Man Eating Shark More Threat Than Man-Eating Sharks?

Every once in awhile, triggered by a notable incident, the summer news finds itself dominate by stories of shark attacks. The numbers likely have not gone up any more than usual: 15 deaths a year due to shark attack. But it was a dramatic topic. When was the last time that you read, heard, or watched a story about death-by-cocoanut, which results in 150 deaths a year?

Don't worry. You won't hear all that much about shark attacks as the years roll by. The sharks are being decimated, if that's not too weak a word.

That naturally includes the mere dozen or so species of nearly 400 that are actually a threat to humans. These predecessors of the dinosaur are being wiped out to the point that about 90% of all large predatory fish on the planet are gone.

Shark Food

Up to 73 million sharks a year are killed worldwide, often just for their fins used in traditional medicine, but more conspicuously in shark-fin soup, an expensive Chinese culinary favorite served at weddings and formal occasions. Some medicines utilize shark cartilage.

There is a huge amount of waste. Sharks are frequently harvested simply for the fins for the growing Chinese market, resulting in 98% wastage of the shark which is frequently dumped overboard, still alive, once the fin has been hacked off.

The market reaches worldwide. In South Africa, researchers reported that shark net catches resulted in 13 hammerhead sharks a year from 1978 and 1993, two annually after 2000, and none since 2004. In 2007, even the US exported 4,160 tons of shark meat.

Sharks in Jeopardy

The result is arguably that sharks are being terribly overfished. In all, 135 of the 400 shark species are listed as endangered.

Sharks are especially vulnerable because they normally have long lives and few young.

As with blue fin tuna, shark catchers find prices rising as the harvests go down.

Impact of Shark Extinction

The disappearance of the sharks can have a devastating impact on the ocean food chain.

The population of rays and skates is exploding as their natural predator is reduced in numbers.Larger numbers of rays and skates are destroying scallops and other shellfish whose function as a water filter.

The fish on which sharks preyed are reducing the numbers of parrot fish which control algae growth on coral reefs, jeopardizing the reef systems.

Conservation

Some conservation measures have been taken by various governments but the sharks continue to disappear.

Conservationists would like to set catch limits for individual species as has been done with whales. All sharks caught to the legal size limit for that species would be recorded. Some endangered shark species would be fully protected.

But will that happen?