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
Sea Shepherd is best known for its frontline work protecting marine mammals but its broader mandate is to protect all ocean creatures. Styled on the more widely publicized organization Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd continued to grow teeth where Greenpeace lost them through inactivity. Sea Shepherd’s founder Captain Paul Watson has a reputation for pursuing illegal whalers and longliners, harassing seal cullers, organizing rallies, and generally irritating governments that would rather turn a blind eye, and infuriating fishing consortiums who would rather go about their illegal and often cruel practices unnoticed.
Sea Shepherd’s flag ship The Farley Mowat has harassed shark fishing boats in Costa Rican waters and sent sailors sprawling over their decks after being hit by The Marley Mowat’s water cannons.
Captain Watson also manages to fit a lecture circuit into his busy schedule, during which he educates anyone willing to listen on the plight of whales, dolphins, seals, and sharks.
Sea Shepherd’s second vessel is on permanent patrol in the Galapagos area where Park Rangers are virtually helpless against the Ecuadorian fishing boats that brazenly ignore the protection afforded to the park by its world heritage site status. Even with Sea Shepherd’s vigilant patrols the rangers are so out numbered that fishermen have an almost unimpeded run of the islands and the Galapagos Sharks that once schooled in vast numbers around Darwin Island have all but vanished.
This kind of hard line activism is not for everyone. The Sea Shepherd crew have been deported, locked up, threatened, and roughed up on many occasions. Violent confrontations at sea may not fit with your particular code of behavior or ethics but what makes you more uncomfortable: sponsoring Sea Shepherd’s activities that achieve direct results in the protection of endangered creatures, or lobbying deaf government officials while the wholesale slaughter of our oceans sharks and whales continues unchallenged?
If Sea Shepherd seems like a worthwhile organization with which to take a stand, you can help them in a variety of ways. Joining Sea Shepherd with a modest contribution, helps with the provisioning, fueling, and maintenance of their ships. As a member you may also have the chance to sign on as a volunteer for a tour of duty on one of their campaigns. On their website they list what skills they are looking for in new crew members but they also take unskilled deckhands that are willing to work hard.
Filed under Sharks Organizations · Tagged with activism, age, amp, anyone, area, behavior, boat, campaign, Captain Paul Watson, Captain Watson, chance, circuit, Co, code, Continue, contribution, Costa Rica, costa rican waters, creature, crew, cruel practices, Darwin Island, duty, Ecuadorian, Educate, Endangered, EST, everyone, eye, Farley, farley mowat, fish, fishermen, fishing, fishing boats, fit, flag, founder, front, frontline, frontline work, frontline work protecting marine mammals, Galapagos, galapagos sharks, gene, general, Government, Greenpeace, hand, heritage, inactivity, Join, kind, land, laugh, lecture, leg, line, List, Lobby, longline, maintenance, Mammals, mandate, Marine, marine mammals, Marley, member, Mowat, number, ocean, ocean creatures, official, organization, Park, park rangers, part, patrol, Paul Watson, plight, practice, protect, protecting marine, protection, public, range, rat, Red, reputation, round, row, run, schedule, sea, Sea Shepherd, seal, shark, shark fish, shark fishing, Sharks, sharks and whales, Shepherd, ship, site, slaughter, stand, status, Styled, tag, threat, Threatened, tour, turn, US, variety, vessel, vigilant, Violent, violent confrontations, vision, volunteer, water, water cannons, way, Web, website, Whale, wholesale slaughter, Wide, With, work, world, world heritage site, Your
|
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
Over 100 million sharks are killed annually. Partly because of their fins for shark fish fin soup, as bycatch in up to 40 miles long drift nets of enormous fishing fleets, for medically completely ineffective cartilage powder or by the destruction of their habitats.
You will find shark products often at unexpected places as in restaurants, snack bars or supermarkets. Shark meat is offered also under various other names as Smoked Rock Salmon, Smoked Dogfish, a component of Fish & Chips or Imitation Crab Meat (Surimi). Also the worldwide protected and extremely threatened whale shark is on the Asian market (mainly Taiwan and Japan) still offered as Tofu Shark.
Besides the British the Germans consume most spiny dogfish. They produce the so-called “Schillerlocken” out of the sharks belly. The British use the spiny dogfish for “Fish & Chips “. This kind of shark is strongly overfished and its existence in the Northeast Atlantic decreased in the last 40 years by 90 percent.
