Shark Finning is Responsible for the Demise of the Ocean’s Most Valuable Apex Predator
By Kylie Vasil
Turkey on Thanksgiving, hot dogs at a baseball game, eggnog at Christmas, apple pie for any occasion; food is a main component of American culture. We have traditions, we have pastimes and we have specific foods that are the in the center of it all. Many cultures have culinary habits that make them unique, but what if one of those culinary traditions was killing off a species that is imperative to the ocean’s ecosystem? The tradition I’m talking about involves a process called shark finning, which is defined as “the removal and retention of shark fins and the discard at sea of the carcass.” This inhumane practice occurs solely to create Asian delicacy called ‘Shark Fin Soup’.
What is Shark Finning?
As shown in the diagram above, shark finning is a system in which all of the fins are cut off of a shark’s body. The body is discarded in the ocean (see photograph below of Hammerhead shark) and most often the shark is still alive during this process. Unable to swim, the shark slowly sinks to the ocean floor where it is eaten alive by other fish.
By performing shark finning at sea, fishers transport only the fins back to shore, which is far more valuable than the low-value shark meat. Fishers don’t discriminate when it comes to age, size or species of shark, and it is estimated that 73 million sharks are killed for their fins per year. The figure below shows a ship transporting a catch of fins to port.
Shark fins provide for a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry. One pound of dried shark fin can be sold for $300, with a bowl of shark fin soup costing up to $100. This dish dates back to Ming Dynasty China (1300s) and is still sold in Chinese restaurants all over the world. A survey carried out in China in 2006 by WildAid and the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association found that 35% of participants said they had consumed shark fin soup in the last year, while 83% of participants in an online survey conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature said that they had consumed shark fin soup at some time. Because of the monetary success of this trade, shark finning is largely unmonitored and unregulated regardless of how inhumane the process is.
Shark fin is the key ingredient in an Asian delicacy called shark fin soup, even though the fin itself offers very little taste and is mainly used to provide texture. This dish is very common for weddings or banquets and it is perceived as a sign of affluence in many Asian cultures. The dish has been a cultural tradition for many years, but only recently have the effects of shark finning been publicized. Over the past 30 years, China has been deemed the world’s fastest growing major economy with gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates averaging 10%. As a result of the economic emergence of China, there have been a rapidly increasing number of upper-class consumers. Dr. Timothy Stebbins, a Senior Marine Biologist at the City of San Diego Marine Biology Laboratory, spoke on the overfishing that is happening to sharks, “such losses are unsustainable because of the relatively slow growth and reproductive rates of sharks.” Sharks take anywhere from 12-15 years to reach reproductive age so if fishers kill them before this age, the shark hasn’t had a pup yet. This combined with the fact that many species only give birth to one or two pups at a time, means that sharks have great difficulty recovering after their populations have declined. If just a few bowls of shark fin soup account for one dead shark, it doesn’t take much imagination to add up the devastating impact of this menu choice.
Why Should We Care?
Sharks are an apex predator at the top of their marine food chain, meaning that they regulate the populations of species below them, maintaining balance among the species of the marine ecosystem. Apex predators provide greater biodiversity, so areas without apex predators experience species absences. Sharks help remove the sick and weak animals in order to keep the balance of the marine ecosystem in balance. As predators, sharks also shift their prey’s spatial habitat, meaning that there is a good distribution of species, which alters the feeding strategy and diets of other species. Sharks also indirectly maintain the seagrass and coral reef habitats due to their place on the food chain. Tragically, the decline of shark populations has resulted in a loss of coral reefs and sea grass beds because of the consequential loss of commercially important fish and shellfish species that maintain the reefs. There is also the downturn of commercial fisheries, which in turn leads to scarcity and higher prices for seafood. (e.g. sushi).
The figure above shows examples of how shark populations have declined throughout the world’s oceans. There are approximately 350 species of sharks and according to Dr. Stebbins, “50% of pelagic shark species (those that swim in the open ocean) are now considered either threatened or near threatened.” Sharks, in fact, now represent the largest group of threatened marine species on the World Conservation Union’s (ICUN) Red List of threatened species. With this unbelievable decline come great consequences to other marine species as well as humans. A study in North Carolina, for instance, revealed that the loss of great sharks in the northern Atlantic Ocean has drastically increased the ray population. As a result, the rays consumed all of the bay scallops, forcing the fisheries to close. Without scallops in their diet, the rays had to move on to clams and oysters, specifically a clam known as the Quahog. The Quahog is a key ingredient in New England clam chowder and because of the recent scarcity of this clam many American restaurants have removed this classic dish from their menus. The disappearance of scallops and clams shows how eliminating sharks not only harms the ecosystem, but also affects the economy.
