Majority of Oceanic Shark Species Face Extinction

LiveScience Yahoo News 22 May 08;

More than 50 percent of wide-ranging oceanic shark species are threatened with extinction as a result of overfishing, according to a new study.

The research, conducted by 15 scientists from institutes around the world and organized by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, focused on oceanic pelagic sharks and rays, including great white sharks, whale sharks, crocodile sharks, bigeye threshers, basking sharks, shortfin makos, longfin makos, salmon sharks, silky sharks, porbeagle sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, blue sharks, manta rays, spinetail devilrays, giant devilrays and Chilean devilrays.

The team determined that 16 out of the 21 oceanic shark and ray species that are caught in high seas fisheries are at heightened risk of extinction due primarily to targeted fishing for valuable fins and meat as well as indirect take in other fisheries.

In most cases, these catches are unregulated and unsustainable. The increasing demand for the delicacy "shark fin soup," driven by rapidly growing Asian economies, means that often the valuable shark fins are retained and the carcasses discarded.

This is the first study to determine the global threat status of 21 species of wide-ranging oceanic sharks and rays, said study leader Nicholas Dulvy of the Centre for Environment, Fishers and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory in the United Kingdom.

The findings, as well as recommendations for conservation action, are detailed in the latest issue of the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. The research was funded by the Lenfest Ocean Series Program.

Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring.

"Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have the opportunity and the obligation to halt and reverse the rate of loss of biodiversity and ensure sharks and rays are exploited sustainably," Dulvy said.

"The current rate of biodiversity loss is ten to a hundred times greater than historic extinction rates, and as humans make increasing use of ocean resources it is possible that many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat," said Dulvy, now based at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

"This does not have to be an inevitability. With sufficient public support and resulting political will, we can turn the tide," he said.

The group's specific recommendations for governments address the need to:

* Establish and enforce science-based catch limits for sharks and rays.

* Ensure an end to shark finning (removing fins and discarding bodies at sea).

* Improve the monitoring of fisheries taking sharks and rays.

* Invest in shark and ray research and population assessment.

* Minimize incidental catch (bycatch) of sharks and rays.

* Cooperate with other countries to conserve shared populations..

"The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure," said team member Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and policy director of the Shark Alliance, based in Belgium.

"Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks," she said. "Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fisheries are to be sustainable."

Taste for fins threatens sharks with extinction: study
Yahoo News 22 May 08;

Overfishing driven in part by an insatiable appetite for shark-fin soup has threatened 11 species of the ocean-dwelling predators with extinction, according to a report released on Thursday.

The first study to assess the worldwide status of 21 species of pelagic sharks and rays -- those living and hunting in open seas -- found that more than half are rapidly being fished out of existence.

Particularly vulnerable species include the short-finned mako, the thresher and the silky, said the report, to be published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.

"Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks," said co-author Sonja Fordham, a researcher at the Ocean Conservancy and Shark Alliance in Brussels.

"Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fisheries are to be sustainable."

Many big shark species have fallen prey to booming Asian economies where shark-fin soup is prized as a must-have delicacy at weddings and other banquet occasions. The fins are often sliced off of living fish which are then discarded in the sea.

Accidental "by-catch" by industrial fishing operations have also decimated shark populations, the study said.

Sharks and big rays are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they take many years to reach sexual maturity and have relatively few offspring.

"We are losing species at a rate 10 to 100 times greater than historic rates," said the study's lead author, Nicholas Dulvy, a professor at Sime Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

The report, presented at a major UN conference on biodiversity in Bonn, calls for the establishment and enforcement of science-based catch limits for sharks and rays, and a ban on the practice of "shark finning."

The 11-day Bonn conference seeks to prevent the destruction of countless plant and animal species.

It is the ninth of its kind of countries who signed up to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

Six more sharks join endangered list
Charles Clover, The Telegraph 22 May 08;

More than half of the world’s sharks are under threat of extinction, conservationists warned on Thursday.

Six more of the sharks were added to the official Red List of species at risk of dying out yesterday bringing the total to 11 sharks and rays out of 21 species studied, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The six named were the Thresher shark, Silky shark, Shortfin mako, the Pelagic thresher, the Bigeye thresher and the Salmon shark.

