100 million sharks killed, what's next?
Originally published on Kapuno in the Ocean Conservation community
🔗 New Study Says 100 Million Sharks Killed Annually (Video)
Seeing a lot of buzz and would love to know what’s the best way of using this study to make an impact. There’s been some press that I’ve attached by David Schiffman and a video report by Oceans Inc.
Here’s the abstract from the original paper.
Adequate conservation and management of shark populations is becoming increasingly important on a global scale, especially because many species are exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing. Yet, reported catch statistics for sharks are incomplete, and mortality estimates have not been available for sharks as a group. Here, the global catch and mortality of sharks from reported and unreported landings, discards, and shark finning are being estimated at 1.44 million metric tons for the year 2000, and at only slightly less in 2010 (1.41 million tons). Based on an analysis of average shark weights, this translates into a total annual mortality estimate of about 100 million sharks in 2000, and about 97 million sharks in 2010, with a total range of possible values between 63 and 273 million sharks per year. Further, the exploitation rate for sharks as a group was calculated by dividing two independent mortality estimates by an estimate of total global biomass. As an alternative approach, exploitation rates for individual shark populations were compiled and averaged from stock assessments and other published sources. The resulting three independent estimates of the average exploitation rate ranged between 6.4% and 7.9% of sharks killed per year. This exceeds the average rebound rate for many shark populations, estimated from the life history information on 62 shark species (rebound rates averaged 4.9% per year), and explains the ongoing declines in most populations for which data exist. The consequences of these unsustainable catch and mortality rates for marine ecosystems could be substantial. Global total shark mortality, therefore, needs to be reduced drastically in order to rebuild depleted populations and restore marine ecosystems with functional top predators.
If you have Elsiveir access you can read the full paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X13000055
What’s are you or your org doing or considering doing to make this resonate with the public?
Responses
Karen Clarke
April 14, 2013
Understanding the life history of sharks will provide valuable data about their ability to rebound from direct and indirect human exploitation; however, conservation efforts must address public opinion, which with sharks, is complicated. According to the California Dept. of Fish and Game, support for the recent petition to protect Great Whites along our coast was even split among the state’s ocean environment-loving recreation divers, so imagine the challenge before us in approaching protection of sharks internationally. https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36551&inline=true