Shark Poaching

Shark Poaching

1. What?

   • The latest research suggests that around 100 million sharks may be killed annually, often targeted for their fins.
   • As a result, the oceanic whitetip, porbeagle, and the smooth hammerhead are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, while scalloped and great hammerhead sharks are classified as endangered.
   • Hammerhead sharks (smooth, scalloped and great) are at a very high risk of extinction because of shark poaching, unregulated fishing and poaching has destroy their habitat (Cocos, Galapagos)

2. Shark Protection/Regulations

   • Global efforts to reduce shark killings/ enforcing laws prohibiting certain species being hunted
   • Sharks are valuable for our ecosystem, are necessary to sustain our oceans
   • Shark regulations do not account for international waters and some countries still allow shark fishing and poaching along their coasts.

3. Food Chain

   • Overfishing has caused many sharks to die as they no longer have access to the numbers of fish like they are used too.
   • Lack of food along the food chain causes the sharks to show unusual behaviour/relates to why they sometimes hunt humans as a substitue for their lost fish

4. Market

   • The market is the chinese who have shark fin soup as a delicacy
   • Fisherman sell the sharks to big organizations for enough money for them, but not the whole worth for a shark
   • Taiwanese mafia influence over Costa Rica fishermen and law enforcement (Sharkwater)
   • To maximize profits, fishermen dump the shark carcass into the water causing shark populations to drop at a rate the IUCN cannot measure
   • Shark based Ecotourism profits said to surpass profits earned by shark fishing/poaching

5. Good news

   • The demand for shark fin soup has dropped over the past century
   • People are starting to realize the importance of sharks, some are banned from being fishing in general

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