Lars Gustafson
11/4/15
GEOG 304 Research Paper: Shark Finning With an alarming one in four shark species endangered across the globe, we have come to a breaking point where our oceans ecosystems could suffer permanent damage if the practice of shark finning in the oceans off of Eastern Asia continues as shark population’s plummet.
According to www.stopsharkfinning.net, tens of millions of sharks are killed every single year just for the fins that are the main ingredient in shark fin soup. Shark fins are harvested to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup that is an Asian delicacy food. When the sharks are finned they are usually thrown back into the water and left to drown slowly. Sharks rely on their fins to swim and allow water to
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People like Yao Ming need to lead the charge in shark conservation. As shark populations continue to plumment, the leaders is shark conservation in the world need to educate our world on the dangers we face if we continue to destroy the shark …show more content…
I have swum with Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas and have seen how beautiful and strong they truly are first hand. Sharks are a vital part to every ecosystem they are in and currently being killed at a rate that they cannot reproduce at. Alpha predators are a necessary component of eco-systems because they keep the populations of every trophic level below them in check. You can compare an eco-system to a skyscraper; you need every single part so the entire building does not fall apart. Sharks have the task of killing the wounded, old, and sick fish in schools to keep the stocks of fish healthy and plentiful. Andy Dehart, Discovery Channel Shark Advisor, spoke about the North Carolina shark over fishing problem. The shark populations on the East Coast were extremely over-fished which lead to the over population of sting rays, a main food-stock for sharks. The stingrays in turn decimated the shellfish populations on the East Coast, leading to calm and shellfish shortages. This shows that sharks are necessary for every eco-system and their destruction affects us in more ways then we can imagine. Sharks are very at-risk for over-fishing because they take a long time to reach the stage where they can reproduce and in general only have a few pups when they give birth. Most sharks only have one or two pups every time they give birth. These factors make the time-period