Many people might not care about this problem because “most people tend to focus only on sharks as “man killers”’ says Dr. Stebbins, but to put this in perspective, an average of six people worldwide die per year from being attacked by a shark, with roughly one person in the U.S. is killed by a shark per year. This statistic can be compared with the 100 million sharks that are killed per year by humans, according to the Shark Research Institute. According to the Shark Attack File, a person is in more danger walking on the shore than in the water. From 1990 to 2006, there were 16 US deaths resulting from beachgoers falling in a hole at the beach compared with the 11 shark attack deaths during the same time period. Interestingly enough, bees, wasps and snakes kill far more people a year in the U.S. than sharks do. I don’t know if the classic movie Jaws is responsible for our collective fear of shark attacks, but it seems to me that the real danger is elsewhere.
What are the current laws against shark finning?
The process of shark fining is largely unmonitored and unregulated. Out of 350 species of sharks, only three – basking, whale and white - are protected from the pressures of large-scale international trade. Many of the small island states, such as Fiji, French Polynesia, Maldives and Honduras, have a clear, unfaltering ban of shark finning in their surrounding waters. Unfortunately, regulation by these small islands can do very little to protect the overall shark population. The real change can only come from the countries with a large market for trade, such as the United States, European Union (EU) countries, and China. As for the United States, only California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Illinois have prohibited the possession, sale, and trade of shark fins. A total of 45 states have yet to make this stride towards saving the sharks. However, in 2011 the United States passed a nation-wide law stating that, “all sharks must be landed at shore with their fins fully or partially attached in the natural way in all federal waters (with the exemption for smooth dogfish).” In addition, in 2009, the European Union banned shark finning in EU waters and by EU vessels worldwide. They require sharks to be landed with fins naturally attached, unless a Special Permit has been issued to allow onboard removal of fins and landing in separate ports. This special permit was issued to vessels that demonstrated a capacity to use all parts of the shark and where “need for the separate processing on board of shark fins and the remaining pats of the shark has been justified. This exception made the EU’s prohibition on shark finning one of the weakest in the world. Thus, while recent regulation on shark finning by the U.S. and the European Union does show that at least some progress has been made toward protecting this valuable species, there is definitely still room for improvement.
As for China, the only form of regulation so far has been the ban of shark fin soup at government functions. According to many sources, even this small change is considered huge progress for China, the world’s top shark fin soup consuming country. With shark fin soup being considered a delicacy in many Asian cultures, the support of some of the most rich and powerful Chinese citizens standing up against shark fin soup is imperative to changing the perception. Unfortunately, this single law disregards any control over what happens to sharks in the water, making the inhumane process of finning the sharks an uncomplicated one, especially with the lack of supervision.
What can be done?
Regrettably, at this point, there are a few ideas but no definitive solution to stop this inhumane practice. As stated above, some legislation has been passed in recent years to protect sharks, but the devastating reality is that sharks are still heading straight toward extinction.
Hong Kong is the global trade hub for shark fin, handling about half of the world’s imports. Most of the shark fins that come in through Hong Kong are distributed throughout China rather than around the world because the demand is greatest there. I believe that it will take more national governance for regulating how shark fins are obtained in Chinese waters. The vessels coming in through Hong Kong should be forced to bring back the shark fully intact. If enforced, this regulation would drastically reduce the number of shark fins being brought to shore because it is less economically feasible to bring the entire shark carcass back. This is because the effort of transporting the bulky body renders shark meat not profitable enough when compared the amount of effort expended by the fishers
Legislation alone, however, will not ensure the changes that need to happen. Cultural changes are also needed to save sharks. In Chinese culture, shark fin soup is about honoring (and impressing) your guests. In 2006, a San Francisco-based nonprofit called WildAid began a television and social media campaign, with public service announcements by Yao Ming, Jackie Chan and Ang Lee. “People say you can’t change China, but I would submit that no other society in the history of the world is changing as quickly as China is today.” WildAid believes that the answer to phasing out shark fin soup might be to make the guest want something else. This simple idea could actually help change the future for sharks. According to the New York Times article, “Souring on Shark Fin Soup”, the application of these principles by WildAid and other environmental groups seem to have created a ripple in Chinese consumption. Jennifer Yang, a wedding planner for Beijing’s China World Hotel, says that some parents of brides-to-be still try to request shark fin, but the younger generation is balking. One bride, Amy Liu, even told Ms. Yang that the practice of slicing fins and dumping the animals back in the ocean made her lose her appetite.
Hopefully, with more of such campaigns and more regulation, sharks can become commercially extinct rather than actually extinct. The potential to change consumption patterns of the Chinese along with legislation that decreases the number of sharks killed for their fins could be exactly what our oceans need. The marine ecosystem is begging for change, and we are the only ones who can provide it.
People around the world have the absolute right to honor their culture as they see fit, and food is a cornerstone to nearly all cultures. However, cultures must be observed in ways that does not negatively impose itself on the rest of the world, including the environment and those who depend on the environment in order to survive.
