wildlife from threats.
This seemingly protects the interests of commercial fishing at the expense of our environment and wildlife — by allowing continued fishing of threatened species if a plan to manage the capture of the species is in place. Under this category, 78 tonnes of hammerhead sharks can be caught in the Great Barrier Reef, the largest catch of the species anywhere around Australia. By contrast, the IUCN, an international body that assesses the conservation status of wildlife, assessed great and scalloped hammerheads as critically endangered and smooth hammerheads as vulnerable 3, 4.
Great and scalloped hammerheads are already listed as threatened species in NSW and it is illegal to fish for them in NSW state waters 5. There is concern that the numbers of hammerhead sharks killed in fishing is under-reported in fishing records, so we do not know how severe the issue really is — it could be worse than we imagine.
This means there is limited information on the actual number of each of these threatened species caught in Australian waters. Shark fins can be sold legally in countries with anti- finning regulations, yet the source of the fin and method killed can still be illegal. These agreements require the shark carcass to arrive at the dock with the shark, or if severed, on an agreed fin to body ratio.
In some regions like the EU, this ratio is so high that it allows more sharks to be captured than reported by the actual fin weight.
Most shark fins go to Hong Kong for processing, and re-exported to China and other countries like the US. Fins traded as a dried product do not have any documentation of where that shark was captured, the species or if it was legally harvested or finned on the high seas.
Most shark fins are virtually unrecognizable by species. Once it is in the market or in the bowl, most consumers will not know where the fin came from, or if it was harvested legally or illegally. Any shark is fair game, but some species are more prized than others. The large fins of Whale Sharks, Basking Sharks are coveted for decoration at restaurants. These species are among the most threatened. Pelagic species such as Oceanic White tip and Silky sharks are common in the high-end trade.
Illegal fisheries such as those that target the Galapagos, Cocos Island reserve and other remote islands capture reef sharks and hammerhead sharks. The Blue shark is among the most common traded with an estimated 20 million killed for their fins annually.
By nature, sharks are difficult to study and good fisheries data are hard to obtain. The practice of finning, which is mostly an unreported practice is robbing scientists of population and capture data. Many pelagic shark species are widespread and do not school. Many larger sharks travel vast distances alone. Most large sharks have late onset of fertility decades give birth to few young and have long gestation periods, making them very vulnerable to overfishing.
Therefore, it is very difficult to arrive at a sustainable number. This is why most commercial shark fisheries collapse economically. Until that is achieved and it can be enforced, then the source of fins must stop and fins made illegal.
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