Sharks and rays are threatened by the demand for fins, fisheries bycatch, overfishing, and pollution of our oceans. Learn more about the issues facing sharks.
Shark Finning
Shark Finning
Shark finning is the practice of catching a live shark, slicing off its fins and then dumping the still-living shark back in the ocean where it drowns, bleeds to death or is consumed by predators.
An entire shark takes up a lot of room on a boat so fishermen eliminate the bodies and just keep the shark fins, which is the most profitable part of a shark.
Shark finning is largely illegal, but enforcement worldwide is sorely lacking and is still happening in many parts of the world. Fishing fleets routinely exploit loopholes or ignore regulations altogether, and corrupt authorities often turn a blind eye.
Shark finning occurs worldwide and not just in the high seas. Even protected areas such as the Galapagos, Revillagigedo Islands, Cocos Islands, and the Marshall Islands, are targeted by illegal fisheries.
Why? For an Asian soup called shark fin soup. Demand for shark fin soup has fueled the multi-million dollar shark fin industry and is responsible for many of the estimated 73 million sharks killed every year.
You can help stop shark finning by showing your support to US Congress. Use your voice and show your support here.
Fisheries Bycatch
Fisheries Bycatch
In addition to targeted fisheries, bycatch from the fishing industry kills millions of sharks and other wildlife every year and accounts for about half of global shark catches.
In the northeast Atlantic Ocean, 89% of hammerhead sharks and 80% of thresher sharks have disappeared in the last two decades as a result of bycatch.[6] Most fishing nations, including the U.S., underreport their shark bycatch and much of the fishing worldwide is illegal or unreported, meaning accurate assessment of bycatch numbers is challenging.[7] Longlines, gillnets, trawl fishing and purse seiners are methods of fishing that indiscriminately catch far more than their targeted species.
Longline Fisheries
Longline fisheries present one of the highest risks to sharks.
Oceanic fishing fleets targeting valuable tuna and billfish, use thousands of baited hooks on miles of lines. Sharks can make up 25-32% of the total catch on longlines and survival rates for these sharks are slim. Up to 59% die before being brought aboard, a further 30% of those surviving haul back might die during handling and, of the few remaining individuals that survive till this point, up to 19% die after release.[8]
Until relatively recently, this shark ‘bycatch’ was considered a nuisance, and sharks were cut loose and allowed to swim away. However, as shark fins have become increasingly valuable, sharks are now deliberately targeted by these same fisheries, with captured sharks finned while alive and then tossed overboard to die.
Combined the U.S. and Canadian pelagic longline swordfish fishery in the northwest Atlantic caught 71,000-93,000 tons of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) per year between 2000 and 2006.[9]
Gillnets
Gillnets are walls of netting that hang in the water column, typically made of monofilament or multifilament nylon. They can be used in coastal or pelagic environments and can drift or remain in a fixed location.
The mesh size of a gillnet is designed to allow the fish to get their head through but not their body, resulting in the fish getting caught by its gills as it tries to remove itself from the net. While gillnets reportedly have less annual bycatch than most fishery types, this gear has high mortality rates ranging from 70%-93% for some species.[10]
When sharks are caught in gillnets, they are unable to swim or move, resulting in stress and buildup of lactate. This most likely kills them before they make it on the boat resulting in high immediate mortality rates. Gillnets accounted for over 3.5 million pounds of shark bycatch in the U.S. alone in 2010.[11]
Trawl nets
Trawl nets are designed to be towed by a boat through the water column (midwater trawl) or along the sea floor (bottom trawl).
Trawls are not species-specific and tend to have high bycatch to target catch ratios. In the United States, trawl fisheries caught more sharks as bycatch than any of the other fisheries combined with reported shark bycatch over 13 million pounds (6,500 tons) in 2010.[12]
Overfishing
Overfishing / Shark Fishing
High tech, industrial fishing fleets and years of overfishing have done their damage. One third of global fish stocks are overexploited.[13] Shark fishing, in particular, has emerged as a significant threat to marine ecosystems, exacerbating the pressures on already vulnerable shark populations.
The average person consumes twice as much seafood as half a century ago and the demand is growing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), world fish consumption in 2030 is projected to be 20% higher than it was in 2016.[14]
Fish cannot compete with our excessive demands – and fishermen (oftentimes with governmental support), desperate to make a living, are going to all corners of the planet to catch the last remaining fish. This includes aggressive shark fishing practices, targeting species that were once considered less or non-commercially viable.
With 90% of the large commercial fish gone from the seas, sharks have rapidly become an acceptable alternative, driven by industrial and artisanal shark fishing efforts.
Marketing analysts have predicted that the shark meat market will grow by $367.92 million (nearly 6%) by 2023.[15] From 2000 to 2011, global trade in shark, skate, ray and chimaera meat increased by 42%.[16] The market for shark meat is even more diverse and geographically dispersed than that for shark fin, creating a demand on a shark populations that have already been drastically reduced through both targeted fishing and bycatch in other fisheries.
The largest shark meat markets are in South America and Europe, with the largest importers being Brazil, Uruguay, the U.K., Italy and Spain. The United States exports shark meat mostly to France, Germany and Canada.
Shark meat has been consumed for centuries for many reasons. In some areas, such as China and Japan is part of their cultural heritage, while in places like Indonesia, Eastern Africa, Iceland and Greenland, it is considered an economical source of animal protein.
