Sharks are killed by fishermen and hunters, by accident and intentionally. Millions of animals are caught in fishing nets and shark nets every year, struggling until exhaustion, when their bodies eventually collapse onto their organs, effectively crushing them to death. Shark nets are designed to deliberately capture and kill ‘dangerous’ shark species, and are responsible for the deaths of many predators as well as dozens of other harmless and even endangered species. Fishing nets are not designed to capture sharks, but indiscriminately scoop up everything that is unfortunate enough to be in the water at that time.

A frightening incident occurred in the late 1980’s, when 32 fishing boats embarked on an excursion to capture 3 million squid in Japan. However, they accidentally killed over 58 000 Blue Sharks, 52 Fur Seals, 914 dolphins, 141 porpoises, 25 Puffins and 22 marine turtles. This fleet had been using drift nets, which are dragged through vast expanses of water, catching everything in their path.

In contrast, fishermen have long been actively targeting sharks for their skin, meat, fins and the oil that is found in their liver. The skin is used for leather products due to its beautifully smooth appearance and its sometimes-astounding thickness (designed to withstand the bites from males wanting to mate or during occasional battles). The fins are valuable for the delicacy, Shark Fin Soup, which costs about 100 US Dollars in Japan. Sadly, these fins are often savagely cut from the shark’s body while it is still alive, only for the body to be thrown back into the ocean to die slowly. The liver is proportionally very large, and is filled with oil that is significantly less dense than water, which is the shark’s chief means of remaining buoyant. This oil is valuable for its mineral content and for the products that can be made with it. However, these qualities can also be found in vegetable oils, and authorities are being urged to prohibit the killing of these animals for this purpose.

In some countries, such as Australia, it is illegal to kill certain species, particularly those that mature late, produce small litters and have extended periods between new litters. Examples of these are the Great White Shark and the Grey Nurse Shark.

There are several direct and indirect negative impacts made by the killing of sharks. Hunting these predators means lower population numbers, which could eventually result in the extinction of several species. It disturbs the natural order of the various species and the way that they interact with and influence one another. The relationship between prey and predator becomes unbalanced, allowing certain species that are usually preyed upon to explode in population numbers, eventually needing to be culled. When mass killings occur in certain areas, entire age groups or sexes are destroyed, leaving the remaining population with a huge gap in their generation and structure. Also significant is the fact that smaller sharks are prey for larger ones, so killing them diminishes the food supply for others. When sharks die, their carcass sinks to the ocean floor and sustains numerous species of fish and marine animals, big and small.

Author Bio: Andrew Keet has been watching sharks off the East Coast of South Africa for over five decades and is alarmed at the rate of the killing of sharks by man and knows the shark cannot survive this.

Category: Education
Keywords: sharks