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Shark Species Declining Precipitously In Gulf Of Mexico Thursday, February 5, 2004

Oceanic white tip sharks have virtually disappeared from the Gulf of Mexico and are likely on a similar decline beyond the region, according to a new study by Canadian scientists.

"Researchers in the 1960s suggested that oceanic white tip sharks were the most common large species on Earth," said Ransom Myers, a biologist at Dalhousie University and co-author of the study, which was published in this month's Ecology Letters. "What we have shown is akin to the herds of buffalo disappearing from the Great Plains and no one noticing."

Comparing data from the 1950s with that of the late 1990s, the authors estimated that the shark species has declined by more than 99 percent in the gulf, a figure they say is probably similar elsewhere.

"We're not dealing with a U.S. issue, we're dealing with something much wider," Myers said. "All the indications are that this probably represents a similar decline in the tropical areas of the Atlantic."

The study was part of the Pew Global Shark Assessment, a three-year, $1.5 million inventory of sharks around the globe.

In the United States, where direct fishing of open-water sharks is prohibited, shark killings are mostly due to accidental trappings by fishermen intending to catch tuna or swordfish. But with sharks known to migrate hundreds of kilometers, Myers blames fishing in international waters on the decline seen in the gulf.

Sharks are caught legally in China, Japan, Korea and Spain, among other countries, where their fins are cut off and then sold as an ingredient in the Chinese delicacy shark fin soup.

"It's like cutting their arms and legs off - they can't swim and they sink to the bottom of the ocean," said Myers. "It's an incredibly cruel practice, and they're basically driving the species extinct for a senseless luxury" (Luma Muhtadie, Globe and Mail, Feb. 4).