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Shark finning and environmental effects
Shark finning and environmental effects
The consequences of shark finning essay
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Every year 73 million sharks are slaughtered, statistically that is over 10,000 per hour, imagine if this were to occur to humans (SharkAngers.org). Sharks are tortured as their fins are slashed off and sold for little profit. This brutal process is called sharks finning and it consists of slicing the shark's fin while they are still alive. After this process is completed they are thrown back in the water severely injured they and are faced with a slow death that is pushing them to the brink of extinction. Shark finning is more common than perceived, this barbaric method is gruesome and should be stopped due to its impractically since it has no taste or medical use, the sharks are treated in an inhumane manner and it interferes with the aquatic …show more content…
The elimination of sharks would completely destroy coral reefs as a result of the domino effect that the extinction of these predators would have. In addition sharks keep populations healthy by feeding off on fragile individuals, as a result the strongest genes are left to be inherited to future generations which reproduce healthy large fish. According to Sea Shepherd’s official website these predators contribute to eliminating diseased and genetically-defective animals and help to stabilize fish populations” (seashepher.org). This limits the spread of diseases and outbreaks creating strong gene pools of the prey …show more content…
Fishermen slice the shark’s fin off while they are still alive and “throw [the] mutilated bodies back into the sea to die an agonizing and horrific death” (seashephers.org). Sharks are able to process the oxygen as it flows past its gills, when they sink to the benthic zone they are not able to move, which means that the water is not circulating around their gills and as a result they asphyxiate, however there are cases where other fish prey on their defenseless bodies. All this pain is inflicted on them even though there are various acts protecting
So why do we need sharks? Well, Sharks help keep the ocean healthy and clean for over 450 million years. They also help remove half of the worlds green house gases and produces oxygen more than all of the rainforest's combined! Sharks are just as important as all the trees in the world because they have one thing in common, provide us with oxygen. Without the sharks help we wouldn't be able to get rid as much of the greenhouse gases as we want to, which means global warming would have a lower rate of happening faster. Most importantly they provide us with food. How? They would usually eat the old, sick or slower fish in the population of the ocean to the right size so the prey species don't cause harm to ecosystem by becoming to populated. They are also at the top of the food web. If all the sharks went extinct the entire food web would collapse causing many other species of fish to disappear. So instead of killing the sharks, we could lure them away to somewhere else. As they have a huge impact to the environment.
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 bull shark may be responsible for many shark attacks in the world but I believe that we have no right to kill them. Sharks are very important to animals food cycles and if the food cycles get messed up it can greatly effect the world. In fact, the bull shark is more vulnerable to human impact due to their ability to live in fresh and salt water but many sharks that are killed are for either shark fin soup or their liver oil. The sharks liver oil has many uses now but it started as a machine lubricant. Another way that sharks die is by recreational fishing. The sharks can get caught up in the fishermen's nets and eventually suffocate and die. As an environmental community, I feel like we need to inform people about shark habits and how to keep sharks safe. The water is their home and we are
However, the fact is, and statistics prove that over 100 million sharks are killed every year (according to the Sea Shepherd website), all around the world and for what reason? Shark culling and the hunting of sharks as a solution to beach safety has not been well received by the Australian public. Whilst it is very clear that we need a solution to protect our bathers and surfers, the Herald Sun reported that 82 percent of all respondents to their
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...
Sharks kill an average of about 12 humans per year. Humans kill an average of about 11,417 sharks per hour. Unfortunately, that number may not stop growing unless action is taken. Shark slaughter is becoming an ever expanding issue that could have devastating effects if it is not stopped. As a result of a tremendous increase of demand in shark fins in recent years, sharks are being finned and thrown back into the water where they are left to suffer an excruciating death which can take days to occur. Not only is the act cruel, but it also disrupts the natural ecosystem and may cause irreparable damage. Due to all of these effects, shark slaughter needs to be stopped, sooner than later.
In 2015 only 59 shark attacks have occurred around the world compared to the millions of sharks killed by humans every year. Due to these accidental shark attacks people tend to think that sharks, especially Great Whites are evil creatures with malice intentions when attacks do occur; but, on the contrary that is wrong. Sharks are not the only beautiful and unique creatures in the ocean, they also play a vital role in our ecosystem; however, due to human interference they might not be around much longer, through awareness sharks can be protected from endangerment.
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.
To summarize, shark fins consumption for benefit of health still remain as a belief. However, it has been clarified with modernized science which disproves almost all beliefs about eating shark fins. Furthermore, it causes destructive marine system without reasonable reason. People are willing to destroy specie to improve their health, invade their living areas without morality. Shark fins today is just a case study which strongly needs people’s help to maintain what they have to maintain to equalize all natural system as it play a significant part in the ocean. As a result, to solve this problem, legality will be a powerful solution to those becoming extinct creatures as they do with the animals like elephant in Thailand, or even panda in China.
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.
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.
...nd also the earth. If whales become extinct then there could be a rapid increase of small aquatic animals that could harm the marine food chain then further kill marine ecosystems. This is because whales help regulate the flow of food by helping to maintain a stable food chain.
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.