Third of open ocean sharks threatened with extinction

Gland, Switzerland, June 25, 2009 (IUCN) – The first study to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays reveals that 32 percent are threatened with extinction, primarily due to overfishing, according to the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.

The percentage of open ocean shark species threatened with extinction is higher for the sharks taken in high-seas fisheries (52 percent), than for the group as a whole.  

“Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas,” says Sonja Fordham, Deputy Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and Policy Director for the Shark Alliance. “The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open ocean sharks call for coordinated, international conservation plans. Our report documents serious overfishing of these species, in national and international waters, and demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale.”

The report comes days before Spain hosts an international summit of fishery managers responsible for high seas tuna fisheries in which sharks are taken without limit. It also coincides with an international group of scientists meeting in Denmark to formulate management advice for Atlantic porbeagle sharks.

IUCN experts classify Great Hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) and Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) sharks, as well as Giant Devil Rays (Mobula mobular), as globally Endangered. Smooth Hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena), Great White (Carcharodon carcharias), Basking (Cetorhinus maximus) and Oceanic Whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) sharks are classed as globally Vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of Makos (Isurus spp.) and three species of Threshers (Alopias spp.).

Porbeagle Sharks (Lamna nasus) are classified as globally Vulnerable, but Critically Endangered and Endangered in the Northeast and Northwest Atlantic, respectively. The Blue Shark (Prionace glauca), the world’s most abundant and heavily fished open ocean shark, is classified as Near Threatened.

Many open ocean sharks are taken mainly in high seas tuna and swordfish fisheries. Once considered only incidental “bycatch”, these species are increasingly targeted due to new markets for shark meat and high demand for their valuable fins, used in the Asian delicacy shark fin soup. To source this demand, the fins are often cut off sharks and the rest of the body is thrown back in the water, a process known as “finning”. Finning bans have been adopted for most international waters, but lenient enforcement standards hamper their effectiveness.

Sharks are particularly sensitive to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to mature and have relatively few young. In most cases, pelagic shark catches are unregulated or unsustainable. Twenty-four percent of the species examined are categorized as Near Threatened, while information is insufficient to assess another 25 percent. 

The report is based partially on an IUCN Shark Specialist Group workshop funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program. Fifteen experts from government agencies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and institutions around the world took part.  This and other regional workshops have contributed to the development of the Shark Specialist Group’s Global Shark Red List Assessment, supported by Conservation International and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

“The completion of this global assessment of pelagic sharks and rays will provide an important baseline for monitoring the status of these keystone species in our oceans,” says Roger McManus, Vice-President for Marine Programs at Conservation International.

The IUCN Shark Specialist Group calls on governments to set catch limits for sharks and rays based on scientific advice and the precautionary approach. It further urges governments to fully protect Critically Endangered and Endangered species of sharks and rays, ensure an end to shark finning and improve the monitoring of fisheries taking sharks and rays. Governments should invest in shark and ray research and population assessment, minimize incidental bycatch of sharks and rays, employ wildlife treaties to complement fisheries management and facilitate cooperation among countries to conserve shared populations, according to the group.

For more information, or to set up interviews, please contact:

• Sarah Horsley, IUCN Media Relations Officer, m +41 79 528 3486, e sarah.horsley@iucn.org
• Rob McNeil, International Media Director, Conservation International, t +1 703 341 2561, e rmcneil@conservation.org
• Mona Samari, Shark Alliance, t +44 (0) 7515 828 939, e mona@communicationsinc.co.uk

Notes to editors

• The full report, The Conservation Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays: Report of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group Pelagic Shark Red List Workshop, can be downloaded here http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/ssg_pelagic_report_final.pdf. It was compiled and edited by Merry Camhi, Sarah Valenti, Sonja Fordham, Sarah Fowler and Claudine Gibson.
• This week, scientists from the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) are meeting in Copenhagen to assess all Atlantic porbeagle populations and formulate recommendations for fishery managers.
• Next week, San Sebastian, Spain will be the site of the second Joint Meeting of the five Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) for tuna.

In China, Corporations Cultivate Profits and Conscience

BEIJING -- Coca-Cola will revamp bottling practices globally to save water and fund conservation along the Yangtze River and other major waterways, highlighting a growing emphasis on social and environmental spending by multinationals in China.

Under the program, Coca-Cola Co. intends to offset some of the 76 billion gallons of water _ a two-month supply of drinking water for New York City _ that the world's largest beverage maker and its bottlers use each year to make Coke, Sprite, Fanta and other drinks.

The company said it will reduce the amount of water used to rinse, clean, heat, and cool during the manufacturing process. The company also plans to recycle factory wastewater.

"Essentially the pledge is to return every drop we use back to nature," Coca-Cola Chief Executive Officer E. Neville Isdell said in Beijing.

"We need to think holistically about the availability of water for the ongoing sustainability of our business," Isdell said.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola pledged $20 million for the World Wildlife Foundation to protect sections of major rivers in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, including China's badly polluted Yangtze, the world's third longest.

Coca-Cola's sales by volume have seen double digit growth in China over the past few years and the mainland is now the company's fourth-largest market.

Coca-Cola has joined a wave of global corporations funding social projects outside their business investments across China.

As China becomes an ever more important market and manufacturing base, many multinationals are under growing pressure in the Chinese media to show they're doing in China than taking profits.

