This is a good news for those who dread sharks; but certainly a bad news for conservationists. A conservative new estimate indicates that between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed worldwide each year. That’s tree to four times higher than the numbers reported by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Scientists have long suspected that the UN figures were too low, thanks and no thanks to a a large chunk of illegal, unregulated or unreported trade in sharks. But data have been hard to come by. According to Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the University of Miami’s pew Institute for Ocean Science, annual shark casualty could be as high as 100 million, but they had no way of knowing whether or not the figure was accurate.
To get a better picture of the situation Pikitch and her colleagues penetrated the auctions and black markets of Hongkong and Taiwan, and arrived at the first independent estimate, which revealed an annual trade in the tens of millions. For centuries, well-heeled Chinese have enjoyed the delicacy of shark’s fin soup. The shark’s cartilaginous fins are used to make noodles, which are traditionally thought to bring long life.
Whole sharks often do not reach the ports where fisherman reports their catches. Shark meat is not considered valuable- its high urea content makes shark less appetizing than tender flaky white fishes. So, Fins are often removed and the shark carcasses simply tossed back into the water.
Pikitch and her colleagues painstakingly translated auction records of sold fin weights into estimates of slaughtered sharks.