If current trends continue, the world's shark stocks will be
depleted in ten years, experts warned Wednesday at the
International Shark Conservation Conference in Beijing.
About a third of the 450 shark species are threatened with
extinction, or are close to becoming threatened, said Sarah Fowler,
Co-chair of the IUCN (the World Conservation Union) Species
Survival Commission's Shark Specialist Group at a press
conference.
"Fisheries can remove 50 to 90 percent of an entire shark stock
in only ten years, and it takes over a century to recover from
severe depletion if fisheries close down completely," she said.
Fowler's worries were echoed by other shark specialists at the
meeting, who issued a number of recommendations calling for
collaboration, education and investment in protecting the animals
that have swum the world's oceans for over 400 million years.
"Better management should be introduced to halt and reverse the
depletion in threatened shark populations," said Steve Trent, a
founding director of the international conservation group WildAid,
the conference's co-sponsor.?
A WildAid report said a major reason for the sharp decrease of
sharks is the soaring demand for shark fin on the international
market, far surpassing sustainable levels for slow-reproducing
sharks.
Whilst some countries have tightened controls on some fish
species like tuna and cod, shark has become an alternative catch
for fishermen in west Africa and Europe, threatening the survival
of the "overlord of the sea".
Between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year
for their valued fins, according to Dr. Shelley Clarke, an American
fisheries scientist based in Hong Kong and Japan.
Most of the fins are flown into Asia, especially in China and
Southeast Asian countries, where they are considered a delicacy and
made into shark fin soup.
The annual shark fin trade has reached around 10,000 tons with
Hong Kong alone accounting for about 52 percent of the total,
according to Clarke.
"It is difficult to change people's dining habits, but we can
educate and engage the public to achieve sustainable development of
the sharks and people's dining culture," said Li Yanliang, deputy
general director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Aquatic Wild
Fauna and Flora Administrative Office, another sponsor of the
conference.
Currently, China's fisheries do not specialize in catching
sharks and catching them is strictly regulated in accordance with
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Flora and Fauna (CITES), which protects whale sharks, bask sharks
and white sharks, said Li.
In order to protect shark and fish stocks, China closes its
fisheries for two to three months every year and has invested 2
billion yuan (US$250 million) to retrain 120,000 fishers for jobs
in agriculture or industry since 2002, said Li.
The country is also amending the National Conservation List of
Key Aquatic Wildlife to include some endangered shark species, said
Li.?
(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)
