The Shark Alliance was formed in 2006 in an attempt to streamline the efforts of NGOs involved in shark conservation. The Alliance is able to utilize the manpower, resources, and combined knowledge of its member organizations to more effectively lobby for sustainable European and global shark fishing limits. Members of the Shark Alliance include The Shark Trust, the European Elasmobranch Association, and The Ocean Concervancy, among others.
In its own words:
The Shark Alliance is a not-for-profit coalition of non-governmental organizations dedicated to restoring and conserving shark populations by improving European fishing policy. Because of the influence of Europe in global fisheries and the importance of sharks in ocean ecosystems, these efforts have the potential to enhance the health of the marine environment in Europe and around the world.
The mission of the Shark Alliance is two-fold: To close loopholes in European policy regarding the wasteful and unsustainable practice of shark finning; To secure responsible, science-based shark fishing limits for long-term sustainability and ecosystem health.
Sharks have evolved over 400 million years and play a critical role in ocean ecosystems. In common with land predators such as lions and wolves, sharks keep other marine populations in check and help maintain the balance of life in the sea. Today, primarily because of overfishing sharks are among the oceans’ most threatened animals. Tens of millions of sharks are killed each year, either intentionally or as bycatch in commercial and recreational fisheries. Ongoing assessment of the status of European sharks (and closely-related rays) by the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) has led to the classification of roughly one third of evaluated species as threatened (either Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable), with another 16 per cent at risk of becoming so in the near future. Sharks generally grow slowly, mature late and produce few young. Shark populations are therefore especially vulnerable to overexploitation and slow to recover once depleted. The loss of these important predators is predicted to have negative effects on many other species in the sea. Unfortunately, however, misinformation and fear all too often impede the public support required to ensure sharks receive management priority and conservation actions. Unlike many countries that fail to conserve sharks, Europe does not lack the resources to restrict fishing. Despite immediate threats facing sharks there are few European limits on shark fishing, and quotas are routinely set far in excess of actual catches. In 2003, the EU adopted a ban on shark finning (the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the carcass at sea), but at the same time allowed glaring loopholes that render the ban all but meaningless. For instance, shark fishermen are allowed to land shark carcasses and fins separately, making it all but impossible to tell how many sharks have been processed on board and how many were subjected to shark finning. Meanwhile, the fin to carcass ratio (the means of checking that the number of fins corresponds to the number of carcasses – after sea processing – is within the ban’s limits) is the highest and therefore the most lenient in the world. Europe is home to the some of the world’s largest fishing fleets while its powerful fisheries officials exert influence on international fishing restrictions in many regions of the globe. Poor European shark policies, therefore, pose threats not only to shark populations in European waters but also to those around the world. If fisheries are managed carefully, sharks can provide a steady source of food and recreation and help keep the oceans in balance. The Shark Alliance is dedicated to ensuring that these valuable yet vulnerable animals survive and thrive for the benefit of ocean ecosystems and the people that depend on them. Save buying products with payday loan
Filed under Sharks Organizations · Tagged with ability, action, age, Alliance, animal, assessment, Association, attempt, balance, balance of life, ban, benefit, board, bycatch, car, carcass, care, catch, cent, check, checking, Class, classification, Co, coalition, Concervancy, conservation, conservation action, Critically, day, ear, ecosystem, ecosystem health, effect, effort, elasmobranch, Endangered, Ensure, environment, ESP, EST, Europe, European, european fishing policy, european waters, excess, fear, fin, Finning, fins, fish, fisheries, fishermen, fishing, fishing fleet, fishing fleets, fit, fleet, food, form, future, gene, general, global fisheries, globe, Government, health, home, importance, Important, Improving, influence, information, instance, intention, International, IUCN, knowledge, lack, land, land predators, largest fish, life, life in the sea, line, loan, Lobby, loss, management, manpower, manpower resources, Marine, marine environment, marine populations, mean, member, million years, misinformation, mission, NGOs, number, ocean, ocean ecosystems, official, Ongoing, organization, overexploitation, overfishing, payday, policy, population, potential, power, practice, predators, priority, process, processing, product, public, rat, rate, ratio, ray, recreation, recreational fisheries, Red, region, responsible science, rest, risk, role, round, row, Save, Science, sea, serv, shark, Shark Alliance, shark conservation, Shark Finning, shark fish, shark fishing, shark populations, shark trust, Sharks, source, Species, spite, status, support, sustainability, system, Tens, term, term sustainability, The Shark Trust, third, threat, Threatened, time, today, Trust, tuna, Union, US, use, Vulnerable, waste, water, With, world, world conservation union, year
The Shark Trust was established in 1997 to study, protect, and manage the elasmobranch species found in UK waters and internationally. It is a member of the European Elasmobranch Association and works with other EEA organizations to counter the enormous fishing pressure that European shark and ray stocks are under.
