At Least 1.3 Million Atlantic Sharks Killed Annually; Whitetip Pops. Down 70%, Hammerheads Down 99%

[hatrack]

At least 1.3 million sharks, many listed as endangered, were harvested from the Atlantic in 2008 by industrial-scale fisheries unhampered by catch or size limits, according to a tally released Monday.

The actual figure may be several fold higher due to under-reporting, said the study, released by advocacy group Oceana on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Convening in Paris through November 27, the 48-member ICCAT is charged with ensuring that commercial fisheries are sustainable. It has the authority to set catch quotas and restrictions.

While the global spotlight has been trained on the plight of Atlantic bluefin tuna, many species of high-value sharks are in even more dire straits, say marine biologists. "Sharks are virtually unmanaged at the international level," said Elizabeth Griffin Wilson of Oceana. "ICCAT has a responsibility to protect our oceans' top predators." Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, "highly migratory" sharks must be managed by international bodies.

Of the 21 species found in the Atlantic, three-quarters are classified as threatened with extinction. North Atlantic populations of the oceanic white tip, for example, have declined by 70 percent, and hammerheads by more than 99 percent, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/More_than_a_million_Atlantic_sharks_killed_yearly_study_999.html

[and-justice-for-all]

1. sad and disgusting...nt

[pscot]

2. Now maybe it'll be safe to go in the water

Just watch out for jellyfish.

[Nihil]

3. Sharks have been around for ~400Ma ... genus homo for ~2.4Ma ..

The earliest true sharks are from the late Silurian/early Devonian
whereas the earliest upright monkeys are way, way later.

The really destructive monkeys only started ~0.2 million years ago
but in the last few centuries have taken to destroying everything
around them - deliberately or indirectly - and so are the direct
cause of the latest extinction event.

Future paleontologists may wonder about the details of this event
(happening in a geological instant) but I bet they'd never think
that the 6+ billion bald apes ever developed intelligence ...

Hell, after reading stuff like this, I don't.

:grr:

[StarsInHerHair]

4. like the petfood industry, there should be shark feeding

areas far enough off-shore, growing/farming the shark food, then hauling it out to sea. Stationary gps buoys can establish 'farmland plots' in the ocean, creating safe havens for the endangered.

I also think there should be mountain lion feeding stations, not in a way to 'tame' them but to try to keep them away from the people that insist on living in the hills. The mountain lions can't exactly move to the beach, and again I think it would create jobs.

[Nihil]

5. Why not go for the win-win solutions?

Allow unarmed idiots to swim in the safe havens for sharks and demand that
the "people that insist on living in the hills" have neither weapons nor vehicles.

That way the endangered animals can keep their own territory and still be fed!

:party:

[YankeyMCC]

6. del

[upi402]

7. Japan is to fisheries as the US is to carbon dioxide

from linked article;

"The United States has proposed requiring that all sharks be brought back to shore whole, which would boost enforcement of the finning ban and help scientists measure population levels.

Japan -- which quashed a drive earlier this year to protect four threatened shark species under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) -- is now urging ICCAT to prohibit fishing one of them, the oceanic white tip."




We are stuck on stupid, us hairless monkeys.