Not quite “man bites shark” but why ruin a good — and serious — story with facts? The indiscriminate commercial fishing of sharks and the damaging effect it is having on the developing eco-tourist industry in Saudi Arabia is, in effect, “Man Attacks Sharks.”
Sharks get a great deal of bad press; if they had big liquid-brown eyes and were fur-seal cuddly, we would protest their killing. As it is they look knife-efficient, wet, have dead unblinking eyes, razor sharp teeth and no sense of pity at all.
In the opinion of many ichthyologists, sharks are probably the most perfectly environment-adapted large animal species on the planet with, from evidence in the fossil record, all the characteristics of modern sharks in design since the Pliocene era five million years ago. Their design was right the first time round.
Sharks, being efficient predators and always in search of a decent lunch have moved to areas where fish is plentiful — and by definition, so are fishermen. At this point the hunter becomes the hunted.
Off the west coast of the Kingdom, thousands of sharks are being indiscriminately caught and shipped to packing plants for export to Asian countries where sharks are a delicacy. Some do not have that pleasure; they are simply de-finned and dropped back into the sea. Shark fin soup is big business in China.
One company, advertising on the Internet, offers fins (Hammerhead for example) for prices up to $280 a kilo. You can purchase “moon cut sun dried (minimum 10 to 14 days)” fins on a repeat basis. They categorize themselves as — wait for it — “health food” suppliers. Their website is: www.alibaba.com/catalog/11558568/Shark-Fins.html and they are based in Florida.
Greenpeace, who tend to know what they speak of, say that; “while the body of the shark is worth almost nothing, sets of shark fins sell for $700/kg. That is 70 times the value of a kilo of tuna.” That established, the methodology is simple; hack the fins off while the shark is still alive and dump it back in the sea to die. At least wasteful of the meat, which is entirely edible, at worst cruel (if fish feel pain — and the debate about that rumbles on).
The fins end up as shark fin soup which sells for upwards of $100 a bowl in China. Hong Kong is the center of the shark fin industry with 70 percent of the world’s shark fins ending up there. As the Chinese economy improves, demand for sharks’ fins is increasing by 5 percent a year.
However, there are two other factors that are particularly pertinent to Saudi Arabia. One is that of the very few consistently profitable tourist attractions for leisure tourists is the Red Sea. Sharks are part of the marine ecosystem; remove them by over fishing and their choice of prey further down the food chain multiplies. The increase in numbers puts pressure on their food source — in the case of the Red Sea, the reefs and their inhabitants, and through the domino effect, the reefs are eaten clean.
As nurseries and breeding grounds, the reefs are invaluable. Eat the contents and you lose the fishing industry. Moreover you lose their decided value as a tourist resource.
“I have dive-tourist groups coming in every month,” said Erik Mason, director of operations for Al-Ahlam Marina. “Some are repeat visitors and they have noticed a decline of sharks in just the last three years.” It is really happening and it is happening fast. “People pay big money to come to Saudi Arabia. We have nothing to offer but service, hospitality and diving,” Mason added. “I cannot imagine people paying the price they do to come to us and see nothing.” The auguries are not good.
The second and equally damaging effect of removing the top predators has been documented. In a 2008 paper, a team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by Myers and Julia Baum, found that over fishing the largest predatory sharks (such as bull, hammerhead, dusky, and great white sharks) along the Atlantic Coast led to an explosion of ray, skate, and small shark prey species.
“With fewer sharks around, the species they prey upon — such as cownose rays — have increased in numbers and in turn, hordes of cownose rays dining on bay scallops have wiped the scallops out,” says Julia Baum, a co-author of the article. “Large sharks have been functionally eliminated from the east coast of the US. Thus they can no longer perform their ecosystem role as top predators.” The extent of the declines shouldn’t be a surprise, considering how heavily large sharks have been fished in recent decades to meet the growing worldwide demand for shark fins and meat.
“Our study provides evidence that the loss of great sharks triggers changes that cascade throughout coastal food webs,” says Baum. “Solutions include enhancing protection of great sharks by substantially reducing fishing pressure on all of these species and enforcing bans on shark-hunting both in national waters and on the high seas.”
According to a paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society in February 2006 sharks could be more vulnerable to the fishing industry than was previously thought. A team from Aberdeen University discovered that the deepest oceans of the world seem to be free of sharks. After twenty years of exploration together with analysis of records over the past 150 years, scientists have concluded that the world’s oceans are 70 percent shark-free.
Sharks an endangered species? Well, it seems to be heading that way. So why should we care; they are a danger to humans, are they not? Tosh!
“In the USA in the 30 years 1970-2000, 12 people died from shark attacks, in this same period, 500 people died from lighting strikes in only coastal regions. Each year worldwide there are 10 deaths attributed to shark attacks compared with 150 deaths worldwide caused by falling coconuts.” (Source: Australian Institute of Marine Science)
“The number of worldwide shark attacks overall increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, continuing a gradual upswing over the past four years,” says the International Shark Attack File. Only 10 to 12 are fatal. That is just 1.6 percent of the number of people who died falling off stairs and steps in 2005 (1690) or about a third of people who died from being “bitten or struck by a dog” (33). It is also less than five percent of those killed by “drowning and submersion (242),” less than one tenth of one percent of 29,994 suicides and 0.06 of one percent killed in 18,124 “criminal attacks with a weapon.”
And that is just the USA. (Source: National Safety Council, US statistics 2005.)
In other words, you are thousands of times more likely to be killed by a criminal while answering your front door having died falling downstairs attracted by your murderous dog’s yapping than being killed by a shark... well, something like that. Alternatively you are more likely to be killed in the US by a dog (kept as a pet), than anywhere in the world by a shark, (which are not kept as pets).
And then of course there are the 150 people a year killed by falling coconuts. Ironic that with all that mayhem going on, that the fiction film “Jaws” even made the headlines, but then I suppose “Coconut Impact!” is not nearly as catchy.
Sharks, being efficient predators and always in search of a decent lunch have moved to areas where fish is plentiful — and by definition, so have fishermen. At this point the hunter becomes the hunted.
Off the Saudi coast, sharks are being caught in huge numbers. Arab News has seen the pictures and is in possession of the video. Let us be clear; as of today, this is not illegal. The question is: Is it sensible? There is no shortage of food in the Kingdom; the meat is exported for almost no money and the fins — well you guess! On the record eyewitnesses have seen de-finned sharks on the seabed. Sadly, there is more. The method of catching sharks — using a kilometer long line with hundreds of baited hooks dangling below — is not selective. Many other top-end predator species, dolphins and large inedible fish — are caught as well. They, however, have no commercial value and are simply dumped.
The consequential damage of this mass slaughter of the local top predator could over time be catastrophic to the sustainable fishing industry and the downstream damage to the tourist industry. Yemen has in effect, fished out its shark population but still exports large quantities of shark meat. That alone raises sourcing questions. In a nutshell, the continuation of this trade is that the marine ecosystem and the economy of the Kingdom are being severely damaged with predictable and unpleasant longer-term consequences.
Stop it: Cuddle a shark today!
