Conservation Of Sharks

Sharks are especially vulnerable to fishing pressure because of their slow rates of maturation and reproductive turn-over. Sharks are unusually long lived and give birth to relatively minuscule numbers of young when compared to other types of fish. Because sharks have been so efficient as predators and scavengers they are a phenomenally successful group of animals that have gotten away with such low reproductive rates; however, the introduction of modern fishing methods have been devastating to shark populations world-wide.

In addition to being directly targeted in various commercial and recreational fisheries throughout the world, sharks are all too often captured incidentally as by-catch in tuna and billfish fisherries. The number of sharks caught annually by various high-seas fisheries between 1989 and 1991 has been estimated at 11.6 to 12.7 million. The long-line fisheries for tunas of Japan, Korea and Taiwan account for most of these by-catches.

The oceans of the world are being purged of sharks. The demand for shark meat, fins and cartilageare at an all time high. World population of humans is at an all time high and continues to grow. While the UN has rendered oversized frift gill-nets illegal, there is inadequate enforcement and a lack of overall judicial fortitude regarding high-seas poaching and overharvesting. Local independent grass-roots education and advocacy are crucial to the efforts of wildlife conservationists and management officials as well as scientific research is crucial to our understanding and protection of sharks from over exploitation.

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