Shark Existence
The shark existence of the east coast of the USA decreased in the last 15 years substantially. The number of the hammerhead sharks sank around 89%, those of the thresher sharks around 80%, those of the great white sharks around 79%. The populations of the mako sharks, blue sharks and tiger sharks sank around 40-65%. The existence of the sandbar sharks were reduced in the last 10 years by overfishing by 85-90%.
Canadian researchers announce a decrease of the oceanic whitetip shark by around 99%. They are almost extinguished in certain regions already.
Sharks are not only caught actively for their meat, fins or cartilages. Millions of sharks die as non-usable catch (bycatch) in the nets and longlines of the swimming fish factories.
In the year 1991 the longline fishery brought in 8.3 million sharks world-wide. It is assumed that about half of it were blue sharks. More than 87% of these 8.3 million sharks were thrown away!
In the USA, along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, annually approx. 2.5 million sharks are fished by sportfishing (game fishing). From that approx. 20-40% (500’000 – 1’000’000 sharks) got killed.
The population of all sorts of sharks is worldwide extremely threatened. In total 82 shark and ray species are registered on the so called “Red List” of the World Conservation Union.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with age, approx, Atlantic, Atlantic Coast, blue, blue sharks, bycatch, canadian researchers, car, cartilage, catch, Co, coast, conservation, decrease, ear, existence, fact, fin, fins, fish, fish factories, fishery, fishing, game, game fishing, Got, Great, great white shark, great white sharks, Gulf of Mexico, half, hammerhead, hammerhead sharks, head, line, List, longline, longline fishery, longlines, mako, mako sharks, meat, number, ocean, oceanic whitetip shark, overfishing, population, ray, Red, region, research, researcher, round, row, sand, sandbar, sandbar sharks, sea, serv, shark, Shark Existence, shark existence of the east coast, Sharks, Sharks are fish, Species, sport, swimming, threat, Threatened, thresher, thresher sharks, tiger, tiger shark, Tiger Sharks, Union, US, USA, way, White, white shark, white sharks, whitetip, Wide, world, world conservation union, worldwide, year, year 1991
Shark Finning
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Finning is called as the cruel cutting off the fins of the sharks. Often the sharks are still alive at this time. The trunk of the shark (dead or alive) is then thrown as redundant ballast over board. The shark fins constitute only approx. 14% of the total weight of a shark but bring in on the international market substantially more than shark meat. The fins are used exclusively for shark fish fin soup. Finning is cruelly however lucrative; for a kilo of shark fins in Asia an average over 100 US Dollar is paid.
Hong Kong and the mainland China dominate the world-wide shark fin market to 50%. Statistics from Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong point a growth like an explosion of the trade with shark fins. Already 1999 according to official data of the customs authorities of Hong Kong 6954 tons of shark fins were released for the re-export. The number of exported fins might have increased by a multiple since then. They predominantly go to Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and China. Taiwan ranks at place five in the world-wide shark fin trade. It maintains the world-wide largest fishing fleet, which fishes primarily in international waters, far away from the own territorial waters. |
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with age, approx, Asia, author, average, ballast, board, China, china taiwan, Co, customs authorities, cutting, cutting off, Data, Dollar, EST, explosion, fin, fin soup, Finning, fins, fish, fishing, fishing fleet, fleet, growth, Hong Kong, International, international waters, kilo, Korea, land, largest fish, mainland china, Malaysia, market, meat, multiple, number, official, place, point, rat, Red, release, row, run, shark, Shark Finning, shark fins, shark fish, shark meat, Sharks, Singapore, singapore malaysia, soup, Taiwan, territorial, territorial waters, time, trade, trunk, US, use, water, way, weight, Wide, With, world
