Shark-Finning

The Problem

• Shark numbers off the US. Atlantic coast have declined drastically since the early 1980s. According to at least one authority, the number of dusky sharks is about ten percent of 1980 levels; sandbar sharks number fifteen to twenty per cent, and tiger sharks twenty to twenty-five percent, of their estimated levels in the early eighties.

The Causes

• Shark fisheries have increased significantly in size since the 1980s. In 1979, shark landings in the US. were recorded at about 300,000 pounds; by 1989, the figure had jumped to 16 million pounds.
• The principal reason for the increase has been a growing demand for sharks' fins' primarily for use in shark fin soup in Chinese markets. Formerly a delicacy restricted to the country's elite, demand has grown with the increased prosperity of Pacific Rim nations and the liberalization within China.
• In the US. a pound of dried shark fins can fetch $200; in contrast, the rest of the shark can fetch as little as 60 cents a pound (wet weight). Consequently, in many places, fishermen simply cut off the fins and dump the sharks overboard. China is the principal market for shark fins, with affluent Hong Kong accounting for the greatest portion. The US. alone exported 575,000 pounds of shark fins to Hong Kong in 1988, and the market has continued to increase.

The Context

• The rise in US. shark fisheries reflects a global increase. Landings of sharks reported to the United Nations' FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) are on the order of 400 million pounds annually, and many of the major shark fishing countries do not report. It has been estimated that as many as 100 million sharks were killed worldwide in 1989 alone.
• Sharks are considered extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation for a variety of reasons: unlike most other fish, they take a long time to reach sexual maturity (some as long as 18 years); they give birth in one- to two-year cycles, and even then only to a handful of young; and they require highly productive coastal and estuarine nursery areas, the same regions most highly impacted by human development and pollution.
• There are over 70 species of sharks which frequent waters of the US. Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. They are difficult to distinguish, and the market often does not categorize them by species.
• High numbers of sharks are also caught as by-catch in tuna and swordfish long line fisheries and in shrimp trawls. NOAA estimates, for example, that nearly 6 million pounds per year of small coastal sharks are caught and then discarded by the shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Solutions

• In January, 1997, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed new restrictions on US east coast shark fisheries, halving the quota for large coastal sharks, from 5.7 million pounds to 2.8 million pounds, and imposing a new limit of 3.9 million pounds on small coastal sharks. However, even if implemented, these restrictions would cover only certain Atlantic species.
• Because of the concerns over shark reproduction and recruitment, and the lack of information on shark population dynamics, many experts feel that the only way to restore damaged shark populations is to impose a moratorium on commercial fishing of many species of shark.