TL: MEDIA BRIEFING - TOP PREDATORS' DUEL: SHARKS 15 - HUMANS 100,000,000 SO: GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL, (GP) DT: JUNE 1997 WHO CARES WHEN A KILLER DIES? In the case of sharks, CITES should. Trade in fins, meat, skins and other parts is rampant, while bycatch poses an additional threat. Nine shark species have hit the IUCN red list. And their bad press is by and large undeserved. WHAT ARE SHARKS? Sharks are elasmobranches, fish whose skeletons are made not of bone but of cartilage, like your ears. Most of them give birth to live young, a minority lay eggs. They live in most of the world's oceans, especially on (sub)tropical continental shelves, and in some rivers. They are top predators, but their appetite for humans is limited. Some 50 to 75 attacks on humans are reported each year, while the death toll is in the range of five to fifteen - about one hundredth of the number of victims claimed by bee stings or thunderbolts. WHAT IS THEIR CONSERVATION STATUS? According to the International Conservation Union IUCN, 69 shark species are endangered. Nine of these were added to the organisation's red list in 1996. According to estimates, some 100 million sharks are killed by fishers each year. Reliable population figures are not available, partly because the FAO fisheries statistics contain very sketchy data on sharks. It is to be hoped that the overall decline is less dramatic than could be inferred from research in Southern Australia. There, scientists found that the likelihood of catching a shark under standard conditions decreased thirty times between 1961 and 1990. WHY CATCH SHARKS? Fishermen do not always want to catch sharks. According to the FAO, 600,000 tonnes of them are discarded as bycatch each year. Most of these used to be caught in highly indiscriminate drift-nets (`walls of death'). Since large-scale drift-nets have been officially banned on the high seas, long-line fisheries for tuna have boomed, posing a powerful new threat to sharks. SO, WHY CATCH SHARKS? Though perfectly tasteless, fins have long been a well- known ingredient for soups. In Hong Kong, the world's main shark-fin market, the import of the product amounted to 6100 tonnes in 1995, for which some 10 million animals must have been mutilated and left to die. Shark meat is another popular item, sold either as `shark steaks' or under such fancy names as `veal fish' or `sea eel'. Because of sharks' alleged immunity to cancer, their cartilage is processed into pills and sold as a medicine. But, as an American expert has put it, ingesting these to fight cancer is about as effective as eating eagle meat to improve one's eye-sight. BOX Sharks' fatal selling points Fins - soup Muscle tissue - meat Cartilage - alleged cancer drug; - collagen for skin creams Skin - leather Liver - oil used in pharmaceutics and as lubricant Teeth - trinkets and souvenirs Entire body - fish meal for fodder Different species are preferred for most products, so that usually most of the shark's body is discarded in each case. END OF BOX WHAT WILL BE DISCUSSED IN HARARE? Already at the time of the last CITES conference, there were clear signs that sharks were in dire straits. However, no country proposed to list sharks on Appendix II. Now again, even though data give much reason for concern, no proposal has been tabled. Fisheries interests' influential lobby is certain to be at the root of this omission. Protection measures for sharks are imperative. Greenpeace urges this CITES conference to take the steps necessary to ensure that at the next meeting (1999) shark conservation is ensured. In the meantime, all countries should take national action to protect sharks, make catch and trade reports compulsory and put the statistics thus collected at the conference's disposal. For further details see the official Greenpeace submission to the CITES conference.