Sharks for Fun

As top predators, sharks have helped keep oceans in balance for hundreds of millions of years and have provided food, leather, oil, weapons and decoration for thousands.   Much more recently, sharks have emerged as a source for recreation, through diving, snorkelling, fishing and viewing in aquariums.   There is no shortage of controversy surrounding these relatively new uses of sharks.

For starters, many people have concerns about shark-feeding dives; they fear such activities might alter shark behavior and condition sharks to associate people with food, resulting in bites that could fuel the already negative perception of sharks.  On the other hand, shark ecotourism can dispel myths about sharks and may inspire action on their behalf.  Revenue from shark diving supports powerful economic arguments for keeping sharks alive (see this blog's entry on devil rays). Most proponents of shark ecotourism agree that strict guidelines for conduct should be in place.

Recreational fishing can have a significant impact on sharks. Scientists note a substantial dent in East coast shark populations in the 1970s, after "Jaws" sparked interest in sport fishing for sharks.  Since the early 1990s, the government has increasingly limited U.S. Atlantic recreational shark catch while the popularity of catch-and-release fishing has increased.   In recent years, the Humane Society (www.hsus.org) has gained attention and support for their efforts to end shark "kill" tournaments in the U.S. Atlantic.  Of particular concern is tournament take of porbeagle sharks, as this species is regionally endangered.

Some groups have criticized aquariums for keeping wide-ranging sharks, such as great white and whale sharks, in captivity.  Others say that the public needs to see these creatures to appreciate and fight for them, and that the number of individuals in aquariums pales in comparison to the number killed in the wild each year.

These are indeed controversial issues.  We're wondering where you stand and invite you to share your perspectives.

PHOTO: Porbeagle shark, Seapics

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Q&A With Sonja

Q: Are there any active conservation programs in Sri Lanka?  I have been a shark fan as long as I know and would like to assist in whatever possible way in any programs.
Posted by Fasly, July 29, 2008

A: I'm sorry to report that Sri Lanka is one of the world's major shark-fishing nations and has yet to determine sustainable fishing levels or limit its vessels' shark catches.  In fact, Sri Lanka, together with Indonesia, India and Spain, took nearly one-third of the global shark and ray catch in 2004, under virtually no limits.

Pressure from inside the country and out is needed to convince government officials of the importance of conserving sharks for myriad economic and ecological benefits.  Guidelines for assessing shark populations and managing shark fisheries are available in the 1999 United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) International Plan of Action (IPOA) for Sharks (www.fao.org/fishery/ipoa-sharks/en), a document that Sri Lanka, as an FAO member, pledged to uphold.

You can learn more about Sri Lanka's shark-fishing activity, the Shark IPOA and other efforts to encourage international shark conservation in the new book, Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation, by Merry Camhi, Ellen Pikitch and Elizabeth Babcock; click this Ocean Conservancy site for details: http://toc.convio.net/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10701

Comments

[Bob]

I was appaled at the show killing the iceland shark with Mike. Dirty jobs are one think but here the very people claiming to help sharks appoint themsevles judge jury and executioner of a magnificent animal.

All this tagging and harrassing of endangered wildlife is hastening their demise. The woman in charge seemed very vacant about her knowledge of sharks. But I would never have expected a guy like Mike to go along with that. What about the "rights" of that shark?

[Becky]

For those of you who cannot get enough of blogs on sharks, check out what Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States says about shark tournaments on his blog: http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2008/07/nigel-sharks.html

[Theresa]

As someone who has had the privilege of both snorkeling with Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas and seeing many sharks in aquariums, including the whale sharks in the Georgia Aquarium, I definitely see the upside to keeping sharks and aquariums and enticing them with chum in order to allow people to interact positively with sharks. However, it is worrying to think that feeding sharks in order to guarantee seeing them on dives does associate humans with food in sharks' minds.

I do think that aquariums are important tools for educating people and giving them a connection and a reason to care for sharks. Diving with sharks and learning that it doesn't have to be a scary, life-threatening experience can help too - and when the potential profit from shark ecotourism means that sharks are more valuable alive than dead, that's wonderful. So personally, I am in favor of both recreational shark dives and shark exhibits in aquariums - as long as they are done with all possible care for the animals' (and human's) health and safety.

On the subject of shark fishing tournaments, I agree that recreational shark fishing is an unsustainable, horrific and needless thing. However, I'm not convinced that catch-and-release shark tournaments are the answer - and the Humane Society agrees:

"The fact is that at most tournaments, sharks are hooked, bled, suffocated, or repeatedly gaffed. The sharks that are released often die due to stress or traumatizing injuries. A shark that struggles for hours before being brought alongside a boat and being released may suffer physical injuries, trauma or stress that is so severe as to cause its death or traumatic abortion of its offspring. These events are hardly humane treatment or conservation, and are not justifiable as “catch and release”." http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/issues_facing_wildlife/shark_tournaments/

Maybe someday we will have the luxury of worrying about the detrimental effects on sharks from shark-feeding dives and keeping them in aquariums. For now, I think that the benefits of positive interactions with sharks on the public's perception of them outweigh these concerns, and graver threats such as shark finning, bycatch, and recreational shark fishing give us more than enough to focus on.

[Fred Smilek]

It is sad to see beautiful creatures hunted down and killed for sheer sport.

Fred Smilek
Email- Fred_Smilek@yahoo.com
Webpage- http://sites.google.com/site/fredjsmilek/

Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan.

[Cyndi]

If these are the sharks, I'm thinking they are...you must realize that nothing preys on them because of their poisonous qualities. They abuntantly eat the fish population. Be thankful that the Icelander/Greenlanders developed a way of utilizing these creatures, by finding a way to be able to eat them, to keep their population down.
Take a look at Mike's shark...its not the same as the picture you are protraiting here...maybe you are jumping the gun...thats if these are the sharks that I'm assuming they are...remember, you are talking Iceland/Greenland sharks...

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[Marine Radio]

As a boating and diving company we often get to see sharks almost on a daily basis. I really think that is a shame that people through fear feel the need to kill these creatures for sport.

Mike
Marine Radio - Marine Antenna
http://www.outlanderdirect.com

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