Sharks Truly Need Our Help
My friend Sean hosted a screening of the documentary film "Sharkwater" last night and I highly recommend this film to everyone. Humans are decimating the shark population in pursuit of fins to make shark-fin soup. This industry is quickly destroying the entire balance of the ecosystem across our world's oceans.

Here's some data from both Sean & the movie:

- 90% of the world's shark population has been decimated over the past 50 or so years. Keep in mind that these animals have survived four major extinctions and they pre-date the dinosaurs.

- 100 million sharks are killed annually to meet the demand of the shark-finning industry.

- The majority of sharks are killed by a horrific practice called "shark finning" in which live sharks are pulled aboard a boat to have their fins cut off and then thrown back in the water to sink and die a very slow, painful death. Since there is not much room on boats, there is more space if they discard the body.

- Sharks are often caught by the "long-line" fishing practice, where fishing lines with thousands of hooks are dropped into the ocean, catching and killing countless other species such as sea turtles, sailfish, sea lions, and many other species of fish in the process. This by-catch is almost always discarded.

- Shark fins are primarily used as an ingredient in shark-fin soup, a traditional meal in Asia that was at one time available only to royalty and is often served at weddings or other special occasions. If you ever encounter shark-fin soup, please do not order it or eat it! Doing so will only further the demand for this industry. [My own recommendation is to boycott any restaurant that is serving it and to help educate the management about the troubles of this industry.]

- Sharks reproduce very slowly, some species only have two offspring every two years. Sharks cannot reproduce fast enough to keep up with the current rate of human consumption.

- 110 species of sharks are currently listed by the IUCN as a species under serious threat.

- At the rate humans are killing sharks, experts estimate that within 10 years, most species of sharks will be lost.

The "Sharkwater" documentary is available for purchase at Amazon or at www.sharkwater.com and can also be rented on Netflix. Also check out some of Sean's cool underwater pictures at flickr.

Sharks are in Trouble
There's a brief article in the May-June 2007 issue of Audobon Magazine about the horrific practice of shark-finning. Nearly 73 million (yes, million) sharks are killed each year worldwide, many of them only for their fins. After being caught, fisherman slice the dorsal fins off of live sharks, then toss the sharks back in the ocean to die a slow and miserable death. Keeping only the fins leaves the fisherman more room on their boats. There is a high demand for shark-fin soup in Asia and a growing appetite for it in the United States, as well. Many shark species are now considered "critically endangered," "endangered," "vulnerable," according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and National Resources (IUCN). See their "Red List of Threatened Species." You can read the Audubon article (NOTE: there's an unpleasant photo there) and can do your part by avoiding shark-fin soup in restaurants and by expressing your concerns to any restaurants who offer it on their menus.