OVER 200 SHARKS ARE KILLED EACH MINUTE...
It's estimated that between 100 – 150 million sharks are killed each year…primarily for use in shark fin soup. Shark fin soup is a delicacy in some cultures and has increased dramatically in popularity over the past two decades. It's a symbol of wealth and served as a display of respect. Unfortunately, the demand for this soup is causing the decimation of an entire species and is tipping the balance scales of our ocean's ecosystem at a terrifying rate.
Unsustainable fishing practices have developed to keep up with the demand of shark fin soup. Long-lining is the most common way to catch sharks, and shark finning has rapidly become the predominant and most profitable method for obtaining shark fins. The practice of “finning” involves catching a shark, cutting off the fins, and then throwing the live shark back into the ocean. Unable to swim or to propel themselves forward, finned sharks sink to the bottom of the ocean and since most species of shark need to move forward in order to breathe, they eventually die of suffocation; a slow and agonizing death. Sharks are the world's oldest apex predator and have been on the planet virtually unchanged for approximately 400 million years. Since all life on this planet began in the ocean, the shark has shaped the evolution of nearly all other living things. They keep the oceans in balance and are an essential part of the ecosystem. Without sharks, we will most certainly be affected and are bound to create an ecological disaster. The ocean is the life support system of this planet and nearly 80% of all life on Earth exists underwater. There is a wide range of species dying as a direct result of the finning industry that extends way beyond sharks. It is estimated that the shark population has already declined 80% and many species are already on the endangered list.
This footage was shot in Cocos Island, Costa Rica by Tobias Meinken an accomplished Dive Master, videographer, and devoted shark lover.
Cocos Island is home to the largest congregation of sharks in the world. This is an extremely remote island located approximately 350 miles off the coast of Costa Rica in the Pacific Ocean. Established as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, and protected by law, sharks here in Cocos are still subject to illegal long-lining, poaching, and finning. Though laws are in place, many countries have problems enforcing the laws and prosecuting offenders.
 
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March 2, 2009
Progress on US Shark Conservation Act
On March 2nd, the US House of Representatives passed the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81). This bill closes loopholes in the previous law that outlawed shark finning and would require sharks to be landed with their fins still naturally attached. If passed by the Senate, this rule would allow for better enforcement and data collection in stock assessments and quota monitoring. While putting an end to shark finning doesn't necessarily stop overfishing of sharks, this is an important step.
You can help by contacting your state Senators and encouraging them to support this bill. Call them, send an email, or write a letter.
Click HERE for the directory of current members of the U.S. Senate with full contact information including email addresses.
Progress on US Shark Conservation Act
On March 2nd, the US House of Representatives passed the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81). This bill closes loopholes in the previous law that outlawed shark finning and would require sharks to be landed with their fins still naturally attached. If passed by the Senate, this rule would allow for better enforcement and data collection in stock assessments and quota monitoring. While putting an end to shark finning doesn't necessarily stop overfishing of sharks, this is an important step.
You can help by contacting your state Senators and encouraging them to support this bill. Call them, send an email, or write a letter.
Click HERE for the directory of current members of the U.S. Senate with full contact information including email addresses.
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March 5, 2009
Maldives Imposes Shark Hunting Ban
The Maldives imposed today a total ban on reef shark hunting.
The government said the ban will help restore shark numbers, which have fallen in recent years due to hunting.
The Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Ibrahim Didi, said the ban would make the Maldives a 'shark safe haven.'
"The protection measures announced today should lead to a recovery in shark numbers, providing a boon for both the environment and the tourism industry," the Minister said.
The Maldives' pristine coral reefs are home to large populations of reef sharks, Manta Rays, Whale Sharks, turtles and exotic fish, making the country one of the world's top diving destinations.
"Today, we announced a complete ban on all shark hunting within the Maldives' atolls and lagoons and in the waters up to 12 miles off the Maldivian atoll coast. This will protect all types of reef sharks in the Maldives," the Minister said.
Maldives Imposes Shark Hunting Ban
The Maldives imposed today a total ban on reef shark hunting.
The government said the ban will help restore shark numbers, which have fallen in recent years due to hunting.
The Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Ibrahim Didi, said the ban would make the Maldives a 'shark safe haven.'
"The protection measures announced today should lead to a recovery in shark numbers, providing a boon for both the environment and the tourism industry," the Minister said.
The Maldives' pristine coral reefs are home to large populations of reef sharks, Manta Rays, Whale Sharks, turtles and exotic fish, making the country one of the world's top diving destinations.
"Today, we announced a complete ban on all shark hunting within the Maldives' atolls and lagoons and in the waters up to 12 miles off the Maldivian atoll coast. This will protect all types of reef sharks in the Maldives," the Minister said.
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June 24, 2009
Traditional medicines continue to thrive globally
Story Hightlights:
Traditional medicines continue to thrive globally
Story Hightlights:
- Even in the era of modern medicine, traditional treatments are still widespread
- In Japan, shark fin is sold by herbalists, and is believed to promote well-being
- Muti practitioners sell their wares in Johannesburg's Faraday market
- Acupuncture has spread all over the world from its roots in ancient China
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September 7, 2009
Two great white sharks tagged off Massachusetts coast
Story Hightlights:
Two great white sharks tagged off Massachusetts coast
Story Hightlights:
- Taggings of great whites are the first in the Atlantic Ocean, state officials say
- Beaches in Chatham, Massachusetts, closed after shark sightings
- Great white sharks are relatively rare in New England, state officials say
- Tags will let scientists track the two sharks
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September 27, 2009
Thank you Windsor! The World's First Shark Friendly Town is in England
What does it mean to be shark friendly? Well, in Windsor, England, it means no shark products are sold anywhere in the city limits: not a single cartilage pill at the local herbal shop, not a single rock salmon steak at a restaurant, not a single bowl of shark fin soup, and not a single shark tooth trinket at a souvenir stand. Yes, the favorite home of the queen is now the FIRST place in the world to be considered officially "Shark Friendly".
Read More at http://sharkangels.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-being-shark-friendly-windsor-becomes.html
Thank you Windsor! The World's First Shark Friendly Town is in England
What does it mean to be shark friendly? Well, in Windsor, England, it means no shark products are sold anywhere in the city limits: not a single cartilage pill at the local herbal shop, not a single rock salmon steak at a restaurant, not a single bowl of shark fin soup, and not a single shark tooth trinket at a souvenir stand. Yes, the favorite home of the queen is now the FIRST place in the world to be considered officially "Shark Friendly".
Read More at http://sharkangels.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-being-shark-friendly-windsor-becomes.html
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February 19, 2010
Great white sharks 'more endangered than tigers'
Dr Ronald O'Dor, senior scientist at the Census of Marine life, said that a new study had shown that numbers had dropped below the 3,500 tigers that exist in the wild.
Scientists had been under the impression that Great Whites, although rare, were not endangered, because they were spotted at different areas all over the ocean.
But a new study by Stanford University, which involved tagging and tracking the fish, discovered that it was the same sharks being seen over and over again.
Dr O'Dor said: "I recently heard a report from the team that's been tagging Great White sharks.
"When I heard there maybe fewer than tigers I thought "oh my god" That is truly scary.
The estimated total population of great white sharks in the world oceans is actually less than the number of tigers.
"We hear an awful lot about how endangered tigers are but apparently great white sharks are pretty close to the same level.
"Some people say I don't care, they eat people, but I think we have to give them a little space to live in."
His comments, made at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Diego, were based on research by Professor Barbara Block who tracked more than 150 Great Whites using satellite and acoustic tracking devices as they moved along the Californian coast and Hawaii.
"Based on their understanding on populations, they have done some estimates of how many sharks there are," he said.
"People see a Great White shark on the South California coast - and another hundreds of miles away.
"We are now understanding that they are more mobile than we thought - and actually it's the same shark appearing in different places."
He said Great Whites, whose numbers have dropped by 90 per cent in 20 years are not only in danger from illegal fishing but also from being hit by boats and tangled up in fishing nets.
"Until recently, people thought sharks were bad and there was no urge to save great whites," he said.
"Now people are beginning to understand that they are rare and that they are a wonderful species."
He said that the tags had been used in Australia to act as early warning systems for surfers and swimmers.
He said: "The Australians have now got a system where they put tags on Great White sharks and they have receivers on the beaches so when a great white comes into the bay the receiver automatically makes a cell phone call and tells the guy in charge to close the beach. So we can co-exist with marine life."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7268636/Great-white-sharks-more-endangered-than-tigers.html
Great white sharks 'more endangered than tigers'
Dr Ronald O'Dor, senior scientist at the Census of Marine life, said that a new study had shown that numbers had dropped below the 3,500 tigers that exist in the wild.
Scientists had been under the impression that Great Whites, although rare, were not endangered, because they were spotted at different areas all over the ocean.
But a new study by Stanford University, which involved tagging and tracking the fish, discovered that it was the same sharks being seen over and over again.
Dr O'Dor said: "I recently heard a report from the team that's been tagging Great White sharks.
"When I heard there maybe fewer than tigers I thought "oh my god" That is truly scary.
The estimated total population of great white sharks in the world oceans is actually less than the number of tigers.
"We hear an awful lot about how endangered tigers are but apparently great white sharks are pretty close to the same level.
"Some people say I don't care, they eat people, but I think we have to give them a little space to live in."
His comments, made at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in San Diego, were based on research by Professor Barbara Block who tracked more than 150 Great Whites using satellite and acoustic tracking devices as they moved along the Californian coast and Hawaii.
"Based on their understanding on populations, they have done some estimates of how many sharks there are," he said.
"People see a Great White shark on the South California coast - and another hundreds of miles away.
"We are now understanding that they are more mobile than we thought - and actually it's the same shark appearing in different places."
He said Great Whites, whose numbers have dropped by 90 per cent in 20 years are not only in danger from illegal fishing but also from being hit by boats and tangled up in fishing nets.
"Until recently, people thought sharks were bad and there was no urge to save great whites," he said.
"Now people are beginning to understand that they are rare and that they are a wonderful species."
He said that the tags had been used in Australia to act as early warning systems for surfers and swimmers.
He said: "The Australians have now got a system where they put tags on Great White sharks and they have receivers on the beaches so when a great white comes into the bay the receiver automatically makes a cell phone call and tells the guy in charge to close the beach. So we can co-exist with marine life."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7268636/Great-white-sharks-more-endangered-than-tigers.html
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March 11, 2010
Impose shark fin ban
The 175 countries that have signed on to an environmental treaty will be asked this month to ban the continuing slaughter of certain shark species but economic opposition is not likely to be overcome. Hawaii legislators must take it upon themselves to prohibit restaurants from serving soup containing shark fins, the main ingredient behind the slaughter.
