SHARK FINNING: UNRECORDED WASTAGE ON A GLOBAL SCALE
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Shark finning can bedefined as the on-boardremoval of a shark’s finsand the discarding atsea of the remainder ofthe shark. The animal issometimes alive duringthis process
BACKGROUND
The widespread practice of shark finning isthe result of a combination of factors:increasing demand for shark fin,theindustrialisation of fishing techniques andthe changing economics of catching andtransporting fish products.It is likely that the volume of wholesharks landed by fishing vessels around theworld once provided sufficient fins tosupply the fin markets of east Asia andamongst east Asian communities world-wide.However,as shark meat is inferior tothat of most commercially-exploited fishspecies,particularly tuna and billfish,theprofits to be made from shark meat arenaturally much lower.Limited on-boardstorage space,combined with the increasingvalue of shark fin,has made it economicallyadvantageous to discard the bulky sharkbodies while retaining the valuable fins,which can be sun dried and stored verycompactly without refrigeration.The prevalence of shark finning isserious enough for the UN Food andAgriculture Oranisation (FAO) to havemade recommendations for ending it.For the FAO,with its strong emphasis on globalfood security,the decline in sharkpopulations has become a cause of concern.In its 1999 International Plan of Actionfor the Conservation and Management of Sharks,the FAO recommended thatMember States implement National Plansof Action for sharks.The plan recommendsthat Member States seek to “minimizewaste and discards from shark catches inaccordance with article 7.2.2.(g) of theCode of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries(for example,requiring the retention of sharks from which fins are removed)”
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.A ban on shark finning,not only withinindividuals nations’own waters but also onthe high seas would therefore be entirelyconsistent with the FAO’srecommendations.Data on shark finning are hard to find:itis not a practice that the fishing industry isparticularly proud of and,since the practiceoccurs at sea,the only witnesses aregenerally crew members,who benefit fromthe income from the fins.However,there isenough evidence to suggest that finning iswidespread in numerous fisheries,thathuge numbers of sharks are finned every year and that the vast majority of thesemortalities go unreported.A combination of two factors has led toan explosion in the demand for shark finsoup.Firstly,the rapid expansion of east Asianeconomies,particularly that of mainlandChina,has created a vastly increased middle-class sector with disposable income.Whatbegan as a rare and expensive delicacy is nowstandard fare at most weddings and corporatefunctions.Secondly,the consumption of shark fin soup in China,previously frowned-upon as an elitist practice,was politically“rehabilitated”in 1987
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.The result was amassive upswing in the international fintrade,prompting fishermen worldwide totarget sharks for their fins and to remove thefins from sharks caught as bycatch in other fisheries.Fin traders have systematicallyspread the word that fins are valuable tofishermen the world over,often providingequipment and monetary advances in order to secure fins.Sharks are increasingly targeted
Above:
Finned shark in the Surin Archipelago, Andaman sea
It is impossible to establish how manysharks are finned annually, as fewfishers admit to finning sharks. Onlyoccasionally, when large quantities offins without corresponding carcasses areseized, is the event recorded. However,the IUCN Shark Specialist Group hasmade the following assessment:
“An initial comparison of some national shark landings data and Hong Kong finimport data from these countriesindicate a significant mismatch (based on widely-employed fin to body ratiosfor shark carcasses). The conclusion wedraw is that the fins of tens of millionsof sharks ‘missing’ from the landingsdata of many nations are appearing inHong Kong. Some of this mismatch may be due to underreporting of sharklandings, but observer data from high seas fisheries and reports of fin fisheriesin some developing countries indicatethat many millions of sharks are beingfinned and discarded at sea
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THE EXTENT OF SHARK FINNING
© K a n c h a i T a e c h a w a n w a k i n
for their fins in marine reserves,where arelatively small vessel can quickly decimateshark populations.
AUSTRALIAN FINNING
Few governments have studied,let alonepublished data on,the prevalence of finning on board their vessels.Australia isone of the very few countries,possibly theonly one,that has systematically
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