They join a list already occupied by the Whale shark, Great white shark, Megamouth shark and Basking shark.

Experts from IUCN said the sharks, commonly found in shallow waters as opposed to deep waters, were threatened both by direct fishing for their valuable fins and meat, as well as indirect by catch in other fisheries.

In most fisheries, they said, catches were unregulated and not subject to any management measures intended to ensure the species' survival.

Sonja Fordham, deputy chairman of the IUCN's shark specialist group, said: "The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure.

"Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks. Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fisheries are to be sustainable."

The study, published in the journal, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater ecosystems, says that increasing demand for the delicacy "shark's fin soup," driven by rapidly growing Asian economies, meant that often the valuable shark fins were retained and the carcasses discarded.

Frequently, discarded sharks and rays were not even recorded. Sharks and rays are vulnerable to overfishing because they take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring.

Nicholas Dulvy, from Simon Fraser university, Vancouver, said: "Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have a real obligation to improve this situation.

"We are losing species at a rate 10 to 100 times greater than historic extinction rates. Humans are making increasing use of ocean resources so many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat. But it doesn't have to be like this. With sufficient public support and resulting political will, we can turn the tide."
# A bell was rung on Thursday on the cliff-top site of a proposed stone memorial to extinct species at Portland on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.

The wringing of the bell, by Alex Wood, a Portland schoolgirl was the latest step in a campaign to build a stone memorial to the 845 species known to have become extinct in modern times.

The project is backed by the novelist, Philip Pullman, the scientist, James Lovelock and Tim Smit of Cornwall's Eden project.

On Thursday, International Day of Biodiversity, the bell was transported to London where it was rung again on the steps of St Paul's by Chris Barnes, an actor dressed as Robert Hooke, Sir Christopher Wren's architectural assistant, who saw giant ammonites in the stone leading him to the idea that species could go extinct.

The idea is that the interior of the memorial will be carved with images of the species that have gone extinct and a bell tolled each year for extinct species on May 22.

Fin soup threatens survival of ocean sharks - study
Madeline Chambers, Reuters 22 May 08;

BERLIN, May 22 (Reuters) - Overfishing partly caused by booming demand for shark fin soup, a delicacy in some Asian countries, is threatening the existence of 11 kinds of ocean sharks, an international study showed on Thursday.

The fish, often seen as ferocious sea predators, suffer from largely unregulated fishing for their valuable fins, said the report into 21 species of sharks and rays living in the open oceans.

The experts who wrote the study, organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, also urged governments to quickly impose catch limits.

"The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure," Sonja Fordham, report co-author and deputy head of the IUCN's shark specialist group, said.

Thresher sharks, silky sharks and the shortfin mako are all under threat, said the report, presented at a May 19-30 U.N. biodiversity conference in the city of Bonn.

The sharks, all "pelagic" or living in the open ocean, include large species such as the whale shark and great white shark. Although relatively few compared to coastal and deep sea sharks, a greater number of pelagic species is under threat.

"The increase in demand for shark fin soup in countries like China is a major driver of the problem," Fordham told Reuters, noting that growing affluence in China, where the soup is served as a treat at celebrations, is behind its increasing popularity.

Fishers from all over the world catch and trade sharks for their lucrative fins, often discarding their carcasses, said Fordham, noting Indonesia and Spain are among the top culprits.

Seven ocean pelagic shark species will be added to the IUCN 2008 "Red List" of endangered species, bringing the total to 21.

Sharks and rays are especially vulnerable as they take many years to reach sexual maturity and have few offspring.

Research shows the disappearance of shark species could lead to the demise of other species by upsetting the natural balance in the world's oceans.

Governments should set up catch limits for sharks and rays and ensure an end to shark finning, said the report. It also recommended a better monitoring of fisheries, more investment in research and closer international cooperation.

"Humans are making increasing use of ocean resources so many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat," said Nicholas Dulvy, lead author of the study published in "Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems".

"But it doesn't have to be like this. With sufficient public support and political will, we can turn the tide." (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by David Fogarty)

Related links

You can swim but you can’t hide – more oceanic sharks on the IUCN Red List
on the IUCN website