The Pew Environmental Group will call for the worldwide ban at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, to be held in Qatar March 13-25. The Obama administration has decided to support protection of the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Greater efforts are needed to protect species of hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and blue sharks, whose fins can sell for $300 per pound. The fins are the central ingredient in soups sold as a Chinese delicacy on special occasions and by some Hawaii restaurants for as much as $45 a bowl. A recent study estimates that 73 million sharks per year are killed for their fins; their bodies are commonly discarded alive back to the sea.
"It's the Wild West out there," Susan Liebermann, director of the Pew group, told the Atlantic magazine. "The attitude is, 'Help yourselves.' Unfortunately there are not enough sharks out there for everyone to help themselves."
Lieberman says the removal of sharks also could lead to an explosion of smaller predatory fish and their prey, crashing the entire ecosystem.
The U.S. House last year approved a bill that would prohibit the removal of shark fins at sea and close loopholes in the current finning law that allows fins removed in the ocean to be left in the ocean to drown, starve to death or be eaten by other fish. A Senate version of the bill is pending.
These delays should prompt the Hawaii Legislature to do what it can to discourage the heinous activity at sea. A bill introduced by Sen. Clayton Hee would outlaw possession of shark fins entirely, fining violators up to $15,000.
The 2000 Legislature enacted a prohibition against knowingly harvesting shark fins from the state's territorial waters, limiting the harvesting of fins to sharks landed in whole. Hawaii's longline fleet catch about 60,000 sharks a year, according to Linda Paul of the Hawaii Audubon Society. The 2000 law essentially requires that all parts of a shark should be harvested.
Restricting what can happen in the ocean is one avenue against shark finning in its most inhumane, and wasteful, form of harvest. Just as important is what happens at the consumer end, which Hawaii legislators can control: A ban on possession of shark fins would effectively take them off the menu and help maintain balance in the ocean's ecosystem.
Read More at http://www.starbulletin.com/editorials/20100311_Impose_shark_fin_ban.html
Impose shark fin ban
The 175 countries that have signed on to an environmental treaty will be asked this month to ban the continuing slaughter of certain shark species but economic opposition is not likely to be overcome. Hawaii legislators must take it upon themselves to prohibit restaurants from serving soup containing shark fins, the main ingredient behind the slaughter.
The Pew Environmental Group will call for the worldwide ban at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, to be held in Qatar March 13-25. The Obama administration has decided to support protection of the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Greater efforts are needed to protect species of hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and blue sharks, whose fins can sell for $300 per pound. The fins are the central ingredient in soups sold as a Chinese delicacy on special occasions and by some Hawaii restaurants for as much as $45 a bowl. A recent study estimates that 73 million sharks per year are killed for their fins; their bodies are commonly discarded alive back to the sea.
"It's the Wild West out there," Susan Liebermann, director of the Pew group, told the Atlantic magazine. "The attitude is, 'Help yourselves.' Unfortunately there are not enough sharks out there for everyone to help themselves."
Lieberman says the removal of sharks also could lead to an explosion of smaller predatory fish and their prey, crashing the entire ecosystem.
The U.S. House last year approved a bill that would prohibit the removal of shark fins at sea and close loopholes in the current finning law that allows fins removed in the ocean to be left in the ocean to drown, starve to death or be eaten by other fish. A Senate version of the bill is pending.
These delays should prompt the Hawaii Legislature to do what it can to discourage the heinous activity at sea. A bill introduced by Sen. Clayton Hee would outlaw possession of shark fins entirely, fining violators up to $15,000.
The 2000 Legislature enacted a prohibition against knowingly harvesting shark fins from the state's territorial waters, limiting the harvesting of fins to sharks landed in whole. Hawaii's longline fleet catch about 60,000 sharks a year, according to Linda Paul of the Hawaii Audubon Society. The 2000 law essentially requires that all parts of a shark should be harvested.
Restricting what can happen in the ocean is one avenue against shark finning in its most inhumane, and wasteful, form of harvest. Just as important is what happens at the consumer end, which Hawaii legislators can control: A ban on possession of shark fins would effectively take them off the menu and help maintain balance in the ocean's ecosystem.
Read More at http://www.starbulletin.com/editorials/20100311_Impose_shark_fin_ban.html
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March 11, 2010
'The Hump' Sushi Chef Charged With Serving Endangered Whale
LOS ANGELES Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a sushi chef and a Santa Monica restaurant on allegations that they served illegal and endangered whale meat.
Typhoon Restaurant Inc., which owns The Hump restaurant, and sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, were charged with illegally selling an endangered species product, a misdemeanor.
According to a search warrant, marine mammal activists were served whale during three separate visits to the restaurant. Federal labs confirmed the meat came from a Sei whale, an endangered species protected by international treaties, documents said.
Agents also seized some suspected whale meat during a search of the restaurant Friday but are awaiting test results to confirm it was Sei whale, U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozak said.
In October, two activists posing as customers went to The Hump and ordered "omakase," which means they let the chef choose the choicest fresh fish. They also requested whale and pocketed a sample.
The young women worked with Louie Psihoyos, director of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," to record the meal with a hidden camera and microphone.
"These are endangered animals being cut up for dinner," Psihoyos said. "It's an abuse of science."
Psihoyos took their findings to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which started an investigation.
Activists claim the whale meat came from Japan's scientific whaling program and was illegally exported, but the U.S. attorney's office is still investigating the source of the meat.
Japan kills hundreds of whales in Antarctic waters each year under its research whaling program, which has triggered violent protests by conservationists and caused strong objections by diplomats in recent years.
An attorney for Typhoon, Gary Lincenberg, said the restaurant accepts responsibility for serving whale and will agree to pay a fine. If convicted, the company could be fined up to $200,000.
Court records say agents interviewed Yamamoto, a Culver City resident and a chef at The Hump for the past seven years, and he admitted serving whale to two young women.
Yamamoto's attorney, Mark Byrne, declined to comment on the charges, saying he hadn't had time to review them. If convicted, Yamamoto could face a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
During the October restaurant visit, animal rights activist Crystal Galbraith, 27, and a friend who spoke fluent Japanese racked up a bill of $600, feasting on increasingly exotic dishes to gain the confidence of the waiters and chef.
"It was heartbreaking to eat an endangered animal, but I knew that I was doing it to save" the whales, said Galbraith, a vegan. "We were there eating for four hours. I felt so full and sick."
The waitress brought out a dish of whale sushi, identifying the whale in English and Japanese, court documents said. The dish was listed as whale on the check and cost $85.
The team sent samples to Scott Baker, a professor and cetacean specialist at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, for genetic testing. The results showed the meat was from a Sei whale, court records said.
The Sei whale is a baleen whale found throughout the world's oceans, and known for its graceful and quick swimming and its long, low vocalizations, Baker said. Fully grown, the mammal is longer than a bus.
Eating Sei whale meat is common in Japan, Korea and Norway and among native peoples in Alaska and Canada, but it is illegal to export the meat because of the Sei whale's endangered status.
In late February, when Psihoyos and the rest of his team were in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, Galbraith and another friend returned to The Hump twice more.
This time, agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sat at the bar and watched Yamamoto at work, court records said. During the third visit, another agent watched the chef go to his car and retrieve a package wrapped in clear plastic.
Read More at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/11/the-hump-sushi-chef-charg_n_494907.html
'The Hump' Sushi Chef Charged With Serving Endangered Whale
LOS ANGELES Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a sushi chef and a Santa Monica restaurant on allegations that they served illegal and endangered whale meat.
Typhoon Restaurant Inc., which owns The Hump restaurant, and sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, were charged with illegally selling an endangered species product, a misdemeanor.
According to a search warrant, marine mammal activists were served whale during three separate visits to the restaurant. Federal labs confirmed the meat came from a Sei whale, an endangered species protected by international treaties, documents said.
Agents also seized some suspected whale meat during a search of the restaurant Friday but are awaiting test results to confirm it was Sei whale, U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozak said.
In October, two activists posing as customers went to The Hump and ordered "omakase," which means they let the chef choose the choicest fresh fish. They also requested whale and pocketed a sample.
The young women worked with Louie Psihoyos, director of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," to record the meal with a hidden camera and microphone.
"These are endangered animals being cut up for dinner," Psihoyos said. "It's an abuse of science."
Psihoyos took their findings to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which started an investigation.
Activists claim the whale meat came from Japan's scientific whaling program and was illegally exported, but the U.S. attorney's office is still investigating the source of the meat.
Japan kills hundreds of whales in Antarctic waters each year under its research whaling program, which has triggered violent protests by conservationists and caused strong objections by diplomats in recent years.
An attorney for Typhoon, Gary Lincenberg, said the restaurant accepts responsibility for serving whale and will agree to pay a fine. If convicted, the company could be fined up to $200,000.
Court records say agents interviewed Yamamoto, a Culver City resident and a chef at The Hump for the past seven years, and he admitted serving whale to two young women.
Yamamoto's attorney, Mark Byrne, declined to comment on the charges, saying he hadn't had time to review them. If convicted, Yamamoto could face a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
During the October restaurant visit, animal rights activist Crystal Galbraith, 27, and a friend who spoke fluent Japanese racked up a bill of $600, feasting on increasingly exotic dishes to gain the confidence of the waiters and chef.
"It was heartbreaking to eat an endangered animal, but I knew that I was doing it to save" the whales, said Galbraith, a vegan. "We were there eating for four hours. I felt so full and sick."
The waitress brought out a dish of whale sushi, identifying the whale in English and Japanese, court documents said. The dish was listed as whale on the check and cost $85.
The team sent samples to Scott Baker, a professor and cetacean specialist at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, for genetic testing. The results showed the meat was from a Sei whale, court records said.
The Sei whale is a baleen whale found throughout the world's oceans, and known for its graceful and quick swimming and its long, low vocalizations, Baker said. Fully grown, the mammal is longer than a bus.
Eating Sei whale meat is common in Japan, Korea and Norway and among native peoples in Alaska and Canada, but it is illegal to export the meat because of the Sei whale's endangered status.
In late February, when Psihoyos and the rest of his team were in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, Galbraith and another friend returned to The Hump twice more.
This time, agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sat at the bar and watched Yamamoto at work, court records said. During the third visit, another agent watched the chef go to his car and retrieve a package wrapped in clear plastic.
