Shark Finning - a Global Overview
Contributed by SeannaC
We’ve all seen, read or heard stories about shark finning and the
devastating effect it is having on the world’s shark populations. It’s
been nearly five years since Rob Stewart showed the scale and severity
of the illegal shark finning trade to the world in Shark Water, and
demand for shark fin products had been on the increase years before
that. But what’s the state of shark finning, shark populations and the
action against shark finning right now?
Shark Finning
The shark fin trade is still the single biggest threat to
sharks around the world. The increase in demand for shark fin products
has risen dramatically in the past decade, and shark numbers have
declined accordingly. Some estimates by scientists put the decline in
sharks around the world as high as 90%.
A report released by UK conservation group Traffic and the Pew
Environment Group labelled the UN’s shark protection plan, the
International Plan of Action for Sharks (IPOA)introduced in 1999, as a
failure.
‘The Future of Sharks: a Review of Action and Inaction’ found 20
countries account for nearly 80 per cent of the sharks caught globally:
Indonesia, India, Spain, Taiwan, Argentina, Mexico, Pakistan, the
United States, Japan and Malaysia. If Indonesia stopped all of its
shark fishing tomorrow it would decrease the global catch by a whopping
13 per cent.
In 2008, 10 million tonnes of shark fin was exported to Hong Kong,
making it the world’s single largest market. Spain was the largest
exporter of shark fins to Hong Kong that year, followed by Singapore
and Taiwan. The US was ranked 7th, Japan 14th and Australia 20th.
There is a lot of money to be made in shark fins and both legal and
illegal operators have profited in this wasteful practice. Just
last month the industry’s influence in Costa Rica was shown to still be
strong. A judge in the capital city of San Jose issued a temporary
three-day injunction allowing three companies to use private docks,
from where they cannot be monitored by authorities. While the
injunction was only for three days (Feb 4-6), it has shark supporters
worried other companies will file similar appeals. Shark finning is not
banned in Costa Rica but foreign-flagged vessels were banned from using
private docks, where there are no proper customs inspections, in
December.
While we should continue to pressure countries
to ban shark finning
in their waters, finning still goes on unregulated and unmanaged in
international waters. Many scientists feel the way to combat shark
finning is to decrease the demand by making the possession, sale and
distribution of shark fins illegal. This is practical in many
countries, but in others like China, where shark fin soup is still
widely considered a delicacy and part of traditional culture, a total
ban is, in the short term at least, impractical.
Good News - Hope for the Future
So have we depressed you enough yet? There are
some recent success stories that do give us hope. Sharks have never had
more supporters and those doing the shark finning have never had so
many enemies. Ever since Shark Water’s release, public awareness has
continued to grow both in Western and non-Western countries.
Celebrities including UK chef Gordon Ramsay, Hollywood actor Edward
Norton and NBA all star Yao Ming have all spoken out against shark
finning and shark fin soup.
US President Barack Obama finally closed the loopholes of America’s
finning laws, which were introduced by Bill Clinton but did not apply
to foreign registered vessels, in January this year. Hawaii became the
first US state to ban the possession, sale and distribution of shark
fins. The law comes into effect in July this year. And just last month
(February 14) a bill was introduced in California to ban the sale of
shark fins.
More developing countries are also starting to take a stand against
shark finning. These countries, which can find the money in lucrative
trades like shark finning hard to resist or lack the resources to stop
finning, are now seeing the long-term benefits in healthy shark
populations both on an ecological and economical level.
The tiny Pacific Island nation of Palau established the world’s
first shark sanctuary in 2009, which bans the killing
of sharks in an area the size of France. The Fijian coastal town of
Beqa, which has become famous for its controlled and safe shark feeds,
is a shining example of how the protection of sharks and coral reefs
can be more financially rewarding than exploiting them.
Headway has also been made in the
shark fin soup strongholds of Hong
Kong, China and Malaysia. The University of Hong Kong banned shark fin
on its campus and Hong Kong Disneyland no longer offers shark fin soup
on its wedding banquet menus. Shark fin soup has been banned from
official functions in Malaysia and when Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympic
Games more than 20 gold medallists voiced their concerns about shark
finning and recorded public service announcements for China’s CCTV
networks.
Room for Improvement - Australia
Australia, which is a leader in many areas of conservation, is a bit
of a mixed bag in terms of the protection of sharks. It is illegal to
go out and kill protected shark species, such as the Great White Shark
and the critically endangered grey nurse shark, but these species are
still suffering by indirect means. Great white sharks have been killed
by the so-called shark safety nets and baited drum lines off the coast
of Queensland.
The NSW state government only moved
to protect Fish Rock and Green Island, key aggregation sites for the
critically grey nurse shark, late last year, with new fishing bans
coming into effect on January 28. There has been a commercial fishing
ban around the rock and island since May, 2008, but the sharks were
continuing to suffer from certain types of recreational fishing. The
new rules ban the use of baited hooks over Grey
Nurse Shark
aggregations from drifting vessels – a practice found to have
significant grey nurse shark strike rates.
More protection is also needed on
the Great Barrier Reef. While
shark finning at sea, where the fins are cut off the shark and the
carcass is thrown overboard, is banned in Australia, commercial boats
can collect fins if they use the rest of the shark. In many cases the
fin is the main target, and source of money, while the body is a bit of
an afterthought – sold as flake or low-value waste products. While
landing the entire shark reduces waste it still allows shark finning to
drive the demand for shark fishing.
In 2007 and 2008 the Queensland Government commissioned a review of
its East Coast Inshore Finfish Fishery, and recommended changes came
into effect in July, 2009. It is the state’s third largest
fishery (after the east coast trawl and reef line fisheries) and
licenses the commercial fishing of species including sharks and rays in
the tidal waters from Cape York to the NSW border.
Those holding the ‘S’ licence for
fishing sharks and rays must now fill out more detailed log
books, which will help fisheries scientists better monitor specific
species, and their size and catch numbers have been reduced for certain
species BUT they can still cut off the fins of many species of sharks
as long as they also keep the body.
Sharks that cannot be finned under
the changes are guitarfish,
shovelnose rays, grey reef sharks and white tip reef sharks
These four species now have specific catch limits and a 600 tonne
commercial catch limit applies to all other species (excluding
protected species). Operators and conservationist are at odds over
whether the 600 tonne limit is too big, or too small.
James Cook University researchers, lead by Dr Andrew Tobin, are
working on a three-year project funded by the Fisheries Research and
Development Corporation to determine the balance between shark fishery
catch levels and shark conservation on the Great Barrier Reef. But many
would argue the Great Barrier Reef’s sharks cannot wait three years
under the current fishing pressures and regulations (when they are
followed). Will Dr Tobin’s research be too little too late?
Here are some things you can do to
help combat shark finning in Australia:
*Do not buy flake or other shark products.
*Write to state and federal ministers about your concerns.
*Support conservation groups such as the Australian Marine Conservation
Society.
*Approach local seafood restaurants about taking shark fin soup off
their menus.
Seanna Cronin is a member of the Sarah
Shark Team.