“Bycatch species can become threatened if they are frequently caught alongside overfished target species,” said Juan Jorda. Source: Shutterstock.
Marine conservationists have said that sharks are very close to extinction following new research that says there’s been a sharp decline in the population.
Published in the journal Science, new research has said that habitat destruction, fishing and overexploitation are reasons to blame for a declining shark population.
Maria Jose Juan Jorda from Simon Fraser University in Canada has said other fish species have seen an increase in their populations due to managed conservations efforts but that sharks have been left behind.
“While target species such as tunas and billfishes are increasingly managed at sustainable levels, shark species taken as bycatch by the same fisheries continue to decline due to insufficient management actions,” she said.
On #SharkAwarenessDay, we're highlighting the great white shark 🦈
They are sadly at risk for extinction. Overhunting for their fins, teeth, and sometimes just for sport is a big cause. Without these sharks, the food chain and ecosystem would become unbalanced. pic.twitter.com/HpMrdwfHvN
— Discovery (@Discovery) July 14, 2022
Overfishing is a large contributor to this reason because a lot of shark species are slow to reproduce while their fins can also be in high demand, depending on the country their caught in.
“Similar to humans, most shark species are long-lived, slow growing and take many years to reach sexual maturity. In addition, sharks give birth to few offspring at a time, have high juvenile mortality and infrequently reproduce.”
The particular species of sharks most at risk are included in the requiem shark family (Carcharhinidae) which consists of dusky sharks, grey reef sharks and hammerhead sharks among over 50 others.
The Defenders of Wildlife say that over 68 per cent of these sharks are listed as threatened under the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Juan-Jorda says there are numerous things that governments can change to ensure that the requiem shark population takes a turn for the better including proper regulation of the fishing industry.
“Successful shark conservation needs to address their specific biological and economic vulnerabilities, in addition to deploying fisheries management tools used for tunas and billfishes, such as science-based catch limits,” she said.