Read More at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/11/the-hump-sushi-chef-charg_n_494907.html
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April 7, 2010
Shark's fin campaign hits newlyweds where it hurts
Rebecca Yu
A Facebook group is hoping to change traditional wedding banquets by hitting newlyweds where it hurts - in the pocket.
The "Cut gift money for shark-fin banquets" campaign calls on netizens to tell couples about to get married to leave the traditional soup off the menu or receive a 30 percent cut in their red packets or money gifts.
Within days, 3,896 people signed up and more are joining daily.
Group originator Clement Lee Yui- Wah said he decided on the anti-shark's fin campaign after seeing a video clip in which hunters off the Philippines cut off the fins of a young whale shark and left it adrift to die.
Other fishermen saw its plight and towed it to shore so it could die faster. A Hong Kong tourist recorded it and put the clip online.
Lee, who's in his forties and works in the United States, said he will never eat shark's fin soup after seeing the video.
He called on Hong Kong people to change existing social traditions and pay more attention to animal protection.
"Shark's fin is not a must at wedding dinners. We need to develop a new culture under which eating shark's fin is considered shameful," he said.
Lee agreed one of the problems to be overcome is the traditional belief that a wedding banquet without shark's fin is an insult to guests. "This is totally wrong. We must push home the message that eating shark's fin is the same as committing a crime," he said.
Environmental protection group Oceana released a report last month that showed Hong Kong had imported more than 100,000 tons of shark's fin from 87 countries last year - making it the largest such importer in the world.
One reason for this is that more sophisticated fishing methods have reduced the cost, making shark's fin more affordable. This, in turn, has increased consumption, leading to even more fierce shark hunting.
"Not everyone has the power to stop the inhumane killing of sharks but everyone has the right to boycott shark's fin dishes," Lee said. One Facebook user named Ida Ng wrote: "People enjoy their food without thinking of such cruel behavior." Another, Tsai Yongling, said: "Don't have shark's fin soup anymore."
Lee said the group also wants to encourage people to name organizations that include shark's fin in company dinners, lobby the catering business to offer alternative dishes, and lobby the Legislative Council to initially levy a 10 percent tax on shark's fin, increasing it to 200 percent within five years.
Shark's fin campaign hits newlyweds where it hurts
Rebecca Yu
A Facebook group is hoping to change traditional wedding banquets by hitting newlyweds where it hurts - in the pocket.
The "Cut gift money for shark-fin banquets" campaign calls on netizens to tell couples about to get married to leave the traditional soup off the menu or receive a 30 percent cut in their red packets or money gifts.
Within days, 3,896 people signed up and more are joining daily.
Group originator Clement Lee Yui- Wah said he decided on the anti-shark's fin campaign after seeing a video clip in which hunters off the Philippines cut off the fins of a young whale shark and left it adrift to die.
Other fishermen saw its plight and towed it to shore so it could die faster. A Hong Kong tourist recorded it and put the clip online.
Lee, who's in his forties and works in the United States, said he will never eat shark's fin soup after seeing the video.
He called on Hong Kong people to change existing social traditions and pay more attention to animal protection.
"Shark's fin is not a must at wedding dinners. We need to develop a new culture under which eating shark's fin is considered shameful," he said.
Lee agreed one of the problems to be overcome is the traditional belief that a wedding banquet without shark's fin is an insult to guests. "This is totally wrong. We must push home the message that eating shark's fin is the same as committing a crime," he said.
Environmental protection group Oceana released a report last month that showed Hong Kong had imported more than 100,000 tons of shark's fin from 87 countries last year - making it the largest such importer in the world.
One reason for this is that more sophisticated fishing methods have reduced the cost, making shark's fin more affordable. This, in turn, has increased consumption, leading to even more fierce shark hunting.
"Not everyone has the power to stop the inhumane killing of sharks but everyone has the right to boycott shark's fin dishes," Lee said. One Facebook user named Ida Ng wrote: "People enjoy their food without thinking of such cruel behavior." Another, Tsai Yongling, said: "Don't have shark's fin soup anymore."
Lee said the group also wants to encourage people to name organizations that include shark's fin in company dinners, lobby the catering business to offer alternative dishes, and lobby the Legislative Council to initially levy a 10 percent tax on shark's fin, increasing it to 200 percent within five years.
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April 8, 2010
Scientist questioned over treatment of sharks
Dan Noyes, Chief Investigative Reporter, KGO-TV
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A Southern California scientist faced tough questions and criticism Thursday for the methods he used to tag two great white sharks at the Farallon Islands off San Francisco last year for an upcoming National Geographic special.
Great white sharks are an endangered species, protected by law. So, scientist Michael Domeier had to get an exemption that allowed him to hook great whites at the Farallones and bring them out of the water.
Everything did not go as planned.
Domeier came to Point Reyes Thursday, to face the advisory council for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
"The humane part makes me nervous; I come from an agricultural background, you don't cause animals to suffer where I come from," GFNMS Advisory Council Chairman Richard Charter said.
Video from Mexico's Guadalupe Islands shows what Domeier tried to do at the Farallones -- use a massive, baited hook to catch a great white shark, drag it for miles to tire it out, lift it onto a platform and spend 20 minutes drawing blood and semen samples and attach a satellite tag to the dorsal fin.
But at the Farallones last November, one of two sharks Domeier caught swallowed the hook. His crew reached into the gills with bolt cutters but they had to leave half of the hook inside the shark.
"I'm not going to ignore that we made some mistakes here in the Farallones with our first shark; it hasn't happened before, it hasn't happened since, but the injuries sustained are actually far less than those that white sharks inflict on each other," Domeier said.
The council peppered Domeier with questions about the size of the hook, the stress on the animal and the length of the fight.
"What is the longest duration in time here or in Guadalupe, anywhere, that a shark has had to fight?" Charter a sked. "Presumably it thinks it's fighting for its life, these are pretty intelligent animals as I understand it."
"Fights have gone from about 11 minutes, I think Mimi might remember better, I'm thinking about an hour," Domeier said.
Domeier told the council the sharks are sometimes dragged for four miles or more -- an issue the I-Team raised with him last year.
Dan Noyes: "What sort of stress is that on the animal?"
Domeier: "Well, certainly, we have to stress the animal, I mean, we have to tire the animal out, otherwise it's going to hurt itself when we pull it out of the water, or perhaps hurt us."
The council also echoed concerns scientists raised in the I-Team's first report that all that weight -- sometimes more than 4,000 pounds -- pushing down onto the flat platform could damage the shark's internal organs. Domeier said he tried to build a sling.
"It was just too difficult to get the shark into this device that was all this r ubber and was all contoured for the shark, we would have had to practically kill the shark to sit still enough to put him in that," Domeier said.
Other council members questioned whether this is a pursuit for science or for reality TV. Domeier's first show about the Mexico sharks aired last year. "The expedition was not a scientific expedition, it was some fishermen going out to help a scientist, that was the thrust of that program, we're going to go out and catch the biggest fish and 'Yahoo we're great fishermen,' that was that program," Bob Wilson said.
"The whole reason we're looking for the sharks is to understand them, we know that they're a vulnerable species, to be able protect them better," National Geographic producer Maureen Lemire said.
The show with the Farallones sharks airs in the summer of 2011. Domeier says he has no plans to tag more sharks at the Farallones before the permit runs out Sept. 15.
Scientist questioned over treatment of sharks
Dan Noyes, Chief Investigative Reporter, KGO-TV
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A Southern California scientist faced tough questions and criticism Thursday for the methods he used to tag two great white sharks at the Farallon Islands off San Francisco last year for an upcoming National Geographic special.
Great white sharks are an endangered species, protected by law. So, scientist Michael Domeier had to get an exemption that allowed him to hook great whites at the Farallones and bring them out of the water.
Everything did not go as planned.
Domeier came to Point Reyes Thursday, to face the advisory council for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
"The humane part makes me nervous; I come from an agricultural background, you don't cause animals to suffer where I come from," GFNMS Advisory Council Chairman Richard Charter said.
Video from Mexico's Guadalupe Islands shows what Domeier tried to do at the Farallones -- use a massive, baited hook to catch a great white shark, drag it for miles to tire it out, lift it onto a platform and spend 20 minutes drawing blood and semen samples and attach a satellite tag to the dorsal fin.
But at the Farallones last November, one of two sharks Domeier caught swallowed the hook. His crew reached into the gills with bolt cutters but they had to leave half of the hook inside the shark.
"I'm not going to ignore that we made some mistakes here in the Farallones with our first shark; it hasn't happened before, it hasn't happened since, but the injuries sustained are actually far less than those that white sharks inflict on each other," Domeier said.
The council peppered Domeier with questions about the size of the hook, the stress on the animal and the length of the fight.
"What is the longest duration in time here or in Guadalupe, anywhere, that a shark has had to fight?" Charter a sked. "Presumably it thinks it's fighting for its life, these are pretty intelligent animals as I understand it."
"Fights have gone from about 11 minutes, I think Mimi might remember better, I'm thinking about an hour," Domeier said.
Domeier told the council the sharks are sometimes dragged for four miles or more -- an issue the I-Team raised with him last year.
Dan Noyes: "What sort of stress is that on the animal?"
Domeier: "Well, certainly, we have to stress the animal, I mean, we have to tire the animal out, otherwise it's going to hurt itself when we pull it out of the water, or perhaps hurt us."
The council also echoed concerns scientists raised in the I-Team's first report that all that weight -- sometimes more than 4,000 pounds -- pushing down onto the flat platform could damage the shark's internal organs. Domeier said he tried to build a sling.
"It was just too difficult to get the shark into this device that was all this r ubber and was all contoured for the shark, we would have had to practically kill the shark to sit still enough to put him in that," Domeier said.
Other council members questioned whether this is a pursuit for science or for reality TV. Domeier's first show about the Mexico sharks aired last year. "The expedition was not a scientific expedition, it was some fishermen going out to help a scientist, that was the thrust of that program, we're going to go out and catch the biggest fish and 'Yahoo we're great fishermen,' that was that program," Bob Wilson said.
"The whole reason we're looking for the sharks is to understand them, we know that they're a vulnerable species, to be able protect them better," National Geographic producer Maureen Lemire said.
The show with the Farallones sharks airs in the summer of 2011. Domeier says he has no plans to tag more sharks at the Farallones before the permit runs out Sept. 15.
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April 8, 2010
Hawai'i Legislators Make Pioneer Move to Protect Sharks
LOS ANGELES, April 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On April 6th, 2010, the Hawai'i House passed measure SB 2169, prohibiting the distribution, sale, and possession of shark fins in the State of Hawai'i. Measure SB 2169 is a victory for the protection of sharks and an important step toward ocean conservation. If/when SB 2169 becomes effective Hawai'i will be the first state in the union to ban the sale of shark fins.
