Drowning in shark's fin soup
When Australian surfer Bradley Smith was killed in July by a suspected great white shark while riding the waves at Left Handers, a popular break near Margaret River, 280kms south of Perth, his family did something unexpected. They urged the authorities not to hunt and kill the man-eater.
Their reaction reflects a change in sentiment about sharks, as knowledge spreads about their condition. Despite being one of the fiercest predators in the ocean, the great white is increasingly vulnerable. So are many other shark species, as overfishing around the world and demand for their fins for soup, especially in Asia, decimates their ranks.
Indeed, one of the new regulations expected to be approved at a conservation meeting taking place in Bangkok, which ends next Thursday, will add the great white to the list of species requiring trade permits. The meeting is being attended by representatives of 166 governments that have signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It imposes controls on about 30,000 rare animals and plants to try to ensure their survival.
Opening the meeting last Saturday, Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that the value of the illegal trade in wildlife, timber and other natural resources was surpassed only by trafficking in drugs and weapons.
Conservationists say that the annual traffic in natural resources is a multibillion-dollar business, with some 65 per cent of it in timber and 25 per cent in fisheries food products. The scale of this trade attests to the damage being done to the world's forests and oceans by illegal logging and pirate fishing.
Global subsidies to marine fisheries are estimated to cost taxpayers more than US$50 billion a year. They fuel the overfishing and contribute to the decline of many marine species.
At least 100 million sharks are reportedly being caught annually for fins and other body parts, and as by-catch in netting. The World Conservation Union, the world's largest environmental knowledge network, says that the number of sharks and rays on its Red List of Threatened Species is growing. It says this is due mainly to the demand for shark's fin soup in China and Southeast Asian countries.
Most shark species grow slowly, mature late and produce few offspring, which means that they are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation. 'The problem now is that the high prices fishermen can get for these fins is driving the industry to overexploit the species most at risk,' said Fred O'Regan, president of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
While shark's fins are prized as a delicacy in Asia and elsewhere, most shark meat is of little value. To conserve onboard space for more valuable fish species while maximising profits from shark catches, the crew on many commercial fishing boats cut off the fins of sharks while they are still alive and toss the mortally wounded fish back into the sea. The fins themselves are dried and often end up in soup in Chinese restaurants all over the world, fetching wholesale prices of up to US$40 a kilo. A large bowl of premium shark's fin soup can sell for as much as US$150 in Hong Kong, Singapore or Taiwan.
Yet there is no scientific evidence to support claims that the much prized, noodle-like cartilage of the fin that thickens the soup has any beneficial medicinal qualities.
'Although many people say they like the taste, shark's fin is, in fact, tasteless,' said Victor Wu, who works with WildAid to raise public awareness in Asia about the shark slaughter. 'The flavour lies entirely in the broth, which is usually chicken-based.'
Michael Richardson is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. This is a personal comment
