20% Of Planet's Shark Species Facing Extinction As FAO, Fishing Industries Talk And Talk And Talk .

[hatrack]

Sharks are disappearing from the ocean at startling rates: currently one-in-five of these famous marine predators are threatened with extinction. According to a report from the Australian Government and TRAFFIC—an organization that monitors wildlife trade both legal and illegal—the collapse of shark populations is being caused largely by rising demand for shark fin in Asia. The report shows that legal fishing for sharks has become nearly as detrimental as illegal, since few fisheries have management strategies concerned with sustainability.

Overfishing is particularly troublesome for shark species, since these super predators mature slowly and produce few young, giving them little chance to recover from large scale harvesting.

"We simply don't know enough about the scale of global shark fishing practices to assess the true impact that legitimate fishing is having," Glen Sant, author of the report, said. "Many so-called ‘managed shark fisheries' are not constrained in any way to ensure they are sustainable, which opens up the threat of over-fishing.” A 2006 study in Ecology Letters estimated that 26 to 73 million sharks were being caught for their fins annually.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is currently meeting in Rome to discuss the issue of how combined mismanagement and illegal fishing have caused dangerous drops in the shark populations. The organization recommended in 2000 that countries implement shark management programs. Only one in five countries did so.

EDIT

http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1106-hance_sharks.html