Currently, shark finning, the cutting off of a shark's fins and discarding the body at sea, is banned in U.S. waters; however, the sale of shark fins is legal. Finning kills over 70 million sharks annually, threatening the survival of these important predators. Shark fins are primarily consumed in shark fin soup, a dish traditionally served at Asian banquets and weddings and erroneously thought to have health benefits. As top predators, sharks prevent explosions of fish populations and removing sharks from the oceanic ecosystem may have dramatic eco logical impacts.
Iemanya Oceanica, a Southern California based shark conservation group is delighted about Hawai'i's foresight. "We hope that lawmakers around the world will institute similar protections for sharks and we want to congratulate Hawai'i's representatives for their groundbreaking decision to get behind this measure," said Iemanya's President, Laleh Mohajerani.
The bill has passed from the house and into "Conference" next week, and will be subjected to additional discussion and amendments. Stefanie Brendl of the Humane Society who has been rallying support for this bill says, "This bill is not only important for Hawai'i but for the whole nation, if not for the world. It will set a precedent and will send a very strong message about ocean conservation." Brendl will be working with Senator Hee, who introduced the Bill, and Representative McKelvey, a supporter of the Bill, on the exact final language. SB 2169 will then move on to a Senate vote.
In 2010 Iemanya Oceanica will be collaborating with other conservation groups on a nation-wide campaign in the U.S. to prohibit the sale and possession of shark fins in all 50 states, and Mohajerani added, "We are all eagerly watching Hawai'i's progress in this extraordinary move towards shark conservation and support the Hawai'ian legislators push to protect our oceans from being depleted."
For more information, contact Iemanya Oceanica at (310) 801-9478 or visit www.Iemanya.org.
Hawai'i Legislators Make Pioneer Move to Protect Sharks
LOS ANGELES, April 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On April 6th, 2010, the Hawai'i House passed measure SB 2169, prohibiting the distribution, sale, and possession of shark fins in the State of Hawai'i. Measure SB 2169 is a victory for the protection of sharks and an important step toward ocean conservation. If/when SB 2169 becomes effective Hawai'i will be the first state in the union to ban the sale of shark fins.
Currently, shark finning, the cutting off of a shark's fins and discarding the body at sea, is banned in U.S. waters; however, the sale of shark fins is legal. Finning kills over 70 million sharks annually, threatening the survival of these important predators. Shark fins are primarily consumed in shark fin soup, a dish traditionally served at Asian banquets and weddings and erroneously thought to have health benefits. As top predators, sharks prevent explosions of fish populations and removing sharks from the oceanic ecosystem may have dramatic eco logical impacts.
Iemanya Oceanica, a Southern California based shark conservation group is delighted about Hawai'i's foresight. "We hope that lawmakers around the world will institute similar protections for sharks and we want to congratulate Hawai'i's representatives for their groundbreaking decision to get behind this measure," said Iemanya's President, Laleh Mohajerani.
The bill has passed from the house and into "Conference" next week, and will be subjected to additional discussion and amendments. Stefanie Brendl of the Humane Society who has been rallying support for this bill says, "This bill is not only important for Hawai'i but for the whole nation, if not for the world. It will set a precedent and will send a very strong message about ocean conservation." Brendl will be working with Senator Hee, who introduced the Bill, and Representative McKelvey, a supporter of the Bill, on the exact final language. SB 2169 will then move on to a Senate vote.
In 2010 Iemanya Oceanica will be collaborating with other conservation groups on a nation-wide campaign in the U.S. to prohibit the sale and possession of shark fins in all 50 states, and Mohajerani added, "We are all eagerly watching Hawai'i's progress in this extraordinary move towards shark conservation and support the Hawai'ian legislators push to protect our oceans from being depleted."
For more information, contact Iemanya Oceanica at (310) 801-9478 or visit www.Iemanya.org.
<< Back to Articles
May 10, 2010
Megalodon Shark Nursery Found
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas -- Discovery News
A 10-million-year-old nursery for the extinct megalodon shark has just been found in Panama, according to University of Florida researchers who report their findings in the latest issue of the journal PLoS ONE.
Megalodon, aka "Big Tooth," is thought to have been the world's largest fish and shark. It grew to around 67 feet in length and looked like a heftier great white shark.
"The study provides evidence of megalodon behavior in the fossil record," said lead author Catalina Pimiento, who just completed a master's degree in zoology from UF and worked in the Florida Museum of Natural History's vertebrate paleontology division. "Behavior doesn't fossilize, but we were able to interpret ancient protection strategies used by extinct sharks based on the fossil record."
Prior suggested fossil shark paleo-nursery areas, the Paleocene Williamsburg Formation and late Oligocene Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina, were based only on the anecdotal presence of juvenile teeth accompanied by marine mammals.
"Neither of the collections from previously suggested nursery grounds has been as rigorously analyzed as the specimens in this study, which better supports the presence of this paleo-nursery area," Pimiento said. She discussed her preliminary findings with Discovery News back in September.
For this latest study, she and her team collected 400 fossil shark teeth between 2007 and 2009 from the shallow marine Gatun Formation, which connected the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea during the late Miocene Epoch in Panama. Most of the 28 Carcharocles megalodon specimens were surprisingly small, Pimien to said. Further analysis determined the size did not relate to tooth position in the jaw or the size of the species during the late Miocene.
"Our study suggests the specimens represent mostly juveniles with lengths between 2 and 10.5 meters (6.5 to 34.5 feet)," Pimiento said. Michael Gottfried, associate professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at Michigan State University Museum, helped review the PLoS ONE article.
"Shark nursery areas are very poorly known, both for living and fossil species," Gottfried said. "If the teeth from Panama described by Catalina and her collaborators do indeed come from a nursery area for the giant megalodon shark, they have the potential to provide a lot of interesting information on the paleobiology of this enormous, but still very enigmatic, fossil species."
Megalodon Shark Nursery Found
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas -- Discovery News
A 10-million-year-old nursery for the extinct megalodon shark has just been found in Panama, according to University of Florida researchers who report their findings in the latest issue of the journal PLoS ONE.
Megalodon, aka "Big Tooth," is thought to have been the world's largest fish and shark. It grew to around 67 feet in length and looked like a heftier great white shark.
"The study provides evidence of megalodon behavior in the fossil record," said lead author Catalina Pimiento, who just completed a master's degree in zoology from UF and worked in the Florida Museum of Natural History's vertebrate paleontology division. "Behavior doesn't fossilize, but we were able to interpret ancient protection strategies used by extinct sharks based on the fossil record."
Prior suggested fossil shark paleo-nursery areas, the Paleocene Williamsburg Formation and late Oligocene Chandler Bridge Formation of South Carolina, were based only on the anecdotal presence of juvenile teeth accompanied by marine mammals.
"Neither of the collections from previously suggested nursery grounds has been as rigorously analyzed as the specimens in this study, which better supports the presence of this paleo-nursery area," Pimiento said. She discussed her preliminary findings with Discovery News back in September.
For this latest study, she and her team collected 400 fossil shark teeth between 2007 and 2009 from the shallow marine Gatun Formation, which connected the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea during the late Miocene Epoch in Panama. Most of the 28 Carcharocles megalodon specimens were surprisingly small, Pimien to said. Further analysis determined the size did not relate to tooth position in the jaw or the size of the species during the late Miocene.
"Our study suggests the specimens represent mostly juveniles with lengths between 2 and 10.5 meters (6.5 to 34.5 feet)," Pimiento said. Michael Gottfried, associate professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at Michigan State University Museum, helped review the PLoS ONE article.
"Shark nursery areas are very poorly known, both for living and fossil species," Gottfried said. "If the teeth from Panama described by Catalina and her collaborators do indeed come from a nursery area for the giant megalodon shark, they have the potential to provide a lot of interesting information on the paleobiology of this enormous, but still very enigmatic, fossil species."
<< Back to Articles
May 11, 2010
Great white shark from Monterey Bay Aquarium dies off Baja California
By Daniel Lopez -- Monterey County Herald
A great white shark released from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in November has died after it was tangled in a fishing net off the coast of Baja California, aquarium officials announced Tuesday.
"This just underscores the threats that these young sharks face in the wild," Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry for the aquarium said in a statement.
The female great white was on exhibit for 69 days prior to her release and had traveled about 500 miles south. The shark was caught in a gillnet set by a fisherman in waters off Ensenada, Mexico in early March, aquarium officials said.
"Though they are legally protected in both California and Mexico, they are still caught accidentally by commercial fishermen,"
Hamilton said. "Not all of them survive."
One of the shark's two electronic tracking tags was recovered by Mexican researchers wh o study the migration of young great white sharks in partnership with the aquarium.
"It's very important to know how many of these sharks are being taken because it has implications for international conservation efforts," said Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a fisheries researcher with the Center for Scientific Investigation and Higher Education in Ensenada.
"If we know how many are being caught, we will have a better idea how big a problem this is for the population."
Aquarium spokesman Ken Peterson said the researchers in Mexico realized that the shark had been caught after the transmitter, which was attached to the dorsal fin, was relaying information from an inland location.
The fisherman was surprised when the scientists arrived at his home. It appears the shark was caught by accident, Peterson said.
"It probably wound up being sold on the fish market, we don't know for sure," he said. "The most important thing we learned is that there are thre ats out there."
The aquarium had previously released four other great white sharks from display to the wild; two traveled to the southern tip of Baja California and beyond within 90 days, another was tracked for 30 days and traveled near Santa Barbara, while the fourth was caught and released in good health by a commercial fisherman in Santa Barbara.
The aquarium is the only institution to successfully keep a great white shark on exhibit for more than 16 days, to get the animals to consistently eat in captivity and to then document the shark's return to the ocean.
Aquarium officials have said there are no plans to put another young great white on exhibit until summer 2011 at the earliest because of planned renovations to the million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit. The showing of great white sharks is meant to change public attitudes and raise awareness about the threats facing the ocean predators, aquarium officials say.
Aquarium researchers plan to con tinue in-field great white conservation work, in collaboration with the marine scientists in Mexico, a team from the Shark Lab at California State University- Long Beach, the Southern California Marine Institute and researchers from the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program.
Researchers at TOPP have published data showing that the Northern California great white shark population is isolated from the world's other white sharks. Other studies suggest the same is true for populations off Mexico.
