Jun 28

Written by: Nature Conservancy LI
6/28/2010 10:02 AM 

SHARK!

Granted, that is not a word you want to hear when you are at Hither Hills. Like the folks who recently sighted one, I'd certainly be very uncomfortable sharing the water with such a massive creature!

But some sharks are among the most endangered and at-risk marine animals on earth. Globally, over 70 million tons of shark are caught and killed annually: sometimes for food, sometimes as by-catch and sometime just for their fins — a luxury commodity used in soup. 

Shark fin soup, sold at astronomical prices, is the result of perhaps the most wasteful of marine practices. The fins are chopped off (the dorsal fetches the highest price) and the writhing carcass is dropped overboard.

Like a plane that has lost its ability to steer, the shark spirals into the blue — a slow, topsy-turvy death.

Sharks are hitting bottom because humans are eating at the top of the marine food chain. Because sharks are generally slow-growing and slow-reproducing top predators, the taking of sharks in such numbers is unsustainable.

I'm sure that all of this information doesn't exactly make you feel better when you are in the water and face-to-face with such a creature. But it's an important reminder that sharks are not the top of the food chain - we are. And we shouldn't exploit them -- as frightening as they may seem.