The Shark Trust’s mandate includes:
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Introducing effective management on a regional basis to regulate shark and ray fisheries and ensure that they are sustainable.
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Reducing shark and ray bycatch and mortality in other fisheries.
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Increasing research efforts on the biology of sharks and rays and their fisheries, including the promotion of a collaborative tag and release program.
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Improving records of catches, landings, and international trade in species of sharks and rays.
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Improving management of critical habitats, including nursery grounds, under threat.
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Increasing the amount of information available to the public and decision makers.
The Shark Trust encourages scientists, divers, fishermen, anglers, and the general public to join the growing number of ST members that currently lend their support.
Your membership in The Shark Trust adds to the pressure that it is able to be put on governing and regulatory agencies, and helps spread awareness on the plight of sharks and rays in general.
Subscription to The Shark Trust carries no obligation on your part unless you wish it to. However, if you would like to help educate or raise funds your added contribution will be most welcome.
Shark Trust members receive the trust’s magazine/newsletter ‘Shark Focus’ 3 times per year. This is a glossy publication that chronicles the latest work of the trust and has articles on a variety of shark and ray subjects. Upon joining the trust you will also receive i.d. posters of British shark and ray species and other Shark Trust goodies.
The Shark Trust also hosts a highly informative website with sections on all aspects of sharks and rays. The site also contains a good image database of elasmobranch species and an active and well moderated forum for anyone wishing to talk sharks.
Filed under Sharks Organizations · Tagged with age, amount, and manage the elasmobranch species found in UK waters, Anglers, anyone, Association, awareness, basis, biology, British, bycatch, car, catch, Co, contribution, critical habitats, Data, database, decision, decision makers, diver, ear, Educate, EEA, effect, effective management, effort, elasmobranch, Ensure, EST, Europe, European, fish, fisheries, fishermen, fishing, Focus, form, forum, fund, gene, general, glossy publication, habitat, host, image, Improving, improving management, increasing research, information, informative website, International, Join, land, landing, landings, loss, magazine, magazine newsletter, management, mandate, member, membership, mortality, news, newsletter, number, nursery, nursery grounds, obligation, organization, part, plight, pressure, program, promotion, protect, public, publication, rat, rate, ray, Red, region, regional basis, regulatory agencies, release, research, research efforts, round, row, sea, shark, shark trust, Sharks, ship, site, Species, species of sharks, study, Subscription, support, tag, The Shark Trust, threat, time, trade, Trust, trust members, UK, uk waters, US, variety, water, Web, website, With, work, year, Your
he rapid decline of great sharks in the world’s oceans is disrupting the marine ecosystem by allowing more lowly fish to thrive, scientists warn today.
Overfishing of the ancient predators has lead to a sudden uprising of species they prey on, causing an abundance of skates, rays and smaller sharks, which are steadily devastating populations of shellfish, including scallops, oysters and clams, the researchers claim.
The findings suggest that the demise of the great sharks, whose primitive ancestors cruised the seas long before the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, may have unforeseen knock-on effects on marine life lower down the food chain.
Records from fisheries and research vessels dating from the 1970s to 2005 have revealed a dramatic nosedive in great shark populations. Tiger sharks and scalloped hammerheads may have declined more than 97% since the mid-1980s, while numbers of smooth hammerheads and bull sharks are believed to have fallen by 99% off the east coast of the US.
Writing in the journal Science, a team of marine biologists led by Ran Myers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, analyse fish research surveys over the past 16 to 35 years. The records show that while the abundance of 11 great shark species fell dramatically over the past 35 years, 12 of the 14 fish species they prey on had increased sharply.
In the waters along the US Atlantic coast, numbers of cownose rays, a staple of the great shark diet that can grow to four feet across, jumped 8% a year to an estimated population of around 40 million.
The explosion of the cownose population coincides with an almost complete collapse of scallops in the waters, leaving only those protected behind marine fences for local fisheries to take.