"The juvenile tagging program has helped us to better understand that young-of-the-year pups live close to the coast in warmer habitats, where they're vulnerable to local fishing gear," said Barbara Block a professor of marine sciences at Stanford University and chief scientist at the TOPP program. "By learning where they go, we can help ensure their future by establishing programs to monitor these unique populations."
Great white shark from Monterey Bay Aquarium dies off Baja California
By Daniel Lopez -- Monterey County Herald
A great white shark released from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in November has died after it was tangled in a fishing net off the coast of Baja California, aquarium officials announced Tuesday.
"This just underscores the threats that these young sharks face in the wild," Randy Hamilton, vice president of husbandry for the aquarium said in a statement.
The female great white was on exhibit for 69 days prior to her release and had traveled about 500 miles south. The shark was caught in a gillnet set by a fisherman in waters off Ensenada, Mexico in early March, aquarium officials said.
"Though they are legally protected in both California and Mexico, they are still caught accidentally by commercial fishermen,"
Hamilton said. "Not all of them survive."
One of the shark's two electronic tracking tags was recovered by Mexican researchers wh o study the migration of young great white sharks in partnership with the aquarium.
"It's very important to know how many of these sharks are being taken because it has implications for international conservation efforts," said Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a fisheries researcher with the Center for Scientific Investigation and Higher Education in Ensenada.
"If we know how many are being caught, we will have a better idea how big a problem this is for the population."
Aquarium spokesman Ken Peterson said the researchers in Mexico realized that the shark had been caught after the transmitter, which was attached to the dorsal fin, was relaying information from an inland location.
The fisherman was surprised when the scientists arrived at his home. It appears the shark was caught by accident, Peterson said.
"It probably wound up being sold on the fish market, we don't know for sure," he said. "The most important thing we learned is that there are thre ats out there."
The aquarium had previously released four other great white sharks from display to the wild; two traveled to the southern tip of Baja California and beyond within 90 days, another was tracked for 30 days and traveled near Santa Barbara, while the fourth was caught and released in good health by a commercial fisherman in Santa Barbara.
The aquarium is the only institution to successfully keep a great white shark on exhibit for more than 16 days, to get the animals to consistently eat in captivity and to then document the shark's return to the ocean.
Aquarium officials have said there are no plans to put another young great white on exhibit until summer 2011 at the earliest because of planned renovations to the million-gallon Outer Bay exhibit. The showing of great white sharks is meant to change public attitudes and raise awareness about the threats facing the ocean predators, aquarium officials say.
Aquarium researchers plan to con tinue in-field great white conservation work, in collaboration with the marine scientists in Mexico, a team from the Shark Lab at California State University- Long Beach, the Southern California Marine Institute and researchers from the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program.
Researchers at TOPP have published data showing that the Northern California great white shark population is isolated from the world's other white sharks. Other studies suggest the same is true for populations off Mexico.
"The juvenile tagging program has helped us to better understand that young-of-the-year pups live close to the coast in warmer habitats, where they're vulnerable to local fishing gear," said Barbara Block a professor of marine sciences at Stanford University and chief scientist at the TOPP program. "By learning where they go, we can help ensure their future by establishing programs to monitor these unique populations."
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May 15, 2010
Hawaiian State Senator Clayton Hee and Stefanie Brendl of Shark Allies traveled from Hawaii all the way to Long Beach, CA to meet with representatives from several shark conservation organizations to discuss ideas for pursuing legislation to protect sharks.
Long Beach, California
Hawaiian State Senator Clayton Hee and Stefanie Brendl of Shark Allies traveled from Hawaii all the way to Long Beach, CA to meet with representatives from several shark conservation organizations to discuss ideas for pursuing legislation to protect sharks.
Hawaiian Senate Bill 2169, which prohibits all sale, distribution and possession of shark fins in the State was introduced by Senator Hee in January and passed full votes in the Hawaiian House and Senate on April 27th. Provided Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle signs the bill as expected, this legislation will go into effect on July 1st, 2010.
Sharks are vital to maintaining the health of ocean ecosystems, yet their numbers have plummeted in recent years primarily due to the trade in shark fins to meet the demand for shark fin soup. By passing this groundbreaking legislation, Hawaii has said "No" to shark fins and shark fin soup and has set an excellent example for responsible stewardship and sustainability of marine resources.
Everyone at Saturday's meeting was grateful for the opportunity to personally thank Stefanie and Senator Hee for their extraordinary efforts and to pick their brains for advice on how to capitalize on Hawaii's success to garner additional protection for sharks in other states and countries.
Attendees included the marine conservation legends, Wyland and Stan Waterman, as well as representatives from Dorsal Friends, IEMANYA Oceanica, Sea Stewards, Shark Allies, SharkFree Santa Barbara, Shark Safe Network and Shark Savers.
Everyone was thrilled at the success of the meeting and left feeling energized and optimistic. In the words of Kevin Sullivan of Iemanya Oceanica,
"If the passion and commitment we all shared on Saturday evening and through the day on Sunday is applied towards the common goal of true shark protection in the United States, there is no way we cannot succeed."
Kevin's sentiment was shared by everyone, and all of the meeting participants are looking forward to working as a team to pursue this goal.
Hawaiian State Senator Clayton Hee and Stefanie Brendl of Shark Allies traveled from Hawaii all the way to Long Beach, CA to meet with representatives from several shark conservation organizations to discuss ideas for pursuing legislation to protect sharks.
Long Beach, California
Hawaiian State Senator Clayton Hee and Stefanie Brendl of Shark Allies traveled from Hawaii all the way to Long Beach, CA to meet with representatives from several shark conservation organizations to discuss ideas for pursuing legislation to protect sharks.
Hawaiian Senate Bill 2169, which prohibits all sale, distribution and possession of shark fins in the State was introduced by Senator Hee in January and passed full votes in the Hawaiian House and Senate on April 27th. Provided Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle signs the bill as expected, this legislation will go into effect on July 1st, 2010.
Sharks are vital to maintaining the health of ocean ecosystems, yet their numbers have plummeted in recent years primarily due to the trade in shark fins to meet the demand for shark fin soup. By passing this groundbreaking legislation, Hawaii has said "No" to shark fins and shark fin soup and has set an excellent example for responsible stewardship and sustainability of marine resources.
Everyone at Saturday's meeting was grateful for the opportunity to personally thank Stefanie and Senator Hee for their extraordinary efforts and to pick their brains for advice on how to capitalize on Hawaii's success to garner additional protection for sharks in other states and countries.
Attendees included the marine conservation legends, Wyland and Stan Waterman, as well as representatives from Dorsal Friends, IEMANYA Oceanica, Sea Stewards, Shark Allies, SharkFree Santa Barbara, Shark Safe Network and Shark Savers.
Everyone was thrilled at the success of the meeting and left feeling energized and optimistic. In the words of Kevin Sullivan of Iemanya Oceanica,
"If the passion and commitment we all shared on Saturday evening and through the day on Sunday is applied towards the common goal of true shark protection in the United States, there is no way we cannot succeed."
Kevin's sentiment was shared by everyone, and all of the meeting participants are looking forward to working as a team to pursue this goal.
<< Back to Articles
May 18, 2010
Hammerhead Shark Study Shows Cascade of Evolution Affected Size, Head Shape
ScienceDaily
The ancestor of all hammerhead sharks probably appeared abruptly in Earth's oceans about 20 million years ago and was as big as some contemporary hammerheads, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
But once the hammerhead evolved, it underwent divergent evolution in different directions, with some species becoming larger, some smaller, and the distinctive hammer-like head of the fish changing in size and shape, said CU-Boulder Professor Andrew Martin of the ecology and evolutionary biology department.
Sporting wide, flattened heads known as cephalofoils with eyeballs bulging at each end, hammerhead sharks are among the most recognizable fish in the world. The bizarre creatures range in length from about 3 feet up to 18 feet and cruise warm waters around the world, Martin said.
In the new study, scientists focused on the DNA of eight species of hammerhead sharks to build family "gene trees" going back thousands to millions of generations. In addition to showing that small hammerheads evolved from a large ancestor, the team showed that the "signature" cephalofoils of hammerheads underwent divergent evolution in different lineages over time, likely due to selective environmental pressures, said Martin.
The team used both mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to offspring and nuclear DNA -- which is commonly used in forensic identification -- to track gene mutations. The researchers targeted four mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes, which they amplified and sequenced for the study. "These techniques allowed us to see the whole organism evolving through time," Martin said. "Our study indicates the big hammerheads probably evolved into smaller hammerheads, and that smaller hammerheads evolved independently twice."
A paper on the subject was published in this month's issue of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Led by former CU-Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology undergraduate student Douglas Lim, co-authors included Martin and University of South Florida researchers Philip Motta and Kyle Mara. Lim is currently a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The National Science Foundation funded the study.
The researchers sampled hammerheads from across the globe -- including the waters of the southeast United States now under siege by the Gulf oil spill -- as well as Australia, Panama, Hawaii, Trinidad and South Africa. Most of the hammerhead DNA was obtained at local markets, where the peddling of sharks and other fish is common practice.
The team used both mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to offspring and nuclear DNA -- which is commonly used in forensic identification -- to track gene mutations. The researchers targeted four mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes, which they amplified and sequenced for the study. "These techniques allowed us to see the whole organism evolving through time," Martin said. "Our study indicates the big hammerheads probably evolved into smaller hammerheads, and that smaller hammerheads evolved independently twice."
A paper on the subject was published in this month's issue of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Led by former CU-Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology undergraduate student Douglas Lim, co-authors included Martin and University of South Florida researchers Philip Motta and Kyle Mara. Lim is currently a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The National Science Foundation funded the study.
The researchers sampled hammerheads from across the globe -- including the waters of the southeast United States now under siege by the Gulf oil spill -- as well as Australia, Panama, Hawaii, Trinidad and South Africa. Most of the hammerhead DNA was obtained at local markets, where the peddling of sharks and other fish is common practice.
The team sequenced the DNA of the sharks, constructing a "phylogenetic" tree that shows how all of the species are related and when each species originated, said Martin. The hammerhead ancestor probably lived in the Miocene epoch about 20 million years ago.
The team found that two divergent lineages of small sharks about 3 to 4 feet long originated independently at separate times in the past. One of the species, the winghead shark, now lives in the warm waters north of Australia and the other, the bonnethead shark, inhabits the Caribbean and tropical eastern Pacific Ocean.
One reason for the "incredible shrinking shark" over the eons may be the process of neoteny -- the ability of some adult sharks to retain juvenile traits -- or their ability to achieve sexual maturity at earlier ages, Martin said. "As the sharks became smaller, they may have begun investing more energy into reproductive activities instead of growth."
