Where Have All The Sharks Gone?
“Fins to the left . . . Fins to the right, and you’re the only bait in town.”
If we don’t change our behavior toward sharks, someday they might only exist in the lyrics of a popular Jimmy Buffett tune.
When divers encounter sharks they usually have good stories to tell. Unfortunately, it’s a pretty rare occurrence these days. The need for shark conservation is critical, for reasons we’ll discuss here.
A contributing factor to the severe decline in shark populations is that many people have a negative perception about sharks. Barbara Bridges, President & CEO of Stealth Pilot Productions, and a member of the LinkedIn Group Ocean Champions, explains why sharks suffer from a serious public relations problem:
“In the past twenty years television specials have contributed much toward saving wilderness and wild species–including establishing the need for marine protected areas. The lamentable exception to these preservation efforts are sharks–the wolves of the sea. Discovery Channel’s ‘Shark Week’ still uses a highly exploitative, blood-in-the-water approach to filming these Alpha predators. Sharks are just as necessary to maintaining a healthy marine environment as plankton, coral, the smaller species of food fish, or whales. Discovery Channel, while ostensibly ‘celebrating all wildlife’, annually contributes to countless shark deaths worldwide by promulgating widespread panic and fear.”
The story of one particular shark typifies their plight.
Diving in Cozumel, my dive operator Alison told me about a young nurse shark that she thought had been born with a deformed nub of its front dorsal fin (nurse sharks have a second dorsal fin, back toward the tail). Hence, Alison named him Stubby. Over the years we watched Stubby grow from a 4-foot youngster into an 8-foot adult. Fully grown nurse sharks can attain 14-feet.
Diving Cozumel’s Yucab Reef one morning, we were preparing to ascend when Alison spotted Stubby below us, hunting along the coral. We descended and watched him corner his prey in a small cave. Our group of four divers formed a semi-circle at the cave opening. We watched Stubby thrash his long tail, forcing himself into the narrow opening to devour whatever he had trapped, probably a lobster. After several minutes Stubby’s body shuddered, then relaxed as he consumed his meal. When he wiggled backward out of the cave, he was sporting a “remora beard.”
Stubby was startled to see a bunch of bubble-blowers around him. He turned quickly and I shot another photo (below) as he swam away, right between my legs! I was sure glad his dorsal fin was “stubby”!
One day a couple of years ago, Alison told me she had seen Stubby trailing a fishing leader from his lower jaw. Shortly afterward, Alison never saw him again. Perhaps as an adult, Stubby had expanded his hunting range out of Cozumel’s protected park, and had been taken by a fisherman. Or, Stubby might have been captured by an illegal poacher within the park.
I recently contacted Alison for background on this article. She hopes Stubby migrated north, and is happily swimming somewhere else. But Alison said, “I do not know why once reaching full adulthood he would begin to gradually move northward. There is a lot that I don’t understand about nurse shark behaviour; I just observe. The only thing for certain is that I really, really miss Stubby 
”
The most likely scenario, however, is that Stubby’s fate has been the fate of too many other sharks: overfishing. In a mere 30 years, humans have reduced the world-wide shark population by 90%. As the demand in Asia for shark-fin soup and other shark by-products increases, the pressure on their dwindling population intensifies.
THE SCOREBOARD: Millions of sharks (conservative estimates range between 10 and 20 million; higher estimates range from 70 to 100 million) are killed annually by long-line commercial fishermen seeking tuna and other fish, drowned in gill nets and drift nets, intentionally slaughtered by shark finners, or killed in shark sporting tournaments and by other “recreational” fishing activity.
Sharks, on the other hand, kill approximately 10 humans per year. That’s less than die from lightening, bee stings, and food allergies. If you shout “SHARK!” on a crowded beach you’ll clear the water in a minute. Yell “PEANUTS!” in a restaurant and I doubt much would happen.
A 2008 NY Times article illustrated the threat to sharks:
The key point to consider: Extinction is a one-way street; there is no re-wind and no replay!
WHAT CAN WE DO?
First, the obvious: Don’t eat or purchase shark products.
Most important: Support efforts to ban shark fishing. Many countries, such as Palau, have done this.
Websites where you can get more information:
Shark Conservation Act of 2009
To find additional websites about shark conservation, Google “Shark Decline”.
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