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Essays on why shark culling must be banned
Essays about shark finning and extinction
Shark finning and environmental effects
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Many countries around the world eat types of food that doesn’t seem normal to be eaten, mainly because the food is grabbed in the most bad way. This affects many species around the world, one worldwide concern is on sharks, the finning of sharks. Shark finning should be banned due to the reason that it affects species and sharks.Shark finning should be prohibited around the whole world because it lowers the shark population, it makes sharks unable to swim, and other organisms are affected by this practice. Shark finning refers to the removal and the detainment of shark fins while the remainder of the shark is abandoned in the ocean. The sharks are returned to the oceans without their fins and are usually still alive and conscious. Unable to move, they sink to the profundal bottom of the ocean and die of suffocation or are eaten by …show more content…
Creating a mess in the food chain and making other organisms to become too powerful on others. Sharks are apex predators, in other words, the main predators residing at the top of a food chain upon which no other creatures prey on. They keep populations of other fish healthy in the sea. Many secondary consumer species have been affected by this problem. Such as some fishes, squids, and other marine mammals that are outgrowing, creating a distortion on the food chain. If this continues to happen, the sea population will lower since these aquatic organisms are not ready for a fast change on the sea. In addition, one study in the U.S. indicates that the elimination of sharks due ti shark finning resulted in the destruction of the shellfish industry in waters off the mid-atlantic states of the Unites States, due to the unchecked population growth of cownose rays, whose maintain in scallops. Also in Belize it is shown that reef systems in Belize are falling into extreme decline when the sharks are overfished, destroying an entire
As I mentioned earlier, Sharks maintain the balance of the entire marine ecosystem! If the ocean’s ecosystem were to collapse, it would greatly affect life even on the surface. Sharks tend to eat fish who are much slower and sickly therefore they keep the population of fish in a healthier state. We depend on the oceans for the oxygen that we breathe because of certain species in the ocean that produce oxygen such as Phytoplankton, if Sharks were to be extinct, we would lose a great amount of the oxygen on Earth because the balance of living Phytoplankton and other species would not be enough. Furthermore, Sharks have been maintaining the balance of our ecosystem for 400 million years, if these sharks were to be gone, who would balance this heavy task? A number of scientific studies demonstrate that depletion of Sharks results in the loss of important fish and shellfish species from the food chain, including key fisheries such as tuna, which help the health o...
The Great Shark debate – to cull or not to cull, has been at the forefront of the minds of conservationists, as well as the general population for many decades now. The opinions of everyone are divided, according to their personal experiences, and views on what is right and wrong for the environment.
One of the governments main reasons for culling the sharks is because they are coming in too close to the shores and becoming a potential threat to swimmers. But why is this happening? This is due to a change in shark feeding habits, but because they are eating more human of course not! Rather because us humans are over fishing and eliminating the fish/food sources of which sharks normally feed on. This is forcing sharks to come in closer to find food. Us as humans have forced sharks to come in closer and are now killing sharks because of our a...
Overfishing is defined as a form of overexploitation where fish stocks are brought down to unacceptable levels. In the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2 yearly report (SOFIA), it states how over half of the fish stocks, worldwide, are fully exploited. Other research has shown it only takes 10-15 years of industrial fishing to obliterate a tenth of the intended specie. Overfishing causes a ripple effect that hurts the entire ecosystem. The balance of chain depends largely on the interaction between the predator and the prey. For example, if the larger fish are removed than its prey begins to overpopulate, due to the lack of population control. The balance in the oceans are a urgent problem, around 90% of predatory fish stocks are depleted. The ripples can extend even further to land creatures like
Simply, overfishing depletes fish stocks. The consumer demand for fish has risen dramatically over the past decade or so, so much that fisheries are designing new and innovate ways to catch more fish, and at a faster rate to meet consumer demands. What fisheries do not realize, though, is that their removal of fish from the oceans is too great and far too fast for new fish stocks to be made. So, no mating is occurring, leaving the oceans emptier each day. If this rate continues, all fish in the ocean will be almost non-existent. Already, we are experiencing a major decline in fish population: "In 2003, a scientific report estimated that industrial fishing had reduced the number of large ocean fish to just 10 percent of their pre-industrial population. "(par.6).Overfishing brings the main consequence of decrease in the fish population. People rely on fish for survival (in some countries, fish is their only source of food), and they rely on marine life for products (goods like lipstick, petroleum jelly, make-up, etc.)
Shark slaughter has led to shark populations being rapidly decimated all around the globe. Fishermen report that sharks are also getting smaller because they are not being given enough time to fully mature. Although there are other fish that are targeted more than sharks, they are not exactly affected by the kind of endangerment that sharks are currently experiencin...