While the cephalofoils appear to provide "lift" to large hammerheads as they cruise through the water -- much like the wing of an airplane -- smaller hammerheads don't appear to gain an advantage in lift, but may gain other attributes. "It looks like they sacrifice locomotion advantages for prey detection and visualization," he said.
Another advantage hammerheads may gain from larger cephalofoils is an increased number of electrical sensors in their flattened noses and heads that can detect extremely weak electrical emissions from molecules associated with potential prey. "Hammerheads appear to be able to triangulate on their prey, which is remarkable," said Martin.
Small sharks are highly variable in the size and shape of their cephalofoils, said Martin. The winghead shark, for example, has a laterally expanded head that is about half the size of its roughly 4-foot body length. At the other end of the spectrum is the bonnethead shark, about 3 feet long but which has the smallest cephalofoil of all hammerhead species -- a protrusion that resembles the head of a shovel, Martin said.
Martin said that hammerheads are an ideal biological study subject in part because of some important similarities to humans. Both have slow growth rates, mature late in life, give live birth and have relatively few offspring. While hammerheads may have a dozen or more pups, other oceanic fish regularly lay millions of eggs. Hammerheads generally live for about 30 years, he said.
While hammerhead sharks appear intimidating, attacks on humans are extremely rare, said Martin. Hammerheads have relatively small mouths facing downward that are used to grab food like fish, shellfish, shrimp, squid, octopuses and stingrays. "If you see a hammerhead, I'd say grab your camera and jump into the water," said Martin.
"Hammerheads are special fish, and there is nothing that remotely resembles them anywhere on the planet," said Martin. Unfortunately, hammerheads -- like most shark species -- are on the decline. In addition to being overfished, sharks often are the victims of a technique known as finning, in which fishermen catch them, cut off their fins for use in delicacy soups, and return them to the water to die, Martin said. Shark meat also is used for fertilizer and to make pet food.
There currently are 233 shark species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "Red List of Threatened Species," and 12 shark species are classified as critically endangered. A study led by Virginia Tech showed the great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead and smooth hammerhead species declined by an average of 90 percent from 1981 to 2005. "Their situation is generally pretty dire," Martin said.
A 2005 study by Martin and his colleagues on scalloped hammerheads indicated females tend to breed in the specific ocean regions where they were born, while males tended to move around more widely. A previous study by Martin's team also showed that male great white sharks roam Earth's oceans much more widely than females, a finding with implications for future conservation strategies for the storied and threatened fish.
Read More at:
ScienceDaily Original Article
Hammerhead Shark Study Shows Cascade of Evolution Affected Size, Head Shape
ScienceDaily
The ancestor of all hammerhead sharks probably appeared abruptly in Earth's oceans about 20 million years ago and was as big as some contemporary hammerheads, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
But once the hammerhead evolved, it underwent divergent evolution in different directions, with some species becoming larger, some smaller, and the distinctive hammer-like head of the fish changing in size and shape, said CU-Boulder Professor Andrew Martin of the ecology and evolutionary biology department.
Sporting wide, flattened heads known as cephalofoils with eyeballs bulging at each end, hammerhead sharks are among the most recognizable fish in the world. The bizarre creatures range in length from about 3 feet up to 18 feet and cruise warm waters around the world, Martin said.
In the new study, scientists focused on the DNA of eight species of hammerhead sharks to build family "gene trees" going back thousands to millions of generations. In addition to showing that small hammerheads evolved from a large ancestor, the team showed that the "signature" cephalofoils of hammerheads underwent divergent evolution in different lineages over time, likely due to selective environmental pressures, said Martin.
The team used both mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to offspring and nuclear DNA -- which is commonly used in forensic identification -- to track gene mutations. The researchers targeted four mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes, which they amplified and sequenced for the study. "These techniques allowed us to see the whole organism evolving through time," Martin said. "Our study indicates the big hammerheads probably evolved into smaller hammerheads, and that smaller hammerheads evolved independently twice."
A paper on the subject was published in this month's issue of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Led by former CU-Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology undergraduate student Douglas Lim, co-authors included Martin and University of South Florida researchers Philip Motta and Kyle Mara. Lim is currently a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The National Science Foundation funded the study.
The researchers sampled hammerheads from across the globe -- including the waters of the southeast United States now under siege by the Gulf oil spill -- as well as Australia, Panama, Hawaii, Trinidad and South Africa. Most of the hammerhead DNA was obtained at local markets, where the peddling of sharks and other fish is common practice.
The team used both mitochondrial DNA passed from mother to offspring and nuclear DNA -- which is commonly used in forensic identification -- to track gene mutations. The researchers targeted four mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes, which they amplified and sequenced for the study. "These techniques allowed us to see the whole organism evolving through time," Martin said. "Our study indicates the big hammerheads probably evolved into smaller hammerheads, and that smaller hammerheads evolved independently twice."
A paper on the subject was published in this month's issue of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Led by former CU-Boulder ecology and evolutionary biology undergraduate student Douglas Lim, co-authors included Martin and University of South Florida researchers Philip Motta and Kyle Mara. Lim is currently a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The National Science Foundation funded the study.
The researchers sampled hammerheads from across the globe -- including the waters of the southeast United States now under siege by the Gulf oil spill -- as well as Australia, Panama, Hawaii, Trinidad and South Africa. Most of the hammerhead DNA was obtained at local markets, where the peddling of sharks and other fish is common practice.
The team sequenced the DNA of the sharks, constructing a "phylogenetic" tree that shows how all of the species are related and when each species originated, said Martin. The hammerhead ancestor probably lived in the Miocene epoch about 20 million years ago.
The team found that two divergent lineages of small sharks about 3 to 4 feet long originated independently at separate times in the past. One of the species, the winghead shark, now lives in the warm waters north of Australia and the other, the bonnethead shark, inhabits the Caribbean and tropical eastern Pacific Ocean.
One reason for the "incredible shrinking shark" over the eons may be the process of neoteny -- the ability of some adult sharks to retain juvenile traits -- or their ability to achieve sexual maturity at earlier ages, Martin said. "As the sharks became smaller, they may have begun investing more energy into reproductive activities instead of growth."
While the cephalofoils appear to provide "lift" to large hammerheads as they cruise through the water -- much like the wing of an airplane -- smaller hammerheads don't appear to gain an advantage in lift, but may gain other attributes. "It looks like they sacrifice locomotion advantages for prey detection and visualization," he said.
Another advantage hammerheads may gain from larger cephalofoils is an increased number of electrical sensors in their flattened noses and heads that can detect extremely weak electrical emissions from molecules associated with potential prey. "Hammerheads appear to be able to triangulate on their prey, which is remarkable," said Martin.
Small sharks are highly variable in the size and shape of their cephalofoils, said Martin. The winghead shark, for example, has a laterally expanded head that is about half the size of its roughly 4-foot body length. At the other end of the spectrum is the bonnethead shark, about 3 feet long but which has the smallest cephalofoil of all hammerhead species -- a protrusion that resembles the head of a shovel, Martin said.
Martin said that hammerheads are an ideal biological study subject in part because of some important similarities to humans. Both have slow growth rates, mature late in life, give live birth and have relatively few offspring. While hammerheads may have a dozen or more pups, other oceanic fish regularly lay millions of eggs. Hammerheads generally live for about 30 years, he said.
While hammerhead sharks appear intimidating, attacks on humans are extremely rare, said Martin. Hammerheads have relatively small mouths facing downward that are used to grab food like fish, shellfish, shrimp, squid, octopuses and stingrays. "If you see a hammerhead, I'd say grab your camera and jump into the water," said Martin.
"Hammerheads are special fish, and there is nothing that remotely resembles them anywhere on the planet," said Martin. Unfortunately, hammerheads -- like most shark species -- are on the decline. In addition to being overfished, sharks often are the victims of a technique known as finning, in which fishermen catch them, cut off their fins for use in delicacy soups, and return them to the water to die, Martin said. Shark meat also is used for fertilizer and to make pet food.
There currently are 233 shark species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "Red List of Threatened Species," and 12 shark species are classified as critically endangered. A study led by Virginia Tech showed the great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead and smooth hammerhead species declined by an average of 90 percent from 1981 to 2005. "Their situation is generally pretty dire," Martin said.
A 2005 study by Martin and his colleagues on scalloped hammerheads indicated females tend to breed in the specific ocean regions where they were born, while males tended to move around more widely. A previous study by Martin's team also showed that male great white sharks roam Earth's oceans much more widely than females, a finding with implications for future conservation strategies for the storied and threatened fish.
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June 3, 2010
Shark researchers study oil impact
Miami, Florida (CNN)
They're at the top of the ocean's food chain -- but it is still a mystery how the oil disaster is affecting the shark population in the Gulf of Mexico.
Even if sharks never touch the oil slick, their sources of oxygen and food are at risk. And a reduced shark population could impact the entire Gulf ecosystem, according to Neil Hammerschlag, a researcher at the University of Miami, who has been studying sharks for a decade -- tagging them to determine their migratory patterns and other behaviors.
Today, his research focus has changed.
"The oil spill opens up a whole new avenue for critical research," says Hammerschlag.
As with most weekends, Hammerschlag leads a university research team packed into a boat with interns and high school students, to fish for sharks.
They research the impact of the oil on sharks and other species of fish in the Gulf of Mexico.
Because sharks eat nearly everything beneath them on the food chain, they provide a lot of information about the ecosystem.
"If you see high levels of oil in a shark, you better believe it's in the whole food chain," says Hammerschlag's assistant, Austin Gallagher.
In order to take biological samples from the sharks, first they must be caught.
Ten lines are baited in areas believed to be attractive to sharks.
"Sharks don't chew their food they swallow it," Hammerschlag says.
The lines are equipped with special circle-shaped hooks to prevent the sharks from harming themselves when they swallow the bait.
Swallowing a circle hook, with an inward point does not hurt the shark, Hammerschlag says. The shark swallows the bait and, as it starts to swim away, the hook turns and catches the animal's jaw.
He compares it to a lip piercing.
"It heals very, very quickly," he says.
Once a shark is on the line, it is pulled up to the side of the boat. Larger sharks are kept in the water.
The researchers lean over the side of the boat and gather tissue and blood samples, before attaching a tag to the fin.
The process usually takes just a few minutes from the time it is reeled in until the shark's release.
The information has been used for creating protected marine areas, as well as medical research.
Large sharks that migrate long distances -- bull, hammerhead, and tiger sharks -- are outfitted with satellite tracking devices with sensors.