Principal customers for shark fins are mainly eastern cultures in which shark fin soup represents a cultural meal. It is a remarkable fact that a shark fin, which consists to 90% out of cartilage, is extensively tasteless and only after days of boiling up in a broth becomes soft and gets the taste of the broth. Today shark fin soup is a status symbol because of the strongly risen prices within the last few years.
We can find shark products also in dog fodder, fish flour and even in fertilizers. From shark skin leather products such as purses, shoes or clock bracelets are produced.
Shark liver oil is frequently a component of the well-known cod-liver oil. In the health sector shark cartilage powders is marketed as fit making food additive although shark cartilages contains absolutely no fit making or other wholesome ingredients.
Most problematic is the marketing of shark cartilage as an anti-cancer means. The publication “Cancer Research” published in December 2004 confirms that shark cartilage preparations showed absolutely no effect against cancer.
However in the gel sector (food/pharmacy) shark collagen has few market chances although particularly Spain tries to penetrate into the market with shark collagen. Spain, one of the world largest shark fin producer, has 2002 forbidden to bring only the fins of sharks ashore. According to law the whole shark bodies must be brought now ashore. This leads now ridiculous-proves to the fact that out of the bodies the completely ineffective cartilage powder is made perforce.
In the cosmetics sector from shark cartilage won collagen is used for anti-fold creams and other preparations. Collagen from sharks is free of BSE and more kosher which makes it interesting for the Arab and Israeli markets.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with age, amp, Asia, asian, Atlantic, belly, British, broth, BSE, bycatch, Cancer, car, cartilage, cartilage powder, catch, cent, chance, clock, Co, cod liver oil, cod-liver, collagen, component, Crab, customer, day, December, decrease, destruction, dog, Dogfish, drift, drift nets, ear, eastern cultures, effect, EST, existence, fact, fin, fin soup, fins, fish, fish flour, fishing, fishing fleet, fishing fleets, fit, fleet, flour, fodder, food, force, gel, habitat, health, Imitation, imitation crab meat, Japan, kind, kosher, law, leather, liver, liver oil, market, marketing, meal, mean, meat, North, Northeast Atlantic, offer, oil, part, percent, perforce, pharmacy, place, powder, Principal, principal customers, producer, product, protect, public, publication, rat, rate, ratio, Red, research, rest, rise, Rock Salmon, Schillerlocken, sea, sector, shark, shark cartilage, shark fin soup, shark fins, shark fish, shark liver oil, shark meat, Shark Products, Sharks, side, skin, Smoked, snack, snack bars, soup, Spain, spiny, spiny dogfish, status, Surimi, symbol, Taiwan, taste, Tens, threat, Threatened, today, Tofu, US, use, Whale, whale shark, wholesome ingredients, Wide, With, world, world largest shark fin producer, worldwide, year
Following its acceptance of membership to the recently formed Shark Alliance, Save Our Sharks (SOS) attended the first anniversary and inaugural meeting of the Shark Alliance member groups in Brussels.
Around 35 delegates from 6 countries, U.K, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Holland attended plus the directors and staff from the Pew Charitable Trusts, who financed the meeting.
Save Our Sharks were represented by Nigel Proctor (on behalf of the SOS committee) who met up at Brussels airport with the Sea Anglers Conservation Network (Scotland) representative, and SOS liaison officer Denis Kelly.
“Fins On”
One of the principal proposals that came out the conference is to be headed “Fins On” where the aim is to have sharks landed whole. There will be a drive to raise public awareness of the issue, and we will try to capitalise on the IUCN red listing, and create further publicity.
“Shark Week”
Another proposal is to hold a “Shark Week” in each member country, where each country’s members create a project to involve the community, schools, museums, aquariums and the like to raise awareness of shark issues.
