Shark Words

  Misinformation is being spread around by the shark fishing industry in an effort to take the focus off the dangers of the shark fin trade and see that The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act is not passed. This Act would make the fin trade illegal in the USA, and conservationists consider it to be an important step towards weakening the lethal trade and working towards lessening shark mortality worldwide. But the shark fishing industry intends to continue to sell its fins, and is promoting The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act. T h e Sustainable Shark Alliance, which is an allian ce of shark fishermen, processors and dealers, argues that it will solve the problem of shark depletion and render the complete ban on shark fins unnecessary. But though the catch word “sustainable” makes it sound attractive, it would be impossible to supply the demand for shark fins from sustainable fisheries, if you actually look at the numbers. For many reasons, this ...

With the loss of at least 90% of sharks worldwide, it would seem to be urgent to protect the ones that remain. Every global study of their status has reported a more dire situation than the last, and that the targeted hunt for the shark fin trade is responsible for their catastrophic depletion. Only one third of shark species are considered safe, and the most threatened are those accessible to fishing—those within about 1000 metres of the surface, or, for seafloor dwellers, 3000 metres in depth. Shark fins are among the most expensive seafood products. The total declared value of the world trade in shark products is close to US$1 billion per year and it is associated with much illegal activity, including murder. To supply it, intense shark fishing spans all oceans. Yet, as top predators, sharks have incalculable ecological importance and their removal has grave effects on the ecosystems where they live, as failures cascade down through the inter-tangled networks. Yet, shark...

With co-authors Dr. Brian W. Darvell and Professor Gilles Cuny, I recently published a paper in Marine Policy: Response to “A United States shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries” D.S. Shiffman & R.E. Hueter, Marine Policy 85 (2017) 138–140 It showed that the authors had used incorrect figures in order to promote shark fishing in the USA in their paper and had also minimized the shark fin trade and the dangers of eliminating the oceans' top predators. The same authors reacted by publishing another paper which essentially said the same thing, except that it claimed to be a rebuttal of our paper, and made several incorrect statements about it — their paper was essentially a thinly veiled personal attack. Similarly, we became aware that those authors, who appear to be incapable of making any kind of intellectual argument, have been personally attacking us openly elsewhere on the Internet. So with my co-authors, I wrote a Letter to the Editor to make su...

Human stupidity is reaching new heights in the arguments put forth by American shark fisheries advocates in an effort to block  The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019. There are always scientists who are willing to speak up for industry and they, along with a variety of fisheries coalitions are  doing their best to keep it from becoming law. But their arguments amount to protesting that the ivory trade is good for elephants in the United States, or the trade in rhino horn is good for rhinos, in the United States.  This video debunks the main points raised by fisheries advocates. When shark fins bring in a fortune comparable to the drug trade, it is natural that these fishermen are going to fight and make up all sorts of stories to continue to get that money--it means so much to them. But The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act has determined that the amount of money that fishermen are losing is not enough to continue to perpetuate the monstrous shark fin ...