Sharks in Danger

Normally you’d think dangerous sharks, but the reality is completely different. Sharks are becoming endangered. Studies now show that a third of shark species are in danger of becoming extinct if the fin harvesting rates are not stopped. Finning is the brutal practice of removing and keeping a shark’s fins, leaving the shark alive and helpless in the water. Left to suffocate or be eaten by predators, millions of fins are processed every year from sharks. Some countries ban the practice of finning and require the entire shark be brought to dock before fins are removed. Sadly finning is still heavily practiced today among fishermen. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature; depending on the species, a fin can bring a fishermen anywhere between 100USD to 20,000USD, and it is estimated by several independent studies (including those of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN) that anywhere between 12 – 56 million sharks are harvested annually for their fins, although these estimates may be conservative. Studies also show the global shark trade to be in range of 500 million to 1.2 billion USD annually. Sharks are a very valuable part of the ocean’s ecosystem because of the balance that these incredible predators create. Sadly they are dying off, and soon they will be a memory in our minds, and then eventually only pages in a textbook; unless the harvesting rates are drastically lowered or stopped altogether. Project Aware has an incredible page devoted to shark finning awareness, and although many countries have indeed legislated finning bans, it still doesn’t seem to slow the ever decreasing shark population in the earth’s oceans.