Third of Ocean Sharks face extinction!

[Guest guest]

Every year millions of Sharks die a slow and painful death because of `Finning'.

Finning is a brutal way of hacking off a Shark's fins and throwing off its still

live body back into the sea to either die of starvation or being eaten alive by

other sea creatures. Most of them even drown because if they are not constantly

moving then their gills can't extract oxygen from the water, leading to a slow

and choking death. A truly callous and barbaric practice!!!! Since the 1970s the

population of several species has been reduced by over 95%.This practice should

immediately be stopped for the sake of an animal that has been around since

before the dinosaurs!

 

Warm Regards

Radhika Singh

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Earth/Flora--Fauna/Third-of-o\

cean-sharks-face-extinction/articleshow/4700256.cms

 

Third of ocean sharks face extinction

25 Jun 2009, 1021 hrs IST, AFP

 

PARIS: A third of the world's open water sharks, including the great white and

hammerhead, face extinction, according to a major conservation

 

survey released on Thursday.

 

Species hunted on the high seas are particularly at risk, with more than half in

danger of dying out, reported the Shark Specialist Group at the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

 

The main culprit is overfishing. Sharks are prized for their meat, and in Asia

especially for their fins, a prestige food thought to convey health benefits.

 

The survey of 64 species of open water, or pelagic, sharks -- the most

comprehensive ever done, comes days before an international meeting on high-seas

tuna fisheries that could potentially play a role in shark conservation.

 

For decades, significant numbers of sharks -- including blue and mako -- have

perished as " by-catch " in commercial tuna and swordfish operations.

 

More recently, the soaring value of shark meat has prompted some of these

fisheries to target sharks as a lucrative sideline, said Sonja Forham, Policy for the Shark Alliance, and co-author of the study.

 

The Spanish fleet of so-called surface longline fishing boats ostensibly targets

swordfish, but 70 percent of its catch, by weight, from 2000 to 2004 were

pelagic sharks.

 

" There are currently no restrictions on the number of sharks that these

fisheries can harvest, " Fordham told AFP by phone. " Despite mounting threats,

sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas. "

 

Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because most species take many

years to mature and have relatively few young.

 

Scientists are also set to meet in Denmark to issue recommendations on the

Atlantic porbeagle which, despite dwindling numbers, failed to earn protection

at the last meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species (CITES), in 2007.

 

Canada led the charge to block the protective measure, supported by Argentina,

New Zealand and some Asian countries.

 

Europe is the fastest growing market for meat from the porbeagle and another

species, the spiny dogfish.

 

The demand for shark fins, a traditional Chinese delicacy, has soared along with

income levels in China over the last decade. Shark carcasses are often tossed

back into the sea by fishermen after the fins are cut off.

 

Despite bans in international waters, this practice, known as " finning " , is

largely unregulated, experts say.

 

The report identified the great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharks, as

well as giant devil rays as globally endangered.

 

The smooth hammerhead, great white, basking, and oceanic whitetip sharks are

listed as globally vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of makos and

three types of threshers.

 

Some 100 million sharks are caught in commercial and sports fishing every year,

and several species have declined by more than 80 percent in the past decade

alone, according the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

 

The IUCN issues the Red List of Threatened Species, the most comprehensive and

authoritative conservation inventory of the world's plants and animals species.