Information (sub-point): The solution to the problem of shark finning is to sign petitions and force the government to pass legislature that will ban shark finning, as well as ban the import of shark fins. In 2000, Bill Clinton signed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000 (SFPA), which “banned finning on any fishing vessel within United States territorial waters, and on all U.S.-flagged fishing vessels in international waters” (Speigel, 2011). Currently, it is also illegal to hunt sharks in many parts around the world due to various restrictions set by other government, but it is not illegal to import and sell shark fins. Finding shark fins in the US can be as easy as walking into an Asian restaurant and ordering shark fin soup. If we truly want to make a difference, and see a rise in the shark populations around the world, we need to ban the sell and trade of shark fins
Thesis: Sharks should be conserved because they are an important part of the ocean, attacks are often incidental, and human behavior influences the behavior of sharks.
In Chinese tradition, Shark fin soup is called as “a celebration soup”, which people eat it to celebrate in various occasions. Moreover, people also believed that shark fin consisted of diverse nutrition values which provide them virility, wealth, and power(Wolchover, 2011). These beliefs lead to the beginning of poaching for sharks, the top of food chain in the sea world. Surprisingly, although people are aware of the decreasing number of sharks since the old days, around hundred million of sharks are still hunted each year(Heltus, 2013), to be served on luxury tables surrounded by those believers in things that they do not even prove whether the belief is reliable. Therefore, in the generation that people are mostly educated, sharks should no longer have to be continuously killed for their fins.
Even though humans get injured and occasionally killed by sharks, this is much more uncommon than many people think. In the video, "Great White Predator," it states, "[Sharks] mainly eat one thing: seals," (“National Geographic”). Shark attacks are much less likely to occur than people may think. In fact, Peter Benchley says, "Around the world many, many more people die every year from bee stings, snakebites, falling off ladders, or drowning in bathtubs than from shark attack[s]," (“Great White Sharks”). People have a greater chance of dying while doing everyday chores than from sharks.
According to Animal Planet, sharks, on average, kill ten humans per year, while humans kill eighty-eight to one hundred million sharks per year. Humans hunt sharks for their meat, internal organs, skin, and primarily for their fins in order to make products such as lubricants, make-up, and mainly shark fin soup. The growing Chinese economy has cause an increase in the demand for shark fin soup. Some species of sharks have reduced over 90% in population for a bowl of soup that has no scientifically proven nutritional value. The poaching of sharks as seen in the shark fin trade should cease because it causes a collapse of the marine ecosystem and endangers the shark species.
There are many impacts that fishing and land animal farming have on the ocean, which are detrimental to ocean ecosystems as well as many other aspects of the environment. Overfishing, killing fish at a much quicker rate than the fish can repopulate, is one major problem. Three-fourths of the world’s fisheries are either fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted (Cowspiracy). Researchers have estimated an end of all viable fisheries by 2018 if the current trends of fishing continue (Mason). According to the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, hundreds of thousands of animals die every year as bycatch, with one of the worst offenders being shrimp fisheries, catching up to six pounds of bycatch per pound of shrimp. Endangered species are also caught, including predators which are important in keeping the balance in ocean ecosystems (Smith). While many organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommend consumers to eat more “sustainable” fish, this will not stop the massive environmental impacts. Sustainable fishing for one does not account for the natural flux in the population of species of fish; what is considered a sustainable amount of fish to harvest one year may deplete the fishery in another year (Smith). Sustainable fish also are becoming even less sustainable as companies that label sustainable fish must find more For example, after Wal-Mart pledged to selling Marine Stewardship
Demand, revenue, cost, and profit are the driving forces behind any economy. This notion is taught to most students in grade school and will carry on through the rest of their lives helping them make the most educated decisions they can. Logically, the greater the demand for something, the greater the profit will be. Whaling used to be a sizable part of the economy, due to the innumerable uses of a whale’s by-products, and consequently, there was a substantial profit margin. Presently, the largest demand for whaling is by Japan, Norway, and Iceland all of whom partake in whaling for either commercial or “research” purposes. However, the demand and revenue from whaling do not outweigh the costs that have tolled on the species. This practice is largely scrutinized by conservationists who believe that commercial whaling is going to bring some species of whales to extinction. The current demand for whaling is incredibly low; however, it is still necessary to continue the ban on commercial whaling.
... could increase and the problem would be solved, that way the cultural delicacy that has been around for so many years stays untouched and the sharks aren’t killed for only their fins.
There has been a long time misconception on the threat that sharks have on humans. Originally developed after the release of the movie Jaws, the fear of being subject to a shark attack has escalated, causing humans to view sharks as an imminent threat to their lives. Due to their high status, sharks have been a desired delicacy for several years. Shark fins are mainly used in a popular Chinese dish known as shark fin soup, which originates back to Chinese emperors who saw it as an honorable and potentially healthy dish. Currently over 100 million sharks are being taken from the ocean each year due to shark hunting/finning (Shark Hunting – an Indiscriminate Trade). Drastically decreasing the amount of sharks can lead to a possible extinction which brings extreme danger to not only other marine life, but to humans and the overall ecosystem as well. Shark finning/hunting must be strictly prohibited to prevent an otherwise inevitable extinction of sharks.