Shark Finning
When scuba diving,
why don't we see more sharks?
It appears that unless you are
chumming the waters or spearfishing,
your shark sightings may be few.
Many sharks are being killed not for the meat of the shark itself,
which can be pricey, but for another part of the shark, which holds
greater economic value. The sharks’ fins are most often the goal
and the fishermen ship these fins primarily to Asia to make shark-fin
soup. The fins have noodle-like cartilage used by Chinese chefs
to thicken and flavor soup. Long pieces are prized and larger fins
can be worth more than the average $10 per pound. Demand for shark's
fins has risen dramatically in China. Most wanted for shark-fin
soup are the bull, blacktip, hammerhead, mako, porbeagle, sandbar,
thresher, and blue sharks.
Since the price per pound of the shark fin is greater than the shark
meat, those who supply the Asian market are mostly interested in
the fins only -- leading to the inhumane practice of live-finning
- removing the fins from the shark while the shark is alive and
returning the shark to the water where most of them will sink to
the bottom and drown. It is estimated that worldwide 100-200 million
sharks per year die in the fishing/finning process, earning $240
million per year for suppliers.
It is believed that some shark species are already in danger of
extinction. While the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) admits
that no one truly knows how many sharks are out there, estimates
suggest that the following species are already near extinction:
sandbar, blacktip, bull, tiger, hammerheads.
From the NOAA Fisheries Fact Sheet:
Nationally, the United States recently enacted a ban on shark finning
that prohibits any person under U.S. jurisdiction from engaging
in shark finning and possessing shark fins harvested on board a
U.S. fishing vessel without the corresponding carcasses. Finning
is defined as the practice of removing the fin(s) from a shark and
discarding the remainder of the shark at sea.
The final rule, published on February 11, 2002, prohibits any person
on a vessel under U.S. jurisdiction from engaging in shark finning,
possessing shark fins on board a U.S. fishing vessel without corresponding
shark carcasses, or landing shark fins without corresponding carcasses.
The final rule also prohibits foreign fishing vessels from engaging
in shark finning in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ), from
landing shark fins without the corresponding carcass into a U.S.
port, and from transshipping shark fins in the U.S. EEZ.
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Why Shark Fishing has to be Monitored
The oceans' environment depends on sharks and reproduction in sharks
is very slow. Most sharks have gestation periods and ovarian cycles
that each last about a year. These two cycles may or may not occur
at the same time. In most of the larger sharks, the cycles follow
one after the other. Most of these species produce pups only once
every other year.
In other sharks, such as hammerheads and sharpnose sharks, the ovarian
cycle and the gestation periods occur at the same time. Females
carry developing embryos and developing eggs at the same time; these
species reproduce yearly. Other species have even longer gestation
periods.
Adults usually come together in specific areas to mate. Females
then swim to special nursery areas to pup. These nurseries are isolated
areas, usually in waters shallower than those inhabited by the adults.
Frequently the nursery areas are in coastal or estuarine waters
where abundant small fishes and crustaceans provide food for the
growing pups. These areas also may have fewer large predators, giving
the young sharks a better chance of surviving. In some waters, young
sharks leave the nursery with the beginning of winter while in tropical
waters, young sharks may live in the nursery area for several years.
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