 |
| An environmental activist releases a baby black-tip shark into the sea as part of an operation organized by the sharks protection group Dive Tribe off the coast of the southern Thai sea resort of Pattaya. (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault) |
Relatedarticles
- Malaysia Borneo State Wants Ban on Shark Fishing
- The Chinese Love Affair With Shark’s Fin Soup
- A Predatory Hunger for Shark's Fin
- UN Shark Conservation Plan Has Failed: Report
- Indonesia's New Shark Sanctuary for Coral Triangle
Pattaya,Thailand. Saved from the soup bowl at a Thai restaurant, the baby sharkwriggled out of the bag and into the open sea — a rare survivor of a trade thatkills millions of the predators each year.
On averagean estimated 22,000 metric tons of sharks are caught annually off Thailand fortheir fins — a delicacy in Chinese cuisine once enjoyed only by the rich, butnow increasingly popular with the wealthier middle class.
Thanks to agroup of environmental activists calling themselves the Dive Tribe, dozens ofsharks were returned to the wild in the Gulf of Thailand recently, bought fromanimal markets or restaurants.
Among themwere several young bamboo and black tip reef sharks which narrowly avoidedending up as shark fin soup — prized in particular by the Chinese who believeit boosts sexual potency.
Gwyn Mills,founder of Dive Tribe, laments the fact that the plight of sharks is largelyoverlooked compared to animals such as elephants and tigers.
He fears itmay be only five or 10 years before the damage is irreversible.
“We arelosing too many sharks. We can’t afford to take any more out of the ocean,”Mills said.
Scientistsblame the practice of shark-finning — slicing off the fins of live animals andthen throwing them back in the water to die — for a worldwide collapse inpopulations of the predators, which have been swimming since the time of thedinosaurs.
Themaritime conservation group Oceana estimates that up to 73 million sharks arefinned each year around the world, depleting many populations by as much as 90percent.
Althoughthe shark is portrayed as an insatiable man-eater in Steven Spielberg’s hit1975 movie “Jaws,” naturalists say most species pose no danger to humans.
“Actuallyattacks on people are rare,” said Jean-Christophe Thomas, a scuba instructorinvolved in the shark release.
OnSaturday, 60 sharks left their temporary home at the “Underwater World”aquarium in the Thai resort city of Pattaya in plastic bags filled with water.Loaded onto a boat, they were released one by one back into the wild.
“I wascarrying the plastic bag and did not even notice when he left,” said WaynePhillips, a lecturer in marine ecology at Mahidol University.
“But I likethat. He was not given freedom. He took it. He was living in a tank, then in aplastic bag. He’s better here.”
While therelease was a largely symbolic event designed to raise awareness, the stakesare real.
Environmentalistssay that sharks, particularly the apex predators, play a vital role in themarine ecosystem.
“So if weprotect the sharks, the rest of the reef will be protected,” Phillips said. “Weneed to make people realize how important sharks are.”
Environmentalistsargue that sharks are slow to reproduce, making them unsuitable for commercialfishing.
Some typesof shark species, including the great white and the hammerhead, are endangered,threatened or vulnerable, according to the International Union for theConservation of Nature.
Somecountries are taking action.
The tinyPacific nation of Palau declared the world’s first shark sanctuary in 2009,prompting similar moves by the Maldives and Honduras.
Taiwan, oneof the world’s major shark catchers, is moving to tighten measures againsthunting the predator while the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island isalso seeking to ban shark fishing.
The membersof the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) alsoadopted a resolution in 1994 on shark conservation and management.
And in1999, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization adopted an International Plan ofAction for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.
But areport by the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic and the PewEnvironmental Group released in January said not enough was being done toimplement that plan.
“Internationalconcern about shark stocks continues to grow because of an increasing body ofevidence that many shark species are threatened and are continuing to declineas a result of unregulated fishing”, it said.
Activistsbelieve the best hope of reversing the situation is to highlight the benefitsof sharks to the tourism industry.
The animalsare a major attraction for snorkelers and scuba divers, but it is increasinglyrare to see the creatures in the seas off Thailand.
Millsargued that one reef shark is worth many times more to the tourist industrythan it would fetch in a restaurant. He thinks fishermen should be compensatedfor releasing the sharks that get entangled in their nets.
Whileswimming with sharks is a joy for many scuba divers and naturalists, for somethe shark remains a creature to be feared — an image unlikely to be helped bythe upcoming release of the Hollywood movie “Shark Night 3D.”
The filmtells the fictional story of a group of carefree teenagers killed off one byone by hungry sharks in a salt lake in Louisiana.
Accordingto the International Shark Attack File, compiled at the University of Florida,79 unprovoked shark attacks occurred around the world in 2010, six of whichwere fatal. This was the highest number in a decade and an increase of 25percent on 2009.
For DiveTribe and other shark lovers, the battle is only just beginning.
Agence France-Presse
