Saving predators

Today was a very sad day. This morning we went to Blue Magic, a popular dive spot in Indonesia,  famous for spotting grey reef sharks and oceanic mantas. When we drop down around 14-16 metres,  I see a dead shark on the bottom. I thought it was just a dead shark, but then I went closer and realised it was a finned shark, all fins were gone.” This was a Facebook post written by diver Fredrick Jacobsen when he accidentally found a dead shark in the bottom of the ocean in Indonesia in December 2015.

For the diver, this was a shocking find. However, for a team of conservationists who have been monitoring and studying the fate of sharks in the waters of the world for some time now, this was no idle incident. It was yet another proof that sharks were in danger, and their biggest enemies were humans. For years, humans have hunted sharks of all kinds for their fins. Once their fins are brutally sliced off, their  mutilated (yet alive) bodies are thrown back into the water, left to die a painful death. 
 
A report published by TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade monitoring agency, found Indonesia to be the top ranking nation when it came to shark finning — the act of slicing the fins of live sharks. The second name in this ill-famed list was that of India, a country that despite not being a top ‘shark-eating’ nation is still a top ‘shark-hunter’.

As per the TRAFFIC report, the top 20 shark catchers in descending order are Indonesia, India, Spain, Taiwan, Argentina, Mexico, United States of America, Malaysia, Pakistan, Brazil, Japan, France, New Zealand, Thailand, Portugal, Nigeria, Islamic Republic of Iran, Sri Lanka, Republic of Korea and Yemen, who between them, account for nearly 80% of the total shark catch reported globally, with Indonesia and India alone responsible for over 20% of global catches between 2002 and 2011.

Profitable catch
Indian coastal waters are home to 88 species of shark, which include the rare whale shark, Pondicherry shark, Ganges River shark and the speartooth shark. All these sharks are protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, which means the hunting, exploitation and trade of the species is strictly banned.

And yet, most Indian fishermen catch sharks for their meat and the finning industry that proves much more lucrative with exports to China. A single fin can fetch them thousands of dollars thanks to the hugely popular shark fin soup. Though illegal in most countries, shark fin soup is sold upwards of $100 per bowl even today. From boosting sexual potency to enhancing skin quality, the health benefits woven around this exotic dish makes for a tempting treat. The cartilaginous rays from the sharks’ fins add almost no flavour to the concoction. However, demand for the fins exists and so does the exotic and illegal trade.

Between 2000 to 2011, Indonesia caught an average of 1,09,000 metric tonnes of sharks every year, followed by India at 74,000 metric tonnes. Experts from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) say that shark finning in India has turned from an ‘incidental’ to a ‘targeted’ occupation. “The transformation occurred only during the 1990s due to increasing demand in the international market, which has caused serious concerns about the sustainability of these catches. Mechanised trawl nets, gills nets and line gear operations contribute to maximum exploitation,” reads the report on shark finning.

Sharks are not a popular animal. Thanks to the negative image created of the species on popular media like films and televisions, they are regarded as one of the deadliest animals of the world and are feared more than loved. However, of the 100 odd cases of shark attacking humans in a year, 100 million of them are killed by humans annually. The contrasting rate of mortality is ample proof of which species is in greater danger between the two.

Additionally, the death of one shark begins a chain of events that disrupts many food chains, food webs and ecosystems of the ocean world. As the top predators of the marine world, sharks keep a check on the population of other marine animals like fish, eel, turtles etc. As the rate of maturity and reproduction is very slow in sharks, one adult shark killed today, can virtually wipe out the entire population of the species in matter of few years or even months.

Take the case of the whale shark. These gentle giants of the marine ecosystem are the biggest fishes in the world. The largest of the species ever measured was 40 feet in length, though there are incidences of seeing even bigger ones. Recently, alarmed by the serious decline in the number of whales sharks globally, the International Union For Conservation of Nature (IUCN) uplisted the species from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ in the Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN said that the number of whale sharks had halved over the last 75 years and if things continued at the same pace, the world would lose the biggest fish forever.

All is not lost
In 2013, the Indian government banned shark finning on its shores adopting the ‘fins naturally attached’ policy. Any fishermen caught with shark fins now risks upto seven years of imprisonment. Organisations like the Wildlife Trust of India along with the Gujarat Forest Department have also been actively promoting awareness regarding whale sharks through their educational and tagging campaigns.

It is believed that post the ban, shark finning on Indian shores has reduced. As per a report, in India, shark-fin exports in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2014–15 reached only 66 tonnes, compared with 122 tonnes in 2013–14. Some experts believe this is because of the decline in demand in mainland China thanks to aggressive anti-shark fin campaigning. Online petitions and street protests have also pushed a growing number of airlines, including national carrier Garuda Indonesia Airways and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways, to stop transporting shark fins.

According to Vardhan Patankar, a marine biologist and researcher in the Andaman Islands, while fishermen in India once earned $75-$100 per kg for the shark fins, the rate has now gone down drastically to around $35-$45 per kg. This has made them look for more lucrative catches like grouper fishes.

Sporting large jaws dotted with innumerable needle-sharp triangular teeth, sharks have come to represent an image of a fearsome, dreadful beast. And yet, it is really the image of a mutilated shark, with all fins cut off, bloody, battered and struggling to stay alive that we need to see  to understand what we humans are capable of doing to them. What we also need to see often is the special place sharks have as saviours of the marine ecosystem. Perhaps only then, sharks will get the respect they deserve.