The FINished Foundation is a grass-roots shark conservation foundation based in Australia, run by Marine Zoologist Sara Keltie and Journalist and Filmmaker Joe Cashmore. At present our main campaign is against shark finning and the industries which support it. Our aim is to place public pressure upon those who partake in unsustainable, inhumane and illegal shark finning, whilst increasing public awareness of the severly detrimental effects this industry often places upon both environmental and human health.
In the past 30 years, it is estimated that 90% of the worlds’ shark populations have been eradicated! Much of which could be attributed to the hysteria following the ‘JAWS’ paraphernalia. However as the tides change on the issue of the danger of sharks in ‘our’ waters, why then do shark populations continue to fall and shark hunting industries only continue to profit?
Nowadays many are pointing the finger at the growing demand for the shark fins.
Used in many Asian cultures for a variety of reasons including for ceremonial purposes and aphrodisiacs, shark fins are also commonly used in the global Asian markets for the key ingredient of the aptly named ’shark fin-soup.’
Acquiring this most of essential ingredients involves the both illegal and brutal practise of hunting and catching the shark, slicing the fins off the still conscious animal and tossing the finless creature back in the water (like a human without legs). This of course leaves the creature to drown, as sharks require the constant movement of water over their gills for oxygen. This savage practise is performed merely so the fins can be boiled down and added to a flavoured both, as the fin itself only serves as a texture and status ingredient and has no flavour of its own.
Soup anybody?
As early as 2002 The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) recognised that shark species are being subject to unsustainable exploitation. A total of 115 shark species, or 23% of the worlds’ shark species, are currently listed on The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List.
A recent study conducted by the Australian government and the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic stated in its 57 page report: “As the world’s demand for sharks continues to grow, shark populations are plummeting.
“The Asian market for shark fin is the key driver of shark fishing globally and is fuelling illegal fishing and high levels of legitimate shark fishing of questionable sustainability.”
In August last year the World Wildlife Fund released a statement, with figures obtained from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, declaring 230 tonnes of shark fin were already being exported from Australia within the past 13 month period, equating to over 10,000 sharks, whilst importing over 10,000 kilograms of shark fin a year, equating to 26,000 sharks.
Plans have been put in place to introduce a shark fin fishery into the Great Barrier Reef (a World Heritage Area.) Rob Stewart, biologist and director of the ground-breaking documentary Sharkwater, recently remarked to members of the FINished campaign that given the financial value of the Great Barrier Reef as a tourist hotspot this fishery displays a horrifically “short sighted vision on behalf of the Australian government, when past studies have shown declines in shark populations to have severely detrimental impacts upon coral reefs, Australian tourisms greatest draw-card.” He went on to remark that referring to any shark fishing industry as sustainable is horribly misleading to the public as no research has viably supported the idea that this can truly be achieved.
Despite its high price as a food additive, many conservationists and divers are arguing that in fiscal terms, sharks are worth far more alive than dead. Studies have shown that over the period of its lifetime a single Ragged Tooth shark can be worth tens of thousands of dollars in tourism; as opposed to the average $90 US fisherman receive for a dead shark. Spokesman Nick Heath for the World Wildlife Fund told ABC News “We should actually be protecting them (Australia’s shark species) because more and more people around the world are becoming interested in seeing sharks and I think that all over the world they’re becoming so endangered we should make sure that people can pay big money to come from all over the world to see them.”
It has been reported that much of the products reaped from the slaughter will be exported, whilst we continue to import from unknown regions, from fisheries being conducted under unknown regulations, as there is no legal requirement when shipping shark fin products into Australia to declare from where and by whom they were sourced. With the trade in wild animals being such a lucrative business, is there any surprise that underhanded methods are being employed? In 2006 and 2007 alone, a total of 350 illegal fishing boats were intercepted in Australian waters, possessing 1.6 tonnes of shark fin collectively.
A popular method of shark fishing is the barbaric and non-discriminatory method of long line fishing, utilising lines stretching over kilometres, consisting of up to 400 baited hooks. These lines are just as likely to kill the many other local species as they are sharks – long lines do not discriminate and offer only a slow and painful death to any animal enticed. Locally, a New South Wales fisherman told ABC News “[I] went into shark fishery 12 months ago, the prawn industry was getting harder with the imported prawns, prices dropped, increase of fuel costs.” This individual for one has made the choice to utilise the ghastly long-line method.
Bycatch, however, is not the only means by which other members of the oceanic ecosystem are threatened. Sharks are alpha predators of the oceans, inhabiting the planet over 100 million years before the dinosaurs, the ocean has been shaped by their presence and hence their loss would be devastating to the marine food chain, as well as causing a potential fissure on the global oxygen cycle. In many regions around the world scientific analysis has shown that the depletion of shark populations has lead to the collapse of other, otherwise sustainable and financially sounds fisheries.
Shark losses can initiate major restructuring of marine ecosystems, leading to rapid increase of grazing fish in the absence of their natural predator. As a result, the consumption of crucial phytoplankton would exponentially increase. These microscopic beings may well be our greatest allies in the fight against climate change, processing the ability to photosynthesise the greenhouse gas CO2 into 70% of the planets oxygen supply!
It truly has become the case that in the fight against climate change, we need to save our oceans, and it is herein that sharks are amongst our greatest allies!
The going trend is that shark bites lead to an average of 5 human deaths annually, most if not all can be traced back mistaken identity on the sharks behalf – whereas the number of sharks hunted each year have been reported to stand at 100 million. And we know what we’re looking at…
All this for some tasteless cartilage…
However the global effects of the amount of fishing being conducted, to meet the demand for the shark fin market, leaves a rather bitter taste in ones mouth.
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