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Sign up to receive our newsletter. Shark Finning Shark fin soup — a traditional Chinese delicacy dating back over a thousand years, popular as a prestigious dish served to impress your guests, eaten at wedding celebrations and at New Year.
Hong Kong is the shark fin trading hub, accounting for more than half of the world trade. With the increase in prosperity in the Far East in recent years, there is an increasing demand for shark fins, but what is the true cost of shark fin soup? What is shark finning?
Effect on shark populations Cruelty and ethics are only part of the story. What can be done? Ban the removal of fins at sea. All shark fishing is banned in Congo-Brazzaville. Protective legislation is needed for endangered species of sharks and rays.
Ban transshipment at sea- transshipment is used to avoid proper catch reporting and to launder IUU caught fish.
It is critical to reduce demand, by changing attitudes. There are encouraging signs that shark-fin soup consumption is declining and several dozen airlines and hotel chains have stopped serving it.
In , the Chinese Government banned it at official functions, though the motive was more for austerity than conservation. Despite progress, shark-fin soup is still a long way from being relegated to history. A new approach is clearly needed. Home Animal Facts Fish What is shark finning and why is it a problem? Dried shark fins for sale in a Taipei market. Mark Carwardine Zoologist, activist, author and presenter. Many shark fins used in a traditional Asian delicacy come from the coastal waters of just a handful of countries.
The finding upends conventional notions—and could make this conservation challenge easier to tackle. Every year the fins of up to 73 million sharks, ranging from endangered species such as scalloped hammerhead sharks and broadfin sharks to more common species from sustainable fisheries , are traded and sold to make shark fin soup, a traditional Asian delicacy. A common perception is that much of the fin trade comes from sharks caught in distant international waters—where rules governing fishing are a little less clear and a lot harder to enforce, complicating conservation efforts.
But a new study , published today in the journal Biology Letters , upends that notion by concluding that many of the fins found in markets in Asia, North America, and South America come from sharks caught closer to shore—within the territorial waters of just a handful of countries.
That proximity, they say, may make it easier to control the shark fin trade than previously thought. The research also found that many of the open-ocean species in the fin trade, such as blue sharks, thresher sharks, and oceanic white tip sharks, were likely caught within territorial waters, not in the open oceans, as expected. While the authors stress these samples are not meant to be a complete representation of the global trade, most fins they tested came from sharks caught in the territorial waters of just a few countries.
This list includes some that are known for their shark fisheries, such as Indonesia, Japan, and Mexico, and some that surprised the authors: Australia and Brazil. It also underscores the global nature of the trade. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora , regulates the cross-border wildlife trade, and species on its list are those that the international community has agreed need stricter trade controls to prevent their numbers from dropping.
The conclusion that more sharks are caught in coastal areas offers hope in the sense that those fisheries can be more easily monitored and controlled than international waters. It could also mean that smaller boats, more numerous in coastal waters and harder to track than a handful of larger seagoing vessels, may play a more significant role.
The biggest obstacle to shark conservation, she said, remains the lack of political will to restrict shark fishing to sustainable levels. All rights reserved. Animals Wildlife Watch.
Why cracking down on the shark fin trade may be easier than we thought Many shark fins used in a traditional Asian delicacy come from the coastal waters of just a handful of countries.
A shark fin is tied with rocks to help it keep its shape as it dries.
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