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 Zachary Shahan •
July 26, 2009
Earlier this month, Environmental Police in Vietnam found a frozen tiger and tiger bones in the back of a taxi cab. The tiger seems to have been a young one recently killed and the bones were of two adults, according to an expert at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR).
By Andrew Williams •
March 10, 2009
Portuguese environmentalists have condemned the killing of the country’s last remaining nesting male Iberian Imperial Eagle.
The bird, also known as the Spanish Imperial Eagle (Aquila adalberti), is one of the three rarest birds of prey on the planet, with only around 400 surviving, and is classified as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
By Meg Hamill •
October 6, 2008
A comprehensive, international survey released today, showed that half of all 5,487 mammal populations are declining.
Just today, data from a global survey was revealed at a meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Barcelona, Spain. 1,700 researchers took part in the survey and named habitat loss and hunting as the major causes of the current, mass extinction.
Jan Schipper, who led the team, said: “Mammals are declining faster than we thought — one in four species is threatened with extinction worldwide.”
He said that land animals in Asia have been the hardest hit, where almost 80% of the primates are at risk. Other mammals at risk across the globe include the blue whale, the bumblebee bat, the Caspian seal and the Tasmanian Devil.
Scientists currently have data for 4,651 species of mammals. According to this study, 1,139 of these species face the threat of extinction.
