Are shark populations really declining so much? if so, what's the big deal?
Answer:
Shark populations have seen huge declines in numbers. Studies show that declines in the shark population cause declines in other species populations as well. This includes scallops and a variiety of other species. The second link details this decline.
So, stop eating shark's fin soup? Your choice alone won't have a huge effect on the overall problem but it is a concrete step you can take. Go for it.
Sharks falling into the category of large coastal species also dwindled by more than half. "Coastal species are going downhill because fisheries are covering their entire range," Baum said.
The result: a gloomy forecast for sharks around the ocean. "We found they're declining at a phenomenal rate," said co-author Ransom Myers, a biologist at the University of Dalhousie, Nova Scotia.
Myers and other researchers are now comparing the current shark numbers to counts gathered from U.S. government fisheries surveys in the 1950s. This snapshot of the sharks' past provides an even bleaker view on their present state, Myers said. "When we go back, it's even worse."
The shark paper "packs quite a wallop and is very much to the point," said Mark Grace, a biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service Laboratory in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Grace, who has conducted shark surveys in recent years for NMFS, said these findings are in line with many researchers' suspicions about sharks.
However, Grace said studies like these need to take into account how fishing gear is used and what environmental conditions might affect the catch, potentially swaying shark numbers.
Sharks Sensitive to Overfishing
Some people see sharks as the sea's scariest fish.
"We have this idea of sharks being really fierce predators—and they are. They're at the top of the food chain," Baum said. "But they're also really fragile."
These oft-feared sea creatures grow extremely slowly, taking years to reach maturity. A shark has only a few offspring during its lifetime, compared to other fish, making it difficult to jumpstart a dwindling population. While the sharks have survived as the kings of the ocean for millions of years, their slow-growing populations make them especially sensitive to a recently introduced predator—humans.
"Sharks are the most vulnerable species in the ocean," Myers said. "They're going to be the first thing you'll see eliminated."
Sharks get hooked as a byproduct of other fisheries. In addition, there are market for the sharks themselves. Commercial fisheries catch some species for dinner-plate appearances. Shark fins, used in delicacies like shark fin soup, rake in profits on the Asian market.
Both the United States and Canada have recently banned finning, but that doesn't mean the shark fin trade has stopped. "There's really high incentive to keep them, because they're one of the most highly valued products," Baum said.
Saving Sharks
Fisheries managers have turned to fishing regulations and marine reserves to aid other ailing species. In July 2001, concern about the endangered leatherback sea turtle sparked the closure of a large fishing area off the coast of Newfoundland. The researchers used simulations of the fisheries data to see if closing this spot might change shark catches.
While blue sharks and mako sharks—species of lower conservation concern—appeared to be protected by the closure, the researchers' models predicted catches of other shark species would shoot up in the remaining open areas.
If fishermen have to go to new areas to catch the same amount of fish, they're going to affect other species, Baum said.
Designing protected areas for a single species leaves out the complicated web of creatures swimming under the waves, and could shift pressure to other threatened species, she said. "Single-species conservation isn't going to work."
Protected places that shelter several highly threatened species might help shelter species in trouble. "Reserves could play an important role," said Baum. "But what's really needed here is a reduction in fishing effort."
I don't know but let me tell you a little Story about ALIEN'S! Yep those Pesky Little Red Devils from Mars were the cause Of the GLOBAL COOLING in the 1970's. Yep Canada was steadily being overtaken by the Polar Ice Cap and it was Headed Straight for Miami Florida! But the Inventor of the Internet "Al Gore" Swung into action and Saved The Day! All Bow To Big Al!
Sharks clean the Ocean by disposing of hurt and sick fish and animals-if you stop buying Shark products, greedy suppliers will find another way to make money.
Well because even though people don't like sharks, the Eco system in the ocean would have a very hard time maintain it's self with out them. Sharks aren't bad they just sometimes don't know any better.