Without sharks to keep their numbers in check, researchers fear the migrating rays will drive down shellfish populations as they swim through, to the point where they are unable to recover .
Julia Baum, a co-author of the paper, said: “With fewer sharks around, the species they prey upon, like cownose rays, have increased in numbers, and in turn, hordes of cownose rays dining on scallops, have wiped the scallops out.”
Sharks are targeted by fisheries for their fins and meat, but are also taken as by-catch by fleets fishing for tuna and swordfish. As many as 73 million sharks are killed each year around the globe for the finning trade.
Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science in Miami, said: “This is the first published field experiment to demonstrate that the loss of sharks is cascading through ocean ecosystems and inflicting collateral damage on food fisheries such as scallops. These unforeseen and devastating impacts underscore the need to take a more holistic, ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management.”
Charles Peterson, a researcher on the paper and marine biologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, said the study highlighted the importance of maintaining populations of the ocean’s top predators. “Despite the vastness of the oceans, its organisms are interconnected, meaning that changes at one level have implications several steps removed. Through our work, the ocean is not so unfathomable, and we know better now why sharks matter,” he added.
In British waters, historic overfishing has seen the common ray decline to the point that surveys in the western channel have failed to spot any since the 1930s. More recently, numbers of blue and porbeagle sharks are believed to have fallen. The porbeagles are believed to be taken by Danish and French fleets, while Spanish long-line vessels take blue sharks migrating into British waters.
Last year, a team lead by David Sims of the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth tagged six blue sharks off the coast of Portugal to investigate their fate. Two were landed by fisheries within three months. “The ones that get here may be the survivors,” he said.
Dr Sims said the lack of hard data makes it extremely difficult to produce reliable assessments of fish populations, adding that many predators have such varied diets that cascade effects through ecosystems are complex and often difficult to pinpoint.
“There’s no doubt the fisheries are having an impact on the big shark populations, but what we really don’t know is what the ecosystem effects of that will be. There could be other factors involved that haven’t been measured,” he added.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with abundance, age, aim, anal, analyse, approach, assessment, Association, Atlantic, Atlantic Coast, author, Big sharks, Biological, biologist, blue, blue sharks, British, bull, bull sharks, car, Carolina, cascade, catch, cent, chain, channel, Chapel Hill, Charles Peterson, check, claim, Co, co-author, coast, collapse, collateral, cownose, cownose rays, Dalhousie, dalhousie university in halifax nova scotia, damage, Data, David Sims, day, decline, demise, diet, dinosaurs, Director, Don, doubt, Dr Sims, drama, drive, ear, ecosystem, effect, Ellen Pikitch, ESP, EST, Exec, experiment, explosion, fact, fall, fall of the dinosaurs, fate, fear, field, fin, finding, Finning, fins, fish, fish species, fisheries, fisheries management, fishing, fleet, food, globe, Great, Halifax, halifax nova scotia, hammerhead, head, impact, importance, Institute, journal, journal science, Julia Baum, lack, land, lateral, level, life, line, List, loss, management, Marine, marine biologists, marine ecosystem, matter, mean, meat, Miami, mid, mid 1980s, mouth, need, North, nosedive, Nova Scotia, number, ocean, ocean ecosystems, overfishing, oysters and clams, paper, Pew, Plymouth, point, population, porbeagle, Porbeagles, Portugal, predators, prey, primitive ancestors, protect, Ran Myers, rapid decline, rat, rate, ray, Red, research, research surveys, research vessels, researcher, rise, round, row, scalloped hammerheads, Science, sea, shark, shark populations, shark species, Sharks, sharks disappearing, shell, shellfish, skate, skates, Species, spite, staple, study, swordfish, system, tag, target, team, tiger, tiger shark, Tiger Sharks, today, trade, tuna, turn, University, uprising, US, vessel, water, With, work, world, year
Sharks have a great deal to fear from humans. Compared to the 10-15 people killed by sharks each year; over 100 million sharks perish at the hands of humans annually and many populations may face extinction. Sharks are killed for many reasons, including fear; food, sport, and ‘machismo’, but the great majority perish due to simple greed. Many shark products have commercial value, including: the flesh; the skin for high-quality leather; teeth and jaws for ornaments; liver oil for cosmetics, medicines, vitamin A, and skin-care products; and cartilage for false cancer ‘cures’. However; the product that drives the market are the fins. After drying, collagen fibers are extracted from them, cleaned, and processed to make ‘shark fin soup’. In spite of the fact that these fibers have little flavor or nutritional value, the soup is considered a delicacy, and may sell in the Orient for more than $100 ( £65) a bowl.
