Save the sharks
Why love a killer?
Sharks: Wild robot-like killing machines searching the ocean for humans to kill. This is a Hollywood-made image that makes it difficult to gain friends or the public opinion in favor of their conservation.
Page author: Stefan Austermühle
Reviewed by: Sean Minns
Last updated: 2010.06.20.
But from more than 400 species of sharks around the world, only six species are dangerous to humans. All the other hundreds of species do not mean us any harm. There are even sharks that feed on plankton, like the giant whale shark, with up to twelve meters of length being also the biggest fish on the planet. An encounter with this peaceful giant is an experience searched for by many recreational divers around the world.
Many shark attacks have been provoked by humans ignoring the warning signs from the behavior of territorial sharks. In unprovoked attacks on humans, sharks have often bitten only once in an attempt to discover whether the person is suitable prey. Sharks do not have alternative ways to find out if they have caught their favorite prey, they need to take a bite – humans mostly fail the test and are not bitten again.
In the 400 million years sharks have existed on earth, they always played an important role in maintaining the ocean’s health. Being top predators with hydrodynamic bodies and hypersensitive sensorial systems, they feed mainly on old or ill fish. It is therefore most important to maintain a healthy population of sharks in order to maintain the sustainability and production of other species, many of them being commercial fish species.
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Page author: Stefan Austermühle
The hunted hunter
Sharks reproduce at a slow rate. They have to grow several years before reaching maturity and have small numbers of offspring. This is why they are sensitive to over fishing. Nevertheless, on a global level, more than 100 million sharks are caught every year.
In Peru, principally nine species of smooth hounds (Fam. Triakidae) are commercially fished, as well as Blue sharks (Prionace glauca), Shortfin Mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus), Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) and Hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna zygaena). According to official landing statistics, the number of smooth hounds being fished has decreased steadily during the last 20 years, most probably being an indication of severe over-fishing. The Peruvian government however does not only completely fail to conserve sharks, but on the contrary promotes shark fishing without regulating it. Read more about the catastrophic and irresponsible lack of management and shark protection in Peru.
The graphic below shows the landings of “tollo”, a group of seven species of dogsharks, clearly declining. It also shows the slowly rising catches of other shark species (tiburon).
Specialists from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned in 1997 that the populations of more than seventy shark species are suffering a sharp decrease and asked for the listing of eleven species of sharks on the Annexes of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species (CITES).
Up to now only three of these species are protected by CITES:
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White sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)
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Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus)
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Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)
All three species do exist along the Peruvian coast in offshore areas.
Read more about Shark conservation and what you can do to help:
Sign our Mundo Azul online petitions:
Stop exporting shark fins from Peru
Ask the Peruvian company R.Muelle SA in Callao, Peru to stop exporting shark fins.
Stop shark-finning in Peru and elsewhere
Ask the Peruvian Vice-Minister of Fisheries to ban shark-finning in Peruvian waters and work for a ban of shark-finning in international waters
Shark fishing in Peru is unmanaged and unsustainable. Shark populations are declining. Ask the Peruvian Vice-Minister of Fisheries to ban shark fishing till a truly sustainable management scheme has been set up.
Stay in touch with Mundo Azul! Sign up to our google group “Mundo Azul International” and receive news about our work and nature conservation in Peru, Web site updates, action alerts, suggestions on how you can participate or help, volunteer opportunities, internship and job openings and much more.
Follow us on Twitter
Become a member of our Facebook group “Mundo Azul International“
Page author: Stefan Austermühle