When the shark breaks the water's surface, its location is sent to a satellite. Hammerschlag then receives an e-mail containing the coordinates.
The data on the sharks' movement -- published on the University of Miami's website -- will tell researchers whether the sharks encounter the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hammerschlag thinks the odds are high that sharks will swim through water filled with oil, but he can't be certain because there's no precedent.
He's hopeful the sharks can outsmart the environmental disaster.
"There is a possibility that these animals might be able to anticipate the oil and sense the oil and actually move away from it," he said.
Swimming through the oil could be deadly for sharks.
"Sharks breathe through the water," says Hammerschlag. "They take in the water, the water goes over their gills and they extract oxygen out of the water."
If the water is mixed with oil, it would hinder their normal breathing pattern, he says.
It's still too early in Hammerschlag's research to determine whether sharks are swimming through the oil.
"Hurley" the hammerhead shark had transmitted a signal nearly every day for three months, until just a couple of days after the rig explosion that caused the oil spill.
"The tag could have failed or it could have headed off somewhere else into deep water and just not come up in the last few months," Hammerschlag says. "But that's very unlike the shark's characteristics."
Either way, as long as there are fish in the oiled area, Hammerschlag and his team will be looking at the effects on sharks.
"You know, there's fishing areas closed in the Gulf of Mexico because they don't want people catching and eating that fish," he said. "But I don't know if the sharks got the memo."
Shark researchers study oil impact
Miami, Florida (CNN)
They're at the top of the ocean's food chain -- but it is still a mystery how the oil disaster is affecting the shark population in the Gulf of Mexico.
Even if sharks never touch the oil slick, their sources of oxygen and food are at risk. And a reduced shark population could impact the entire Gulf ecosystem, according to Neil Hammerschlag, a researcher at the University of Miami, who has been studying sharks for a decade -- tagging them to determine their migratory patterns and other behaviors.
Today, his research focus has changed.
"The oil spill opens up a whole new avenue for critical research," says Hammerschlag.
As with most weekends, Hammerschlag leads a university research team packed into a boat with interns and high school students, to fish for sharks.
They research the impact of the oil on sharks and other species of fish in the Gulf of Mexico.
Because sharks eat nearly everything beneath them on the food chain, they provide a lot of information about the ecosystem.
"If you see high levels of oil in a shark, you better believe it's in the whole food chain," says Hammerschlag's assistant, Austin Gallagher.
In order to take biological samples from the sharks, first they must be caught.
Ten lines are baited in areas believed to be attractive to sharks.
"Sharks don't chew their food they swallow it," Hammerschlag says.
The lines are equipped with special circle-shaped hooks to prevent the sharks from harming themselves when they swallow the bait.
Swallowing a circle hook, with an inward point does not hurt the shark, Hammerschlag says. The shark swallows the bait and, as it starts to swim away, the hook turns and catches the animal's jaw.
He compares it to a lip piercing.
"It heals very, very quickly," he says.
Once a shark is on the line, it is pulled up to the side of the boat. Larger sharks are kept in the water.
The researchers lean over the side of the boat and gather tissue and blood samples, before attaching a tag to the fin.
The process usually takes just a few minutes from the time it is reeled in until the shark's release.
The information has been used for creating protected marine areas, as well as medical research.
Large sharks that migrate long distances -- bull, hammerhead, and tiger sharks -- are outfitted with satellite tracking devices with sensors.
When the shark breaks the water's surface, its location is sent to a satellite. Hammerschlag then receives an e-mail containing the coordinates.
The data on the sharks' movement -- published on the University of Miami's website -- will tell researchers whether the sharks encounter the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hammerschlag thinks the odds are high that sharks will swim through water filled with oil, but he can't be certain because there's no precedent.
He's hopeful the sharks can outsmart the environmental disaster.
"There is a possibility that these animals might be able to anticipate the oil and sense the oil and actually move away from it," he said.
Swimming through the oil could be deadly for sharks.
"There's fishing areas closed in the Gulf of Mexico... but I don't know if the sharks got the memo."
--Neil Hammerschlag, marine researcher
--Neil Hammerschlag, marine researcher
"Sharks breathe through the water," says Hammerschlag. "They take in the water, the water goes over their gills and they extract oxygen out of the water."
If the water is mixed with oil, it would hinder their normal breathing pattern, he says.
It's still too early in Hammerschlag's research to determine whether sharks are swimming through the oil.
"Hurley" the hammerhead shark had transmitted a signal nearly every day for three months, until just a couple of days after the rig explosion that caused the oil spill.
"The tag could have failed or it could have headed off somewhere else into deep water and just not come up in the last few months," Hammerschlag says. "But that's very unlike the shark's characteristics."
Either way, as long as there are fish in the oiled area, Hammerschlag and his team will be looking at the effects on sharks.
"You know, there's fishing areas closed in the Gulf of Mexico because they don't want people catching and eating that fish," he said. "But I don't know if the sharks got the memo."
<< Back to Articles
June 3, 2010
Environmental Cost of Shark Finning Is Getting Attention in Hong Kong
Bettina Wassener, Hong Kong
When Christine and Constant Tang, both avid scuba divers, got married in 2003, they did something unusual: They did not serve shark's fin soup at their wedding reception in Hong Kong.
"The waiter who took our banquet order gave us a pretty strange look, and my father-in-law had to explain in his welcoming speech that we felt strongly about being environmental, and that we were not just being cheap," Mrs. Tang said.
This may sound a bit strange and arcane to anyone unfamiliar with Chinese culture. Unluckily for sharks, the soup brewed from their fins is considered a must-have at Chinese wedding banquets and corporate dinners. For the Chinese, the delicacy is a matter of wealth, pride and prestige.
But the question of whether to eat shark's fin soup has finally begun to gain traction with the Hong Kong public, spawning Internet discussion and campaign groups. The debate here cou ld well influence the survival of numerous shark species.
And it puts the spotlight on the evolving environmental attitudes of the world's most populous nation: China. China's huge economy is booming. So what Chinese consumers buy and eat matters - on a global scale.
Researchers estimate that 100 million sharks are killed each year, some 73 million of them for the lucrative trade in shark fins. As demand, mainly from China, has soared, many shark populations have plummeted by as much as 90 percent in recent decades.
"If sharks continue to be overfished at the current rate, it's only a matter of a few years before the targeted species are extinct," according to Richard Thomas, communications director at Traffic, which monitors wildlife trade.
The fins are not cheap. Retailers in Hong Kong charge more than 2,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $260, per "catty," a traditional weight measure commonly used in mark ets here and equal to a bit more than 600 grams, or 21 ounces. One catty makes about 10 portions of shark's fin soup.
The soup is losing some of its status - slowly.
Several vendors of dried seafood in the bustling Hong Kong neighborhood of Sheung Wan said last week that they now sold significantly less than they had a few years ago.
"People are a lot more aware about protecting the environment," said an employee at one of the dozens of stores in the area. Like others, he declined to give his name, because he was worried about the mounting bad publicity surrounding shark fins here. "There is less demand now," he said.
Hong Kong now has several groups that are opposed to shark finning - the practice of capturing sharks, removing the fins and then throwing them back into the water to die. In May, 12 restaurants and hotels pledged to offer shark-free options for banquets. Alibaba, the Chinese answer to eBay, has banned the sale of the fins on its site.
"Awareness has been rising for the past few years, but it really took off this year," said Andy Cornish at the WWF in Hong Kong.
A proliferation of videos on YouTube - like one of a whale shark that washed up in the Philippines this year, still alive but with its fins cut off has really pushed the issue mainstream. And it hammered home how the precious fins are harvested.
Sharks are fished in oceans around the world, but Hong Kong is the hub for the trade in their fins, handling between 50 percent and 80 percent of the global market. The fins go on to mainland China or to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. Hong Kong itself is also a major consumer.
Because Hong Kong is generally a trendsetter for upmarket spending in China, attitudes here could well influence consumption in the vastly greater mainland market, experts believe.
But conservationists have also taken t heir message to the mainland itself. Most prominent is a campaign by WildAid featuring Yao Ming, the National Basketball Association star, who was born in Shanghai. The campaign appears on CCTV, the main state television broadcaster, and on billboards and public screens in major cities.
"Many people in China are simply not aware that shark finning is wasteful, cruel and unsustainable," said Michael Skoletsky, executive director at Shark Savers in New York, which also supports the campaign.
But changing attitudes is an uphill struggle.
A survey by McKinsey, for example, showed last year that even though half of Chinese consumers said they wanted to understand the environmental impact of products they purchased, few actually walk the talk: Fewer than 3 percent ever purchased "green" products.
Even in Hong Kong, where awareness has risen, many restaurants offer a plethora of shark's fin dishes. Among them: Lung King Heen , which has three Michelin stars, and Man Wah in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, though both have also recently introduced shark-free options for banquets.
Only about 5 percent of couples choose shark-free menus at their weddings, according to a survey by a wedding industry group last year.
Elsewhere, too, shark protection is proving tough.
Last month, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to outlaw shark fins. But, Mr. Skoletsky at Shark Savers said that with all the other issues legislators have to deal with - from unemployment to oil spills - it will be "very hard to get it on the agenda" of other states.
Fergus Fung, founder of WOM, a Hong Kong restaurant guide, said, "Ultimately, we'll see shark's fin consumption phasing off here. But we're still a long way away from sharks' disappearing completely from menus. It's still a very, very big dish."
Environmental Cost of Shark Finning Is Getting Attention in Hong Kong
Bettina Wassener, Hong Kong
When Christine and Constant Tang, both avid scuba divers, got married in 2003, they did something unusual: They did not serve shark's fin soup at their wedding reception in Hong Kong.
"The waiter who took our banquet order gave us a pretty strange look, and my father-in-law had to explain in his welcoming speech that we felt strongly about being environmental, and that we were not just being cheap," Mrs. Tang said.
This may sound a bit strange and arcane to anyone unfamiliar with Chinese culture. Unluckily for sharks, the soup brewed from their fins is considered a must-have at Chinese wedding banquets and corporate dinners. For the Chinese, the delicacy is a matter of wealth, pride and prestige.
But the question of whether to eat shark's fin soup has finally begun to gain traction with the Hong Kong public, spawning Internet discussion and campaign groups. The debate here cou ld well influence the survival of numerous shark species.
And it puts the spotlight on the evolving environmental attitudes of the world's most populous nation: China. China's huge economy is booming. So what Chinese consumers buy and eat matters - on a global scale.
Researchers estimate that 100 million sharks are killed each year, some 73 million of them for the lucrative trade in shark fins. As demand, mainly from China, has soared, many shark populations have plummeted by as much as 90 percent in recent decades.