There is also pressure at home. Shareholders questioned Isdell directly about Coca-Cola's global water usage during the annual shareholder meeting in April.

Projects funded by multinationals in China run the gamut from "planting a few trees by the Great Wall" to significantly reducing carbon emissions, said Elizabeth Knup, who heads the corporate social responsibility committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

She said the spending in China on corporate social responsibility is difficult to calculate. Different companies consider compliance with environment or labor standards a measure of their social responsibility while others tout charity, sponsorship programs or industrial training courses.

Either way, media attention in China is focused increasingly on major corporations and their practices.

Over the past year, Western icons such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Yum Brands Inc.'s KFC and Pizza Hut have been pilloried in Chinese media for alleged unfair or predatory practices.

Other companies have recognized that socially conscious projects can tip the scales when they compete for government contracts and licenses, Knup said.

United Technologies Corp. plans to open a 'green' elevator factory in the eastern city of Tianjin in July and has worked with the Ministry of Construction on developing better environmental standards for government buildings.

The projects help to promote UTC's subsidiaries like Carrier, which makes air conditioning units, and Otis, an elevator manufacturer, said Jim Gradoville, president of UTC's international operations in China.

Carrier landed a contract to provide air conditioning equipment for 70 percent of the venues for next year's Olympics in Beijing because the company led competitors in phasing out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, Gradoville said.

China's leaders were once leery of campaigns by foreign campaigns or groups to improve local environmental or labor conditions, believing they undermined domestic companies that had neither the financial or human resources to compete.

Recently, however, under the slogan "building a harmonious society," the government has embraced corporate social responsibility for foreign and Chinese companies alike.

One Chinese activist group launched a campaign this year to publicize companies that violate environmental or labor standards. Ma Jun, the head of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said he hoped the campaign would shame offenders and drive up the costs for violators through consumer boycotts.

Source: Associated Press

Waiter, There's a Shark Fin in My Soup!

June 08, 2007 — By Dr. Simon Cripps, WWF International

Hunted for food, medicine and souvenirs, sharks are in serious decline.

Love them or loathe them, as top predators, sharks play an important role in the marine ecosystem -- their decline is symbolic of all that's gone wrong in the oceans as a result of mismanagement and greed.

Millions of sharks are killed each year from overfishing and trade. Many die accidentally in fishing nets set for tuna and swordfish, while others are caught for their meat or just for their fins, which are used in traditional medicine or as an essential ingredient in shark fin soup, an expensive Asian delicacy.

Contrary to popular belief, shark fins have little nutritional value and may even be harmful to your health over the long term as fins have been found to contain high levels of mercury. Consumers may also be shocked to learn how the fin in their shark fin soup got their in the first place.

Destructive and wasteful fishing practices -- like shark finning, the cutting of a shark's fin and discarding the rest of the carcass back to sea -- are pushing several shark species to the brink of extinction. Some populations, including tiger and bull sharks, are down by 90 per cent. Less threatening sounding species, like spiny dogfish and porbeagle, caught for their meat and oil (and consumed mainly in the EU), are on the verge of collapse.

As delegates meet this week in The Hague to discuss regulating the international wildlife trade, WWF hopes to see these latter species get the protection they need. Listing these two species on CITES, the UN's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, would be a critical first step in ensuring their future protection and sustainable trade. There are, however, hundreds of other shark species that need similar attention.

Poor fisheries management is probably the main threat to sharks and to ocean life at large. Three-quarters of the world's commercial fish stocks are already over-exploited, fished right up to their limit or recovering from collapse. Scientists have recently discovered that 90 per cent of the big predatory fish, like sharks, are lost; stripped from our oceans by industrialized fishing vessels.

Although the fishing industry is well aware of the need to safeguard fish populations and the marine environment for the future -- their own future included -- they continue to plunder what's left of a dwindling resource.

Why? Because the incentive is there. Each year, taxpayers are forced to cough up US$15 billion in perverse government subsidies to keep many fishing fleets a float. Japan, the world's largest subsidizer, gives US$2-3 billion annually to its fishing industry. The United States spends nearly US$1 billion, while the EU forks out up to ∈1.4 billion. Russia, which once had the largest fishing fleet in the world, pays US$600 million annually to help scrap old ships and replace them with modern trawlers.

The flush of money is artificially allowing more fishing vessels to operate than the oceans can sustainably support.

Harmful fishing subsidies, which contribute to excess fishing capacity, overfishing and illegal fishing activities, need to be eliminated. The money should be redirected to fleet capacity reduction, the development of fish stock recovery plans, fish stock assessments, and where necessary, training fishermen for alternative employment.

Governments also need to strengthen bilateral and international fishing agreements. Given that many sharks move over wide areas and are fished by vessels across international boundaries, binding international measures are essential to their conservation.

On this World Ocean Day (8 June), there is an urgent need for national and regional management authorities to re-commit to shark conservation and the protection of our oceans. Improved fisheries management and innovation that leads to "smarter" fishing will be key in the fight to save our oceans.

Sharks were living well before the time of the dinosaurs, and have proved to be good survivors. But given current fishing trends and growing demand for their meat and by-products, they will need all the help they can get just to survive to the middle of this century.

Think about that the next time you see shark fin soup on the menu. You may want to consider ordering the consomme.

Dr Simon Cripps is Director of WWF's Global Marine Programme, based in Gland, Switzerland.