In countries like Italy, France and the U.S, it has shown up on the menus of both gourmet restaurants and in fish and chip shops, a trend fueled by the increasing catches from shark fishing.
The implementation of finning regulations requiring shark carcasses to be landed with their fins may have helped spur markets for shark meat, but there is also a growing consumer demand for shark products. This demand encourages more shark fishing, further stressing shark populations.
This trend not only affects shark populations, it is dangerous for humans as well. Sharks accumulate high levels of toxic chemicals and heavy metals both through their skin and consumption of prey. Shark meat has been found to contain urea, arsenic, lead, mercury and BMAA, all of which can cause serious illness, highlighting the hidden costs of shark fishing on human health and marine ecosystems.
Pollution
Pollution
Pollution in our oceans can impact marine animals in a number of ways including entanglement in abandoned fishing gear to the accidental consumption of plastics.
Ghost nets
Ghost nets are commercial fishing nets that have been lost, abandoned or discarded at sea. But just because they have been abandoned does not mean they stop working.
Every year ghost nets are responsible for trapping and killing millions of marine animals and entangling coral and smothering reefs.
These abandoned fishing lines and nets never go away – they just become smaller pieces of plastic. Marine animals mistake this for food and ingest it, which can cause harm to internal organs, keep them from eating and expose them to toxic chemicals.
So sad with humanity right now I’m numb, so sad jumping in and seeing 10/15/20 God knows how many dead sharks, trippletails, ocean yellow tails, etc.”
D Martin Maynes on Instagram
Microplastics
Microplastics are causing harm to lots of animals both large and small. Through processes like wave action and UV rays, plastics break down into barely visible particles called microplastics.
Microplastics cause harm to smaller species not only by being ingested but also the particles can become caught in gills or entangled around extremities, causing irreparable damage to vital body systems over time.
Larger sharks ingest prey that consume these smaller species which contain microplastics. Sharks are prone to bioaccumulation, which is the build up of toxins over time.
This bioaccumulation, not just of microplastics, but of harmful substances like mercury and BMAA is one of the main reasons human consumption of shark meat & cartilage is unwise.
[1] Xiang, Yap Wan. “Malaysia Is The World’s Second Largest Shark Fin Importer Outranking Singapore And China.” SAYS, September 18, 2019. https://says.com/my/news/after-hong-kong-malaysia-is-world-biggest-importer-of-shark-fin.
[2] Fields, Andrew T., Gunter A. Fischer, Stanley K. H. Shea, Huarong Zhang, Debra L. Abercrombie, Kevin A. Feldheim, Elizabeth A. Babcock, and Demian D. Chapman. “Species Composition of the International Shark Fin Trade Assessed through a Retail‐Market Survey in Hong Kong.” Society for Conservation Biology. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, December 15, 2017. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.13043.
[3] Hermesauto, “Even as China Says No to Shark Fin Soup, Dish Gaining Popularity Elsewhere in Asia,” The Straits Times (Washington Post, February 15, 2018), https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/even-as-china-says-no-to-shark-fin-soup-dish-gaining-popularity-elsewhere-in-asia.
[4] Hong Kong customs and Excise department – Press release. (2010, June 18). Retrieved February 26, 2021, from https://www.customs.gov.hk/en/publication_press/press/index_id_2906.html
[5] McDonald, J. (2020, September 06). Why is the SHARK-FIN trade buoyant even as COVID-19 Sinks economy? Retrieved February 26, 2021, from https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3100326/why-shark-fin-trade-buoyant-while-covid-19-sinks-global-economy
[6] “Bycatch Victims.” WWF, 2020.
[7] Dapp, R., C. Huveneers, T. Walker, J. Mandelman, D. Kerstetter, and R. Reina. 2017. Using logbook data to determine the immediate mortality of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) and tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) caught in the commercial U.S. pelagic longline fishery. Fishery Bulletin 115: 27-41.
[8] Clarke, Shelley. Re-examining the shark trade as a tool for conservation. Report. Secretariat of the Pacific Community. 2015. https://spccfpstore1. blob.core.windows.net/digitallibrary-docs/files/ 0a/0a48cab679585e518468bd63855b9a79. pdf.
[9] Cosandey-Godin, A., T. Wimmer, J. Wang and B. Worm. 2013. No effect from rare-earth metal deterrent on shark bycatch in a commercial pelagic longline trial. Fisheries Research 143: 131 – 135.
[10] Cosandey-Godin, A., E. Krainski, B. Worm and J. Flemming. 2015. Applying Bayesian spatiotemporal models to fisheries bycatch in the Canadian Arctic. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 72: 186 – 197.
[11] NOAA Office of Science and Technology. 2014. National Bycatch Report, First Edition Update 1 URL: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/fishery-observers
[12] NOAA 2014.
[13] Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2019) – “Seafood Production”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/seafood-production’
[14] Holland, J. (2019, May 03). Rising incomes, increased urbanization to underpin seafood consumption growth. Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/rising-incomes-increased-urbanization-to-underpin-seafood-consumption-growth#:~:text=In%20per%20capita%20terms%2C%20world,0.4%20percent%20for%202017%2D2030.
[15] Global shark meat market 2019-2023 | growth in sustainable fishing practices to boost Growth | Technavio. (2020, April 4). Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://finance.yahoo.com/
[16] Dent, F., & Clarke, S. (2015). State of the global market for shark products. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Technical Paper 590. Retrieved February 26, 2021, from http://www.fao.org/3/i4795e/i4795e.pdf