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  National Geographic 12 Oct 06
38 Million Sharks Killed for Fins Annually, Experts Estimate
Nicholas Bakalar

Underwatertimes 25 Sep 06
World Fin Trade Industry Estimated to Harvest 23 to 73 Million Sharks per Year; 'Real Data'

Yahoo News 26 Sep 06
Shark Slaughter: 73 Million Killed Each Year
Ker Than LiveScience.com

The world's booming shark fin trade is killing up to 73 million sharks per year—about three times more than the official catch number reported to the United Nations, a new study concludes.

The findings, derived using data collected from illegal shark fin traders, are detailed in the October issue of the journal Ecology Letters.

"The shark fin trade is notoriously secretive. But we were able to tap into fin auction records and convert from fin sizes and weights to whole shark equivalents to get a good handle on the actual numbers," said study leader Shelley Clarke, an American fisheries scientist who works in Hong Kong and Japan.

Tons of shark flesh

The researchers arrived at their figure using a unique statistical model and data obtained from cooperative traders of shark fins in Hong Kong. Converting the figures to shark weights, they estimated that about 1.7 million tons of shark flesh is harvested each year.

This translates to about 73 million sharks. That's three to four times higher than the figure estimated by United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which keeps track of official shark catch records provided by member countries.

The FAO's estimates for the amount of shark biomass caught each year range from 0.39 to 0.60 million tons per year.

The new figure is the first fishery-independent estimate of the global shark catch for the shark fin trade, the researchers say.

Sliced alive

Fins are the most valuable parts of a shark and are used in shark fin soup, a delicacy served at Chinese weddings and business dinners in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Sharks are often still alive when their fins are sliced off, and their bodies are thrown back into the sea.

Scientists worry that the demand for shark fins could soon outpace the abilities of sharks to reproduce.

This is probably already happening for one species, the blue shark, the researchers say. Their findings suggest that the current trade in blue sharks is close to or possibly even exceeding the species' maximum yield levels.

Data for other shark species is less complete, but the researchers think a similar thing might be happening to them as well.

"It is quite likely that sustainable catch levels have already been exceeded in some cases," Clarke said.

Ripple effects

The overfishing of sharks could have serious effects for the entire marine food chain in some ecosystems.

Another recent study found that removing sharks from a reef environment in the Caribbean had a trickling effect on other species. Without sharks, carnivorous fish that the sharks usually fed on thrived. The carnivorous fish, in turn, preyed on parrotfish that kept the corals clean.

In time, the reefs changed from one dominated by coral to one overrun by algae.

Underwatertimes 25 Sep 06
World Fin Trade Industry Estimated to Harvest 23 to 73 Million Sharks per Year; 'Real Data'

Miami, Florida (Sep 25, 2006 20:06 EST) The first real-data study of sharks harvested for their valuable fins estimates as few as 26 million and as many as 73 million sharks are killed each year worldwide—three times higher than was reported originally by the United Nations, according to a paper published as the cover story in the October 2006 edition of Ecology Letters.

“The shark fin trade is notoriously secretive. But we were able tap into fin auction records and convert from fin sizes and weights to whole shark equivalents to get a good handle on the actual numbers,” says lead author Shelley Clarke, Ph.D, an American fisheries scientist based in Hong Kong and Japan.

A team of researchers calculated the number of sharks represented in the fin trade using a unique statistical model and data from Hong Kong traders. When the figures were converted to shark weight, the total is three to four times higher than shark catch figures reported to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

“Without any real data, numbers as high as 100 million had been floating around for a while, but we had no way of knowing whether or not this was accurate,” says Ellen Pikitch, Ph.D., co-author and executive director of the University of Miami’s Pew Institute for Ocean Science.

“This paper, which produces the first estimate based on real data, shows that the actual number of sharks killed is indeed very high but is more likely to be in the order of tens of millions, with a median estimate of 38 million sharks killed annually.”

Concern about the shark finning trade has grown over the past few years as demand has surged beyond sustainable levels for slow-to-produce shark populations and without regulation in most countries.

Three shark species are listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), and 20 percent are threatened with extinction according to the 2006 Red List of Threatened Species.

Used in shark fin soup, a delicacy served at Chinese weddings and other celebrations for centuries and more recently at business dinners in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim, fins are the most valuable part of the shark, which typically are sliced off as the shark, sometimes still alive, is thrown back into the ocean.

The shark fin trade appears to be keeping pace with the growing demand for seafood—up five percent per year in mainland China.

Determining whether shark populations can continue to withstand the magnitude of catches estimated by Clarke and her team depends upon the size and status of each population.

“One of the most productive sharks is the blue shark, and it appears that the catch rate is near the maximum sustainable level,” says Clarke. “But such assessments were not available for other, less productive shark species. It is quite likely that sustainable catch levels have already been exceeded in some cases.”

The United Nations FAO compiles catch records for sharks and other fish, based on information submitted from member countries. Where possible, the FAO attempts to verify the accuracy of the figures, but verification often is not practical.

Many sharks may be recorded as unidentified fish and thus not be recognizable as sharks in the FAO records.

“Due to the low value of shark meat in many markets, shark fins may be the only part of the shark retained, and often these fins are not recorded in the catch log or when landed at ports. I knew we had to somehow access the major markets if we were to accurately estimate the number of sharks killed,” says Pikitch, who initiated the project.

National Geographic 12 Oct 06
38 Million Sharks Killed for Fins Annually, Experts Estimate
Nicholas Bakalar

Some chicken stock, a few mushrooms, chicken breast, scallions, a little sherry, oil, spices—shark fin soup is fairly easy to prepare.

But to make soup for six, you'll also need about a pound (half a kilogram) of shark fin meat.

Demand for that crucial ingredient has led to the killing of a median of about 38 million sharks a year, according to a new study that offers what may be the first reliable estimates of the number of sharks killed for their fins.

The United Nations has estimated that only about ten million sharks are harvested each year. Some conservationists, however, put the number at closer to a hundred million. But until now estimates of the shark harvest were little more than guesses, because the numbers depended on shark fishers to report their catches.

The shark-fin industry, concentrated in a few Asian trading centers, is secretive and wary of any attempts to regulate, or even investigate, its practices. To make matters murkier, most fisheries-management groups give little attention to sharks, because they are often considered bycatch—fish caught by accident—given their low value per pound.

"Apart from implementing various restrictions on the finning of sharks at sea in some countries—e.g., the U.S. and the EU—investment in setting up fisheries-management systems for sharks has been nonexistent for most shark fisheries," said study co-author Murdoch McAllister of the United Kingdom's Imperial College London.

How It Works

Murdoch and his colleagues' new, mathematical estimating method uses trade records from commercial markets and genetic techniques to identify species. In their effort to accurately estimate the number of fins harvested—and therefore the number of sharks killed— the scientists conducted interviews with traders and studied almost 400 fin samples.

In the end the researchers concluded that from 1996 to 2000 26 to 73 million sharks were traded yearly.

The annual median for the period was 38 million—nearly four times the UN estimates but considerably lower than those of many conservationists.
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