![]() ![]() AFP PHOTO / Philippe LopezPHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/GettyImages Philippe Lopez / AFP Cathay Pacific said on September 5 it would no longer carry unsustainably sourced shark products on its cargo flights, dealing a blow to Hong Kong's huge shark fin industry. A customer (R) talks to a shopkeeper in a store selling shark fins (L) in Hong Kong on September 5, 2012. Governments from across the Gulf sent representatives and all offered testimony of just why their country wasn't doing more to protect sharks. The challenges were laid bare at a shark conservation workshop in the UAE this month. "In an ideal world what we would have is every population of every shark monitored so we know how many adults there are," said Nick Dulvy, a Canadian researcher who is the co-chair of IUCN's Shark Specialist Group that is tasked with determining which species are endangered. They have almost no data on the numbers and species of sharks that can be found from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman, often lack the laws that would curb the trade and don't have the money or the political will to enforce the laws they do have on the books, such as bans on shark fishing. Governments in the region have until now largely ignored sharks in favor of more commercial fish species like grouper. ![]() The fast-talking Jabado, who favors a white bandanna, black T-shirt and trousers when she is in the field, is the only person in the UAE assessing shark numbers. The trade thrives in the Gulf, as it does worldwide, shark conservationists said, mainly because there aren't enough people out there like Jabado. The United Arab Emirates is ranked fourth mostly because it is a regional hub for the trade in sharks coming predominantly from Oman but also from Yemen, Iran and Africa. ![]() Spain is top among 82 countries that export fins, mostly to Hong Kong and other Asian markets, followed by Singapore and Taiwan, according to Sonja Fordham, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Shark Advocates International. Four years ago, under international pressure, the UAE joined the growing number of countries banning the practice. The trade is legal, though efforts are being made to ban the practice of "finning" - hacking the fins off of sharks and throwing the rest overboard, often while they are still alive. The fin trade has devastated several species including hammerheads, oceanic whitetip, blue, threshers and silky and contributed to 181 shark and ray species being listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as threatened with extinction. "We know shark populations are depleting around the world so we are kind of racing against time to see what is going on."įishermen across the globe kill as many as 70 million sharks each year for their fins, which can sell for $700 a pound, while the soup prized for Chinese banquets and weddings can cost $100 a bowl. There is not enough being done in the UAE and the region," she said. "The problem is that I'm the only one doing research. "The government will not react unless we give them actual data," said Jabado, as she raced to take genetic samples from the sharks before their carcasses were carted off and fins auctioned to the highest bidder. ![]()
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