According to a new study, in the past decade, shark and ray meat is being consumed at a significantly higher rate. In the report, it is estimated that the worldwide trade in shark meat and fins has reached nearly $1 billion. Ultimately, this increasingly popular market is threatening the existence of many of the oceans shark and ray species.
Although over the past few years there has been much progress in reducing the worldwide demand for shark fins, consuming shark meat has increased in popularity. According to a new 200-page report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, between 2000 and 2010, the market for shark meat increased by 42 percent.
Shelley Clarke, a co-author of the report, reveals that the study’s conclusions correlates with what researchers had already begun to suspect. “We had a sense that the shark meat trade was increasing.” However, despite this, the collected data surprised the team. “The magnitude of the increase and the extent to which it is concentrated in Brazil for shark meat, and Korea for skate and ray meat, were striking,” said Clarke. The report explains that these new markets for shark meat have emerged due to globalization.
Because sharks “grow slowly, mature late, and bear few young,” populations are finding it increasingly difficult to recover from decades of over fishing. Every year, about 100 million sharks are killed, making it impossible for species to stabilize their populations. Some species have lost as much as 99 percent of their populations.
“These species are in global crisis,” said Luke Warwick, acting director of the global shark conservation campaign for The Pew Charitable Trusts. “The widespread global meat and fin markets showcased in this report demonstrate the scale of the problem these top oceanic predators face.”
According to the report, laws that were designed to reduce the shark fin trade and improve shark populations, are partially responsible for this increase. The instatement of these regulations, which encourage people to use the entire shark, has resulted in many fishermen keeping the entire shark instead of dumping the carcasses back into the ocean after chopping off the fins.
Although this practice may appear unprogressive, it is not without its benefits; shark species are near impossible to identify from their fins alone, making species identification and the catching estimates of many countries inaccurate. However, when the entire carcass is brought to shore “scientists better understand the status of various populations and what further steps are necessary to conserve them.”
It is hoped that the report will help provide researchers with a better understanding of the shark trade and enable nations to improve the way they manage shark products. This new insight, combined with a variety of shark conservation efforts—such as the new rules that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species enacted to protect five shark species and all related manta rays, and the 10 newly established shark sanctuaries—will hopefully aid in the fight against the shark market and help restore populations to a sustainable level.
Image Credit: Mbour (Senegal) Wikimedia Commons
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