The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group (SSG), found that one third of sharks are at risk for extinction. The group analyzed 64 known species of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays and found that globally, 32 percent or 20 species, are considered Threatened, which includes Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. The threat is even higher, 52 percent, for the 21 species regularly caught in high seas fisheries.
According to the most recent data estimates, roughly 70 million sharks are caught (and killed) each year, most of this is for food, some for sport, and sadly, some just out of fear.
But most of the commercially fished sharks are in fact killed for their fins only–their mutilated carcasses are simply tossed overboard. This is known as “finning”. The fins make their way into a dish known as shark fin soup–a prized delicacy in Japan but also in some Scandinavian countries and in Germany. And as its popularity increases, so do catches–and almost any shark will do (100 out of 400 species are presently exploited for food, according to the Shark Foundation). According to the IUCN (which tracks endangered species with its annual “red list“) and governmental and NGO conservation groups, one third or more of all shark species are endangered.
By Beth Bader •
July 15, 2009
Image ©Beth Bader
Nine shark attack survivors will lobby the Senate to put new restrictions on fishing for sharks. The current legislation, Shark Fisheries Management Plan, implemented in the late 1990s, and the Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 has failed to prevent thirty-two percent of the sharks and rays that live in the open ocean from being classified as “threatened” this year by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
