Shark fin soup demand spurs illegal fishing

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

RISING demand for shark fin soup in Asia is encouraging illegal fishing and contributing to a plunge in stocks, a report said yesterday.

The study, by the Australian government and the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, urged governments to crack down on illegal catches. Registered legal shark exports totaled US$310 million worldwide in 2005, up from US$237 million in 2002.

"As the world's demand for sharks continues to grow, shark populations are plummeting," said a statement accompanying the 57-page report. One in five shark species is considered threatened with extinction.

"The Asian market for shark fin is the key driver of shark fishing globally and is fueling illegal fishing and high levels of legitimate shark fishing of questionable sustainability," it said.

Rising affluence in Asia was stoking demand for shark fin, widely viewed as a delicacy when shredded in soup. Main fin importers are China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The report said that a United Nations call in 2000 for all to work out plans for proper management of stocks was not compiled with in shark-catching countries.

Experts of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization are meeting in Rome to review measures to protect sharks.

In Hong Kong, the world's biggest shark-fin market, the most commonly traded types were shortfin Mako, blue, sandbar, bull, hammerhead, silky and thresher sharks.

The study said it was impossible to say exactly how many sharks were illegally caught. But a review of vessel seizures showed illegal catches were a problem around the world with "hotspots" off Central and South America and in the western and central Pacific.

Sharks were sometimes caught as a by-catch by tuna fishing vessels. In many cases, crews on illegal vessels slice the fins off sharks and dump the less valuable carcasses overboard. Off Australia, for instance, 350 illegal vessels were intercepted in 2006 to 2007, mostly Indonesian, with a total 1.6 tons of shark fin aboard.

The Traffic organization is run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the WWF conservation group.