More sharks on threatened list

2008-05-22 20:14

Patrick McGroartya

Berlin - A team of fisheries researchers has added four more sharks to the list of species threatened by extinction, which includes the great white and plankton-eating whale shark.

The study released on Thursday concluded that 11 species of sharks and rays that swim primarily in the world's open oceans are under enough pressure to make the "red list" of threatened species maintained by the World Conservation Union, which revealed the results at a conference of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn.

Among them are some of the world's best-known sharks - the great white and whale shark - as well as five species of rays, including the manta ray, Chilean devil ray and the spinetail devil ray.

One species on the list, the giant devil ray, is critically endangered, the most serious designation bestowed by the international environmental group.

Sonja Fordham, co-author of the study and a director of the Shark Alliance, a Brussels, Belgium-based advocacy group, said that the sharks studied were chosen because they were most often harvested by fishermen on the high seas.

"Fishermen who usually go after other species are targeting sharks, looking to develop new markets," she told The Associated Press.

While some governments have recently introduced fishing regulations for sharks, there are no catch limits for sharks in international waters, she said. That lets fishermen exploit shark populations at a moment when they are increasingly valuable.

Demand for shark fin soup is growing in China, and Europeans have developed a taste for shark meat, the report found, noting that the thresher and shortfin mako shark species were among those targeted because of demand for their meat.

Regulations on sharks have lagged behind those for other fish, she suggested, because sharks are perceived as dangerous and because they are traditionally less desirable to fishermen than widely harvested species like tuna.

The paper appears in the latest edition of the journal "Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems".

- SAPA