There will be more to follow on the above shortly
There were many other issues and points made, however, these are the principal ones
• Strive to raise public awareness of shark related issues,
• Create adequate publicity and maintain the pressure,
• Educate journalists away from ‘sensationalism’ without portraying sharks as an animal they clearly are not, they are apex predators, not cuddly, loveable ‘toys’,
• Pre-influence the journalist way of thinking prior to ‘shark week’ and Ocean Day,
• Feed the media with facts and data to ‘force’ the attention on sharks prior to EU discussions on shark management,
• Similarly with CITES,
• Important to maintain ‘shark friendly’ states and get them to lobby less friendly countries,
• Lobby the UK to dispense with its ‘special permits’,
• Ensure that the Shark Alliance has a high profile at the release and showing of the new shark film,
• Don’t alienate the fishing industry,
• Work with fishermen, more is likely to be achieved at a faster rate,
Denis and Nigel were made extremely welcome and clearly treated as being amongst equals, if but a little less experienced in the ways of policy and lobbying. Nigel stated after the meeting that, “We have made significant moves along the pathway of shark conservation and have little to fear in the future, in terms of acceptability, we have a lot to offer and should not be afraid to push forward with our objectives, we can gain a great deal from liaison with the other member groups of the Shark Alliance, however, we also have a great deal to offer as well”.
At the conference Nigel reiterated the high level of importance UK anglers attached to sharks, skates and rays, making the point that the bad old days of trophy fish were long gone. He finished off by indicating our commitment and referencing the prohibition on the landing of tope along the English east coast (c 200 miles of coastline) which to the best of our knowledge is the first full protection, and or prohibition on the landing of any shark species in European waters. This brought about a warm and consensual round of applause, which probably indicates that we are not outcasts any more, but highly regarded and welcome members of an important Shark Alliance.
Well done to Nigel and Denis for helping to put recreational shark fishing on the front-line of European shark conservation
The next few months
We are in for a quiet time in Scotland until after the elections but there is much to do, in England and Europe. We will be writing to our members shortly with more details, please get involved.
• Liaise with the Shark Trust to organise a “Shark Week” to raise public awareness with the overall goal of banning the removing of fins at sea.
• Lobby Defra to stop handing out special permits which allows finning on Porbeagles. Both of the above are part of the “Fins On” campaign.
• Keep pressure on Defra to announce the results of the tope consultation.
• Build up a case to take to the EU to implement tope management across Europe.
• Remind Defra of their intention to implement a maximum landing size on rays, skate and spurdog.
• Keep pressure on the Scottish Exec. to have the Firth of Lorne, Sound of Mull and surrounding lochs and waters designated as a Spurdog nursery area.
• Lobby the EU to have the 25 per cent by catch on rays implemented in all UK waters.
• Continue with the red tape to get SOS listed for charitable status. Once achieved we can apply for grants to help with the campaigning and administrative costs.
Filed under Save Sharks · Tagged with ability, acceptability, acceptance, age, aim, air, airport, Alliance, alliance member, amp, Anglers, animal, anniversary, apex, apex predators, applause, aquariums, area, attention, awareness, ban, behalf, Brussels, brussels airport, Build, campaign, campaigning, capitalise, case, catch, cent, CITES, Co, coast, coastline, commitment, committee, community, conference, conference in Brussels, consensual, conservation, conservation network, consultation, Continue, country, Data, day, deal, Defra, Denis, Denis Kelly, Director, dog, Don, drive, ear, Educate, England, English, Ensure, EST, Europe, European, european waters, Exec, experience, fact, fear, feed, film, fin, Finning, fins, Firth, fish, fishermen, fishing, force, form, France, front, future, gel, Germany, germany switzerland, Gland, goal, Great, group, half, hand, head, hold, Holland, importance, Important, inaugural meeting, industry, influence, intention, International, issue, Italy, IUCN, iucn red list, journal, journalist, knowledge, land, landing, leg, level, Liaise, liaison, liaison officer, line, List, listing, Lobby, Lorne, lot, management, maximum, meeting, member, member country, member groups, membership, mind, Mull, Network, network scotland, Nigel, Nigel Proctor, nursery, object, ocean, offer, officer, organise, part, pathway, Pew, pew charitable trusts, point, policy, porbeagle, Porbeagles, Pre-influence, predators, pressure, Principal, principal proposals, proctor, profile, prohibition, project, proposal, protect, protection, public, public awareness, publicity, rat, rate, ray, recreation, Red, release, Remind, representative, round, Save, Scotland, Scottish, sea, sea anglers, sensationalism, serv, shark, Shark Alliance, shark conservation, shark fish, shark fishing, shark species, shark trust, shark week, Sharks, ship, showing, size, skate, skates, SOS, Sound, Species, spurdog, staff, status, Strive, Switzerland, tape, term, The Shark Trust, time, tope, trophy, Trust, Trusts, U.K, UK, uk waters, US, use, water, way, Week, With, work
