Poor publicity and taste for the exotic put sharks on danger listBy Hannah Devlin
SHARKS face a grave risk of extinction because the ruling body on European fishing is attempting to weaken the restrictions on finning, conservationists say. The Shark Alliance, which includes leading oceanographers and environmentalists, says that a third of the 130 species in Europe are on the threatened list and that another 20 per cent are in immediate danger of joining them.
“Sharks’ poor public image — we all remember Jaws — has led to their underprotection,” Sonja Fordham, the policy director of Shark Alliance, said. In British waters the angel, basking and soupfin sharks, along with skates and rays, are on the World Conservation Union Red List.
In a report published this week, the alliance says that the huge market for shark fins, which is getting bigger by 5 per cent every year, has led to increased fishing of the animals and the illegal practice of shark finning — the dumping of a shark’s body at sea after the removal of the fins.
At the Kai Mayfair restaurant in London shark fin soup is £108 a bowl and a single dorsal fin from a whale shark or a basking shark can fetch more than £10,000 in Hong Kong.
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