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Dear
EarthTalk: What is the status of sharks around
the world? I see occasional stories about sharks attacking
humans, but on balance aren’t we a lot more brutal
to them then they are to us?
-- Pam Hitschler, Radnor, PA
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Sharks
are in rapid decline around the world, mostly due
to overfishing, which wipes out the sharks themselves
as well as the food they depend upon. Sharks face
an especially uphill battle to survive in the face
of human predation because they have few births and
take a long time to mature.
© Getty Images
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It’s
true that humans do a lot more damage to shark populations
than vice versa. Marine biologists report that sharks are
in rapid decline around the world. In the North Atlantic
Ocean, shark populations have declined more than 50 percent
over the past 20 years alone, with some species now nearing
extinction.
Experts
see the primary cause as overfishing, which depletes sharks
as well as their prey. Sharks are especially vulnerable
to illegal “longlines” (fishing nets strung
across dozens if not hundreds of miles of ocean), where
they get inadvertently snared along with the tuna and swordfish
fishermen intend to catch.
Rising
demand for shark fin soup in is also contributing to the
demise of sharks. According to a report by Wildaid, shark
fins are among the most expensive seafood products in the
world, selling for some $700 per kilogram on the Hong Kong
market. With prices like that, many longline fishermen,
who are already operating illegally, are happy to augment
their incomes by “finning” a few sharks along
the way. (Finning is the practice of removing a fin from
a shark and discarding the rest of the carcass at sea.)
Often,
threatened wildlife species manage to maintain their numbers
in spite of excessive human predation. But sharks face an
especially uphill battle, says renowned shark expert Ransom
Myers, because they “take a long time to mature and
have relatively few babies.”
So
what is being done to save sharks? In the U.S., the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation Act is the primary law that oversees
the conservation of U.S. fisheries and has established various
management regulations for 39 species of sharks in the Atlantic
Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. It outlaws finning
if the carcass is discarded but not if the rest of carcass
is kept, clearly an unfortunate loophole.
The
U.S. also helped develop a United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization treaty (the International Plan of Action for
the Conservation and Management of Sharks) whereby 87 countries
agreed to develop their own plans for the conservation of
sharks. However, only two countries—the U.S. and Australia—have
lived up to the agreement. The U.S. plan is administered
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
which has been working with regional fisheries authorities
to make sure fishermen are sticking to cautiously low quotas
regarding the number of sharks they are allowed to catch.
What
can consumers do to save the sharks? The Monterey Bay Aquarium
in Monterey, California urges consumers to avoid all shark
products, not just on restaurant menus but also all souvenirs
such as jaws and teeth, and shark-cartilage pills, which
have been touted as cancer cures but which have been proven
to be completely ineffective and are now widely considered
a scam. The aquarium also encourages consumers to support
with their pocketbooks conservation groups working to protect
sharks and oceans, and specifically those working to set
aside marine reserves that are off-limits to fishing.
CONTACTS:
Wild Aid;
Monterey
Bay Aquarium.
Dear
EarthTalk: What are some of the best online
sources of environmental information?
-- Hip2bGreen, Seattle, WA
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Surfing
eco-cyberspace has never been so easy. The Internet
is teeming with environmental websites, 'blogs and
social networking portals, offering everything from
hard news and in-depth feature articles to green consumer
information and lifestyle tips.
© Getty Images
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One of the best
places to start in venturing out into eco-cyberspace is
the website of a green group you already know—perhaps
one for whom you have donated money or volunteered. Most
groups use their websites to keep their supporters updated
on the issues they cover, and provide links to many other
green websites. Beyond such groups, several independent
“third-party” sources also provide useful information
on a wide range of environmental topics, from consumer tips
to news to action alerts.
One leading green
website is Grist (grist.org),
which reports environmental news in a witty and engaging
manner, billing itself as “gloom and doom with a sense
of humor.” Checking out Grist’s daily rundown
of environmental news is de rigueur among eco-activists,
and many regular folks keep tabs on it, too. Other excellent
news sources include Environment News Service (enn.com),
and Environmental News Network (ens-newswire.com).
And one new kid on the block is The Daily Green (thedailygreen.com),
which bills itself as the “consumer’s guide
to the green revolution.” Owned by major magazine
publisher Hearst, The Daily Green offers news, green tips
and advice, and a plethora of green home, food and lifestyle
topics.
The Green Guide
(thegreenguide.com),
run by National Geographic, is probably the best online
source for green consumer information, specializing in green
living tips, product reviews and environmental health news.
Looking for guidance on saving water around the house, choosing
among non-toxic paints or packing greener lunches for your
school-age kids? The Green Guide would be a good place to
start.
If you’re
interested in more comprehensive looks at green issues and
topics, emagazine.com
posts much of the content of its flagship E – The
Environmental Magazine, along with weekly news and commentary.
Visitors can also access 18 years worth of in-depth articles—the
magazine has been turning out bi-monthly print issues since
1990—on just about every green topic imaginable.
Those interested
in social networking and the environment should look to
Care2 (care2.com),
the world’s largest online environmental community.
The site offers its eight million members free e-mail accounts
and provides lots of background information on just about
every environmental issue.
A handful of
green ‘blogs are starting to get a lot of media attention
and web traffic. The king of them all is Treehugger (treehugger.com),
which offers several posts each day from a stable of thinkers
committed to environmental issues. Its coverage is not comprehensive,
but Treehugger excels at tapping into trends in environmental
thinking and culture. Another source of environmental tips
and culture online is IdealBite (idealbite.com),
a blog-style site offering up “bite-sized ideas for
light green living.”
And then there
are the “click-to-donate” websites, where visitors
can read up on a variety of conservation campaigns and then
contribute money via credit card. Ecology Fund (ecologyfund.com),
the The Rainforest Site (therainforestsite.com)
and Red Jellyfish (redjellyfish.com)
are some of the leaders in this category.
So cue up that
browser and start clicking. You’ll be amazed at what
you can learn, let alone accomplish!
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