38 Million Sharks Killed for Fins Annually, Experts Estimate

Nicholas Bakalar
for National Geographic News

October 12, 2006

Clarification: After this story
was published, the editors were made aware of additional methods the
study authors used to determine the number of sharks killed for
their fins, as well as the inability to genetically trace shark meat
to the animals' home waters. This information was added on October
25, 2006.

Some chicken stock, a few mushrooms, chicken breast, scallions, a little sherry, oil, spices—shark fin soup is fairly easy to prepare. But to make soup for six, you'll also need about a pound (half a kilogram) of shark fin meat.

Demand for that crucial ingredient has led to the killing of a median of about 38 million sharks a year, according to a new study that offers what may be the first reliable estimates of the number of sharks killed for their fins.

The United Nations has estimated that only about ten million sharks are harvested each year. Some conservationists, however, put the number at closer to a hundred million.

But until now estimates of the shark harvest were little more than guesses, because the numbers depended on shark fishers to report their catches.

The shark-fin industry, concentrated in a few Asian trading centers, is secretive and wary of any attempts to regulate, or even investigate, its practices.

To make matters murkier, most fisheries-management groups give little attention to sharks, because they are often considered bycatch—fish caught by accident—given their low value per pound.

"Apart from implementing various restrictions on the finning of sharks at sea in some countries—e.g., the U.S. and the EU—investment in setting up fisheries-management systems for sharks has been nonexistent for most shark fisheries," said study co-author Murdoch McAllister of the United Kingdom's Imperial College London.

How It Works

Murdoch and his colleagues' new, mathematical estimating method uses trade records from commercial markets and genetic techniques to identify species.

In their effort to accurately estimate the number of fins harvested—and therefore the number of sharks killed—the scientists conducted interviews with traders, studied thousands of auction records, observed auctions and shops for 18 months, and analyzed hundreds of fin samples.

In the end the researchers concluded that from 1996 to 2000 26 to 73 million sharks were traded yearly. The annual median for the period was 38 million—nearly four times the UN estimates but considerably lower than those of many conservationists.

(Related: "Asian Shark-Fin Trade May Be Larger Than Expected" [April 28, 2003].)

The new report appears in this month's issue of the journal Ecology Letters.

Growing Demand

"The global demand for shark fins has increased dramatically in the last few decades, and this has created incentives for fishermen to go after sharks and retain shark fins," McAllister said.

According to Peter Knights, executive director of the conservation nonprofit WildAid, demand for shark-fin meat is the biggest problem facing the fishes.

That demand, Knights says, is especially strong among China's growing middle class. Newly flush Chinese may be buying shark-fin meat simply to prove they can, he adds, since the delicacy has little nutritional value and hardly any flavor.

Even so, the meat isn't limited to Asian menus.

A cup of shark-fin soup at the China Max seafood restaurant in San Diego, California, for example, can be had for $18. Braised whole shark fin runs $40.

"We make it all the time," said a man who answered the phone at the restaurant.

Casting Doubt

Russell H. Hudson is a spokesperson for the Seafood Coalition, an umbrella group of fishing-industry organizations. He agrees that the world trade in sharks is huge, but he says that the new report doesn't tell a complete and accurate story.

"More samples are needed to be collected at all life and marketing stages for this analysis to keep going forward," Hudson said.

"Maybe they should work with some fishing interests to help verify their conversions. The same species in different oceans tend to grow and mature at different lengths"—a contention that lead study author Shelley Clarke says has no scientific basis.

Knights, of WildAid, agrees that the new findings are imperfect.

The new data is "useful," he said. "But to be really useful it should be done by species and by individual areas," Knights said.

"[Shark data is] not recorded anywhere in that way. That's the biggest problem in getting sharks listed as endangered."

Lead study author Clarke adds that there is currently no way to trace fins at market to their home waters, at least not through genetic testing.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species now lists only three shark species—basking, whale, and great white—as endangered. (See great white shark photos, facts, wallpapers, and more.)

Knights says studies of fishing rates may be more helpful, and these have indicated precipitous declines in shark populations.

"Sharks are the tigers and lions and cheetahs and leopards of the sea. And if we lose them—these top predators—there will be long-term damage," he said.

"They're slow reproducing, late to mature, more like mammals than fish in their biology—and we're completely trashing them.

"There's virtually no management of shark fisheries around the world. We're playing with fire," Knights said.

Study co-author McAllister is hopeful that it's not too late.

"Some progress is being made," he said. "In at least a few instances decision-makers at high levels are taking the results of recent studies like ours seriously and taking more stringent and immediate actions to address current threats to shark populations.

"For example," McAllister said, "based partly on our study, just last week the European Parliament voted to reduce the tolerance level for the maximum permissible percentage of shark landings that can be made up of fins from 5 percent down to 2 percent."

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