"If sharks continue to be overfished at the current rate, it's only a matter of a few years before the targeted species are extinct," according to Richard Thomas, communications director at Traffic, which monitors wildlife trade.
The fins are not cheap. Retailers in Hong Kong charge more than 2,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $260, per "catty," a traditional weight measure commonly used in mark ets here and equal to a bit more than 600 grams, or 21 ounces. One catty makes about 10 portions of shark's fin soup.
The soup is losing some of its status - slowly.
Several vendors of dried seafood in the bustling Hong Kong neighborhood of Sheung Wan said last week that they now sold significantly less than they had a few years ago.
"People are a lot more aware about protecting the environment," said an employee at one of the dozens of stores in the area. Like others, he declined to give his name, because he was worried about the mounting bad publicity surrounding shark fins here. "There is less demand now," he said.
Hong Kong now has several groups that are opposed to shark finning - the practice of capturing sharks, removing the fins and then throwing them back into the water to die. In May, 12 restaurants and hotels pledged to offer shark-free options for banquets. Alibaba, the Chinese answer to eBay, has banned the sale of the fins on its site.
"Awareness has been rising for the past few years, but it really took off this year," said Andy Cornish at the WWF in Hong Kong.
A proliferation of videos on YouTube - like one of a whale shark that washed up in the Philippines this year, still alive but with its fins cut off has really pushed the issue mainstream. And it hammered home how the precious fins are harvested.
Sharks are fished in oceans around the world, but Hong Kong is the hub for the trade in their fins, handling between 50 percent and 80 percent of the global market. The fins go on to mainland China or to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. Hong Kong itself is also a major consumer.
Because Hong Kong is generally a trendsetter for upmarket spending in China, attitudes here could well influence consumption in the vastly greater mainland market, experts believe.
But conservationists have also taken t heir message to the mainland itself. Most prominent is a campaign by WildAid featuring Yao Ming, the National Basketball Association star, who was born in Shanghai. The campaign appears on CCTV, the main state television broadcaster, and on billboards and public screens in major cities.
"Many people in China are simply not aware that shark finning is wasteful, cruel and unsustainable," said Michael Skoletsky, executive director at Shark Savers in New York, which also supports the campaign.
But changing attitudes is an uphill struggle.
A survey by McKinsey, for example, showed last year that even though half of Chinese consumers said they wanted to understand the environmental impact of products they purchased, few actually walk the talk: Fewer than 3 percent ever purchased "green" products.
Even in Hong Kong, where awareness has risen, many restaurants offer a plethora of shark's fin dishes. Among them: Lung King Heen , which has three Michelin stars, and Man Wah in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, though both have also recently introduced shark-free options for banquets.
Only about 5 percent of couples choose shark-free menus at their weddings, according to a survey by a wedding industry group last year.
Elsewhere, too, shark protection is proving tough.
Last month, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to outlaw shark fins. But, Mr. Skoletsky at Shark Savers said that with all the other issues legislators have to deal with - from unemployment to oil spills - it will be "very hard to get it on the agenda" of other states.
Fergus Fung, founder of WOM, a Hong Kong restaurant guide, said, "Ultimately, we'll see shark's fin consumption phasing off here. But we're still a long way away from sharks' disappearing completely from menus. It's still a very, very big dish."
<< Back to Articles
June 3, 2010
Why hammerhead sharks have a wide nose
Devin Powell, Inside Science News Service, Washington
Anyone who stares hammerhead will notice its widely-spaced eyes. Far fewer will see that the same is true of its nostrils.
The wide spacing between the nostrils may help broad-nosed sharks track down their prey much quicker than sharks with smaller, pointy-shaped heads, according to new research that reexamines how the animals smell.
"The idea that positioning the nostrils farther apart gives them a better sense of smell has been kicking around for 50 years, but there hasn't been much reasoning behind it," said biologist Jayne Gardiner of the University of South Florida in Tampa, whose study appears in the scientific journal Current Biology.
Shark myths smell fishy
As a shark swims, water flows into its nostrils, gliding over tiny receptors that detect dissolved proteins, mucous, pheromones and blood a plume of materials that washed off its prey.
Hammerheads can detect about one of these scent molecules in 100 billion molecules of water. This level of sensitivity is keener than humans on land can smell, but similar to that of other sharks and fishes and not nearly as good as Hollywood would have you believe. The belief inspired by the movie "Jaws" that sharks can smell a drop of blood a mile away is movie myth.
Thirty years ago, research into shark repellents sponsored by the Navy suggested that sharks evaluate scents independently in each nostril, and then swim in the direction of the stronger smell, following a chemical gradient left behind by prey that steadily increases as the shark closes in on its target.
But recent research has shown that turbulent ocean waters break up the chemical trails into patches that scatter like clouds in a windy sky. Each patch is a mess of strong and weak smells, difficult to interpret based on concentration alone and potentially pointing a shark in c onflicting directions.
To explore how sharks make the quick decisions to go either left or right in these patches, Gardiner strapped headgear that puffed squid remains into the nostrils of eight smooth Dogfish sharks, a smaller species with a pointy face.
When given two puffs in a row, 0.1 to 0.5 seconds apart, the sharks turned toward the nostril that felt the puff first, even if the second puff of odor was a hundred times as smelly. Two puffs at the same time or very far apart had no effect. Timing, not odor strength, was the key to the sharks' stereo smelling ability.
"It is similar to human hearing," said Jelle Atema, a biologist at Boston University who worked on the project. "Our brains judge the location of a sound by comparing when it is detected by each ear."
What does this mean for hammerheads? The farther apart a shark's nostrils are, the greater the time lag between the two nostrils. This could help the brains of hammerheads more finel y discriminate which way to go when moving quickly or swimming into an odor patch at a slight angle.
"The hammerhead might still be able to process that and get a direction from it, where a pointy-nosed shark might see it as a simultaneous hit to both nostrils," said Gardiner.
"Here you have the potential to rethink some of the ideas that have been put forward for the evolution of the hammerhead shape," said Stephen Kajiura, a shark researcher at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton who was not involved in the research.
Last year, Kajiura debunked a previous theory that hammerheads have a greater surface area inside of their nostrils. The idea of time delay between widely-spaced nostrils, he said, "is an alternative way of looking at the shape that has never been considered."
But Gardiner said that her research will need to be confirmed by testing hammerhead sharks. No scientific studies to date have shown that hammerheads are actually faster at finding prey only anecdotal tales told by fishermen who cast lines in shark-infested waters and notice that the first sharks to show up at a piece of bait tend to have hammer-shaped heads.
Why hammerhead sharks have a wide nose
Devin Powell, Inside Science News Service, Washington
Anyone who stares hammerhead will notice its widely-spaced eyes. Far fewer will see that the same is true of its nostrils.
The wide spacing between the nostrils may help broad-nosed sharks track down their prey much quicker than sharks with smaller, pointy-shaped heads, according to new research that reexamines how the animals smell.
"The idea that positioning the nostrils farther apart gives them a better sense of smell has been kicking around for 50 years, but there hasn't been much reasoning behind it," said biologist Jayne Gardiner of the University of South Florida in Tampa, whose study appears in the scientific journal Current Biology.
Shark myths smell fishy
As a shark swims, water flows into its nostrils, gliding over tiny receptors that detect dissolved proteins, mucous, pheromones and blood a plume of materials that washed off its prey.
Hammerheads can detect about one of these scent molecules in 100 billion molecules of water. This level of sensitivity is keener than humans on land can smell, but similar to that of other sharks and fishes and not nearly as good as Hollywood would have you believe. The belief inspired by the movie "Jaws" that sharks can smell a drop of blood a mile away is movie myth.
Thirty years ago, research into shark repellents sponsored by the Navy suggested that sharks evaluate scents independently in each nostril, and then swim in the direction of the stronger smell, following a chemical gradient left behind by prey that steadily increases as the shark closes in on its target.
But recent research has shown that turbulent ocean waters break up the chemical trails into patches that scatter like clouds in a windy sky. Each patch is a mess of strong and weak smells, difficult to interpret based on concentration alone and potentially pointing a shark in c onflicting directions.
To explore how sharks make the quick decisions to go either left or right in these patches, Gardiner strapped headgear that puffed squid remains into the nostrils of eight smooth Dogfish sharks, a smaller species with a pointy face.
When given two puffs in a row, 0.1 to 0.5 seconds apart, the sharks turned toward the nostril that felt the puff first, even if the second puff of odor was a hundred times as smelly. Two puffs at the same time or very far apart had no effect. Timing, not odor strength, was the key to the sharks' stereo smelling ability.
"It is similar to human hearing," said Jelle Atema, a biologist at Boston University who worked on the project. "Our brains judge the location of a sound by comparing when it is detected by each ear."
What does this mean for hammerheads? The farther apart a shark's nostrils are, the greater the time lag between the two nostrils. This could help the brains of hammerheads more finel y discriminate which way to go when moving quickly or swimming into an odor patch at a slight angle.
"The hammerhead might still be able to process that and get a direction from it, where a pointy-nosed shark might see it as a simultaneous hit to both nostrils," said Gardiner.
"Here you have the potential to rethink some of the ideas that have been put forward for the evolution of the hammerhead shape," said Stephen Kajiura, a shark researcher at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton who was not involved in the research.
Last year, Kajiura debunked a previous theory that hammerheads have a greater surface area inside of their nostrils. The idea of time delay between widely-spaced nostrils, he said, "is an alternative way of looking at the shape that has never been considered."
But Gardiner said that her research will need to be confirmed by testing hammerhead sharks. No scientific studies to date have shown that hammerheads are actually faster at finding prey only anecdotal tales told by fishermen who cast lines in shark-infested waters and notice that the first sharks to show up at a piece of bait tend to have hammer-shaped heads.
<< Back to Articles
June 3, 2010
Put An End to Brutal Shark Finning
Oceana
Each year, millions of sharks are brutally maimed and killed, just for their fins. Sharks are vitally important to our waters, helping balance marine ecosystems in their role as apex predators.
The Shark Conservation Act would end shark finning in U.S. waters and make us world leaders in shark conservation.
Reference: Take Action: Put An End to Brutal Shark Finning
Put An End to Brutal Shark Finning
Oceana
Each year, millions of sharks are brutally maimed and killed, just for their fins. Sharks are vitally important to our waters, helping balance marine ecosystems in their role as apex predators.
The Shark Conservation Act would end shark finning in U.S. waters and make us world leaders in shark conservation.
Reference: Take Action: Put An End to Brutal Shark Finning
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