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	Hong Kong shark finners promote 'sustainable' shark fishing Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network by BEN BLANCHARD BEIJING, China (10 Nov 2006) -- A group of wildlife experts and industry officials weighed into the increasingly acrimonious battle over shark fishing on Thursday, saying very few species were threatened with extinction as some activists charge. Hitting back at what they said were misleading claims, they told Reuters that there was no targeted killing of sharks just for their fins -- a Chinese delicacy -- as most sharks are caught mainly for their meat. "We want to tell the real picture to the world," said Charlie Lim, secretary of the Hong Kong-based Shark Fin and Marine Products Association. "We believe what is true, is true." Some wildlife groups say that many sharks are specifically targeted for their fins, which are hacked off and the sharks then thrown back into the sea to die a painful death. Lim disputed this as making no economic sense. "Only taking the fin and leaving the meat -- this is impossible," he said. "You are not going to throw 98 percent of the shark back to the sea just for the 2 percent that is the fin. It's not worth it." The global campaign to protect sharks has included the use of celebrities to try to persuade people in Asia not to eat shark fin to help save an animal which in some cases they say faces extinction. Over-fishing threatens 20 percent of the world's 547 shark and ray species with extinction, the World Conservation Union -- also known as IUCN -- said earlier this year. Another distorted fact, say those on the other side of the argument. "Sharks are not as endangered as made out by some extreme NGOs," said Choo-hoo Giam, an animals committee member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, better known as Cites. He said only three shark species were on the Cites list of animals whose trade and consumption was in need of monitoring -- the Basking Shark, the Whale Shark and the Great White. And none was on the most threatened list, he said. "It's mischievous for advocates for shark protection to talk about endangered species of sharks due to over-fishing," added Hank Jenkins, president of Australia's Species Management Specialists. "Large environmental change is likely to be global warming or habitat destruction. They're the factors that are going to produce biological extinction, not fishing." The three -- Lim, Giam and Jenkins -- were in Beijing to attend a shark conservation meeting, also attended by groups that dispute their claims about finning and the extinction threat. Shark fins on sale in Hong Kong "For many of these species the data is quite conclusive. The number of sharks ending up in international trade in fins is far higher than the number that are going into trade as meat," said Sarah Fowler, co-chair of the World Conservation Union's shark specialist group. "We're seeing serial depletion. In due course we will run out of productive shark stocks," she told Reuters on Wednesday. "What we need is to get the management in before that happens. It's in everyone's interests to introduce good, sound, collaborative fisheries management. There's no argument about that."   ENDANGERED SPECIES Sharks, Rays, Skates & Sawfish (Editors note: This is not a complete list) Name: Angular angel shark (Squatina guggenheim). Status: endangered. Where: western South Atlantic coastal waters from Southern Brazil to Northern Argentina. Reasons: bycatch by gillnet and bottom trawling fisheries. Name: Barndoor skate (Raja laevis). Status: endangered. Where: northwest Atlantic. Reasons: overfishing. Other: has been extirpated from large parts of its range in Canadian Atlantic and New England coastal waters Name: Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus). Status: endangered. Where: Atlantic, Pacific, Australian and New Zealand coastal waters. Reasons: overfishing, bycatch. Other: some local populations have declined up to 80 percent. Name: Borneo shark (Carcharhinus borneensis). Status: critically endangered or already extinct. Reasons: overfishing. Where: Pacific Asian coastal waters. Name: Common sawfish (Pristis pristis). Status: critically endangered or already extinct. Reasons: bycatch. Where: Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Seas. Other: once common in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, but is now extirpated from Europe waters and the Mediterranean along with all other sawfishes. Name: Dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus). Status: endangered. Where: coastal waters worldwide. Reasons: overfishing. Name: Freshwater sawfish, Great-tooth sawfish (Pristis microdon ). Status: critically endangered. Where: Indian Ocean and west Pacific coasts, lagoons and estuaries; freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Reasons: overfishing, habitat loss and degradation. Name: Ganges shark (Glyphis gangeticus). Status: critically endangered. Where: Ganges-Hooghly river system, India and Pakistan. Name: Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Status: endangered. Where: worldwide. Name: Green sawfish (Pristis zijsron). Status: endangered. Where: Indian and west Pacific coastal waters and lower reaches of rivers. Reasons: overfishing, bycatch. Name: Grey nurse shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Status: critically endangered. Where: Australia. Reasons: overfishing. Name: Largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti). Status: critically endangered. Where: Indian Ocean and west Pacific coasts, lagoons and estuaries; freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Reasons: overfishing, bycatch, habitat loss and degradation. Name: Night shark (Carcharhinus signatus). Status: endangered. Reasons: overfishing. Name: Pincushion ray (Urogymnus ukpam). Status: endangered. Where: coasts, lagoons and estuaries, and freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams of Congo, Gabon, and Nigeria. Name: Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus). Status: critically endangered. Where: worldwide. Reasons: overfishing. Other: western Atlantic population has been reduced by 85-90% in just ten years by overfishing. Name: Sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus). Status: endangered. Where: Australia. Reasons: overfishing. Name: Silver shark (Balantiocheilos melanopterus). Status: endangered. Where: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Reasons: overfishing. Other: a freshwater shark. Name: Smalltooth sawfish, Wide sawfish (Pristis pectinata). Status: critically endangered. Where: Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, lagoons, and estuaries, and freshwater lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Reasons: overfishing and loss of habitat. Other: wholly or nearly extirpated from large areas of its former range in the North Atlantic (Mediterranean, US Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico) and Southwest Atlantic coast. Name: Smoothback angel shark (Squatina occulta). Status: endangered. Where: western south Atlantic shelf waters (Brazil to Uruaguay. Reasons: bycatch by gillnet and bottom trawling fisheries. Name: Speartooth shark (Glyphis glyphis). Status: endangered. Where: Indo-Pacific coastal waters. Reasons: development, overfishing and habitat destruction. Name: Spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Status: endangered. Where: temperate oceans worldwide. Reasons: overfishing. Name: Whale shark (Rhincodon typus). Status: endangered. Reasons: overfishing. Name: Whitefin topeshark (Hemitriakis leucoperiptera). Status: endangered. Where: Philippine coastal waters. Reasons: overfishing.   SPONSORED LINKS   TOP STORIES
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