Over the years, shark fisheries have come and gone. In the early part of the century, sponge fishermen in Florida killed sharks to boil them down for their oil. The oil was then thrown on the ocean to smooth the surface of the water and make it easier to see the sponges from the boat. That ended when a plague killed off the sponges. In the 19405 to .19505 a number of shark fisheries sprang up to supply the market for vitamin A. That ended with the discovery of a method for its synthetic production. However; most shark fisheries, such as the one for dogfish sharks to supply the ‘fish and chips’ market in the UK, have ended only when the number of sharks dropped too low for the fishery to be sustained.
The explosive growth of the Chinese economy and rapid expansion of trade with the outside world during the 1985 and 1995 created an unprecedented situation. Suddenly there was an insatiable demand for shark fins of almost any size or type. Improvements in shipbuilding and navigational electronics meant that shark fishing boats could now go anywhere in the world, moving from one place to another as local shark populations were destroyed. The fins are now so much more valuable than the rest of the shark that the carcass is often discarded after the fins are removed, to save storage space on the boat. Often the fins are sliced off when the shark is still alive and the mutilated shark is dumped back into the water to die a slow and agonizing death.
Why should we be concerned about this situation? After all, wouldn’t the ocean be much safer without sharks? The answer is no. The chance of being attacked by a shark is already less than the chance of being struck by lightning. The real dangers for people in the water are drowning, exposure, and being struck by a boat. In the USA, for example, drowning incidents outnumber shark attacks by 1,000 to I. Without sharks, the whole experience of being in a natural ocean wilderness would be immeasurably reduced. It would be like being on the Serengeti with no lions or cheetahs. In losing the opportunity to view these magnificent and superbly-adapted predators in the wild, we are also losing part of our spiritual connection with nature.
But something else would be changed as well -the whole ecology of the ocean. Predators control the populations of their prey species in a beneficial way. They eliminate diseased and genetically defective individuals, and they stabilize population fluctuations. On land, when we have removed the natural predators of deer; for example, their populations have exploded until they overgrazed their food supply and died of starvation and disease. In the ocean we are not sure what all the consequences of removing the apex predators from the food pyramid might be. We do have one example, though. A shark fishery in Tasmania collapsed after two years of over fishing. Shortly afterwards, the fishery for spiny lobsters also collapsed and fishermen observed a lot of octopus in the area. Octopuses are both major predators of spiny lobster and an important food item for sharks. It seems that once the numbers of octopus were no longer controlled by the sharks, they became too numerous and decimated the lobsters. Economically, for those other than shark fishermen, it doesn’t make sense to allow sharks to be fished out, not only because of the possible damage to sustainable fisheries, but also because of the loss of earnings from divers coming to see sharks. Worldwide, shark-watching has become a multi-million dollar business.
Why do shark populations collapse so quickly when people begin fishing them? The answer lies in the life history of these animals. In many aspects, sharks are more similar to mammals such as whales, dolphins, or ourselves, than to other fish. Whereas most fish reach maturity in only a few years and produce thousands or millions of eggs per year; sharks take many years to reach maturity. Some species may not begin to reproduce until they are over 15 years old. Some species produce as few as two pups biannually, averaging only one offspring per year: So when a population is over fished, it may take many years to recover; or it may never recover: Some scientists believe that sharks should never be fished at all, that their biology is too fragile to withstand any exploitation. Perhaps sharks should have the total protection given to marine mammals in many countries. Unfortunately, sharks do not have big ‘fan clubs’ as dolphins do.
Although both are large predators with slow reproductive rates, sharks are handicapped, from a.: public relations perspective, by the fact that their mouths appear to be frowning, and that they must open their mouths to pass water over their gills, exposing their teeth. Dolphins, on the other hand, always appear to be smiling, because of the shape of their mouths. Since they breathe through the blowholes on top of their heads, they do not have to open their mouths and expose their formidable teeth in order to get oxygen. But even the dolphin’s smile may not protect it from the greed inspired by the high prices being offered by international buyers of shark fins. In a number of countries, fishermen are slaughtering dolphins to chop up for shark bait.
We should create save our sharks and dolphins lanyards to create awareness
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