I had not heard that shark populations as a whole are declining, ,altho I would not be suprisized to find there are some species on the "Endangered list". Generally those populations which end up one that list these days, get there because of commercial over-harvesting, (over fishing); - and yes a population can be decimated pretty darnn fast if it becomes the next Popular Food item in Asian Food bowls - and Chic American and North Sea Sushi Bars.
What's the "Big Deal" you got to be kidding me - right? If not, the big deal is that you are taking the cold-bloded, top predator, (or one of the top non-mamillian predators), from the worlds 7 ocean's combined eco-systems . (Some of the other top saltwater predators would be the Orca, Dolphins, Crocodile, Giant Squid, Barracuda, Stinging Jelly fish, (- I am not including land based predators like Polar Bears, Sea Lions, Walrus, Seals, Otters, And Avian Hunters in the list.).
Looking back in history should tell the tale. Almost without fail
any sudden disruption in an ecological sytem, such as the introduction of a super predator, or the removal of one can not only have a devastating effect on not only that particulr and insular eco-system, but the entire eco-system of the planet as well - this is known as the "Butterfly Effect".
Let's use an easier and more familiar insect to be our study case about the disruption to an eco-system, and the butterfly effect - ok? Our Victim insect species is the American Honey Bee.
Let's say some Gov't scientist gets the bright idea that the best way to figjt the threat of the African Bee Invasion which is at the door to out southern Border, - (infact it's already making inroads in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California). These African bees are deadly, will swarm in an instant and literally sting their viticm to death in minutes, and take over American Bee colonies, and breed into their stocks and "africanize" our bees into mongrel monsters like their african genetic fathers.. Lets say that killer bee gather pollen and nectar like bees are supposed to do, but they do not cross pollenate plants. They gather only for their use, for hive building, honey production, and to feed the queen or the pupa which will become more bees. So crops are not germinated. NO crops - no food. Not just no food for people, but for animals as well.
Soon the prairies and forrests are de-nuded of edible ground cover and grasses, grazed down to the dirt, even roots are pulled up for consumption. Rains turn the once lush "waves of grain" into a sea of mud. THe sun bakes the mud to dust.
Landscapes become precognative glimpses of what nuclear winters must look like. .Grazing animals are the first to die off from lack of food. for a while the carnivors have such bounty that they can afford to take only the choices parts and leave the rest for the sun and death birds to dispose of. Soon this changes as the grazing animals become more and more emaciated, and their carcuses are little more that hide covered bones and grizzle.
In the forrests any ground cover that is not edible is from last year and is mostly dried grasses and brush, - since there was for many planrts no germination - altho many plants are still growing from wind blown seeds, and animal carried seeds., still the amount of tinder dry material on the forrest floor is almost trebble what it was last year at this time.
This year will mark the first on many years of draughts to come. With less and less plant life to give off moisture back into the atmosophere, the skies overhead remain dry. Winters are windswept - but not much snow most year. With the farm economy gone bust in the midwest , - as is most olf the nation. The Florida, Georga and California Fruit & vegatable crops did not come in,
Apple blossums accros the land did not get cross-pollenated by our bees. Canadian bee keepers are coming down the cost and offering to rent out hives for $ 1000.00 per hive per day, plus the renter has to employ 2 full time armed guards to stand watch over the hive 24 hours a day. Limit on the hive rental is 5 days. People can't get their name on the waiting list with a $ 2,500.00 deposit - evern as late as November!
And so the Butterfly, (ripple in the water), effect begins: A whoesale florist is out of buiness, the florist shop goes out of business, The Owner under too much stress from bills and worry about loosing his business has a heart attack and dies.
Everything is connected, the only things whixhare not here when this planet was born are the few things than Man has sent off into space, or any molecules which may have escaped thur the holes in the Ozone layer. The Body of Christ still exists in this world today, as does the waters from Noah's flood; and the tears of Cleopatra So regardless of how you live your life, - you yourself will be a legacy. You can go on and on with this , but in just a relatively few seemingly unrelated coincidental incidents, "What's the big deal that a bee died" = Is that a man died as a result of that bee's death.
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