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  KABC-TV 26 Jun 07
Predator Is Prey: Sharks Killed for Fins
Estimated 100 Million Sharks Killed Every Year
KABC WORLD NEWS

(KABC-TV) - Sharks get a bad rap in the media, often portrayed as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters. But there's a profound change going on in the world's oceans, as sharks go from predator to prey.

It's estimated 100 million sharks are killed every year. The overwhelming majority are killed just for their fins.

It's a global issue with a Southern California connection. The largest shark-fin bust and the largest shark-poaching bust in U.S. history were both handled by California authorities over the last few years.

In one case 32 tons of sharks were discovered aboard a boat that was later escorted into San Diego Harbor. But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the escalating and largely illegal worldwide trade in shark fins.

We want to warn you some of the images you're about to see are graphic. It's a pillage of devastating proportions.

Roy Torres is an undercover agent for NOAA's federal law-enforcement for the high seas.

Torres: "As soon as they can cut the fins off, get the bodies, carcasses back overboard, they send them back over alive. They don't have any ability to swim because they don't have any fins, so they sink to a slow death at the bottom of the ocean. And it's happening to millions and millions of sharks."

Up to 100 million sharks every year, rattling the top of the eco-system, the effects felt on every species beneath this apex predator of the deep.

Rob Stewart: "I needed to know why people were killing sharks."

Filmmaker Rob Stewart embarked on a dangerous journey to document their plight for his upcoming movie "Sharkwater." And here's what he found off the Galapagos. Two boats trailing 60 miles of fishing lines, strung with 16,000 baited hooks.

Stewart: "I hopped in the water as fast as I could and brought my cameras and tried to film what we could find on the long lines. For 60 miles sharks were dying on those lines. They struggle so much they entangle themselves and suffocate."

Stewart cut free the few sharks that were still alive. Then he teamed up with renegade conservationist captain Paul Watson.

Stewart: "I joined Paul in Los Angeles aboard the Sea Shepherd ship 'The Ocean Warrior.'" During filming, Rob Stewart and Captain Paul Watson battled shark poachers, pirate-boat rammings, gunboat chases, attempted murder charges. And a bout with flesh-eating disease that almost took Stewart's leg. Stewart risked his life to get these images.

Thousands of shark fins drying on a roof in Costa Rica. All to satisfy the exploding demand for shark-fin soup.

Steve Blair, a marine biologist at the Aquarium of the Pacific: "The demand for shark-fin soup is incredibly high and there are many Asian countries where it is considered a delicacy."

A delicacy that China's burgeoning middle class can now afford. Shark-fin soup is a status symbol in China, often served at weddings and other celebrations. Ironically, the fins themselves are tasteless, prized for their texture, not their flavor.

Rob Stewart: "A single pound of fin is worth more than $200." Profit is the motive. Fishermen cut off the fins and toss the rest of the shark back into the ocean -- alive -- because shark meat is less profitable than the fins. The fewer shark bodies on board the boat, the more fins can be hauled ashore and sold for $200 a pound.

Stewart: "There's so much money in fins that only trafficking in drugs rivals fins for profit."

This is the "King Diamond II" escorted by the Coast Guard into San Diego Harbor. On board? Thirty-two tons of shark fins stuffed into every available compartment, above deck and below. The haul represented 16,000-20,000 sharks slaughtered just for their fins.

And this is the "El Vencedor," a Mexican fishing boat stopped this March by a San Diego-based Coast Guard cutter in U.S. waters. Michelle Zetwo, NOAA special agent: "There were approximately 20,000-23,000 pounds of sharks on board, primarily blue sharks."

It's not illegal to catch most species of sharks in U.S. waters. But to prevent "finning," fishermen must also "land" or bring ashore the corresponding shark carcasses.

Roy Torres: "It's a very lucrative industry."

U.S. customs and border protection reports that more than 20 tons of shark fins were legally shipped into L.A. Harbor in the last year and a half.

Roy Torres: "I don't believe we have a handle on the total number of shark fins coming into this country, because some are smuggled in."

Torres: "The various agencies tasked with inspecting these shipments are understaffed."

Web sites like Alibaba.com facilitate the sale of shark fins around the world, with one wholesaler boasting he can source and sell two tons of shark fins a month.

Patric Douglas of Shark Diver is part of a coalition of shark conservationists pressuring California-based Yahoo Inc. -- which has a 40-percent stake in Alibaba -- to stop the practice.

Douglas: "Yahoo has a one-billion-dollar stake in Alibaba.com. Alibaba is the New York Stock Exchange of shark fins on the Internet, moving thousands and thousands of tons of shark fins worldwide. This is completely unacceptable."

Yahoo tells Eyewitness News in part: "We know the sale of shark products is both legal in Asia and a centuries-old tradition. This issue is largely a cultural-practices one."

Ira Gass of Azusa did not kill sharks, but he was part of a poaching ring that illegally took thousands of undersized leopard sharks out of California waters over the last decade.

Torres: "They're harvested, thrown on planes and shipped all over the world. Toward the end, the sharks going for $300-$400 apiece." Ira Gass went to prison last month, but he wasn't the worst of the worst.

Others found more profit targeting pregnant leopard sharks. Torres: "They would catch a mother, and just get her, take the babies out, leave the carcass, the mother flailing there on the beach."

All part of a worldwide assault on sharks, raising the very real possibility that after 400 million years on Earth, these prehistoric animals could soon be extinct.
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