Shrinking Population Of Sharks

The population of  sharks which play an important role in maintaining the marine ecosystem balance is become smaller and smaller around the world. Shark finning which is a popular phrase among fishermen refers to the removal of fin from sharks and discard the rest of the shark body back into the sea.  Shark finning takes place at sea so that fishers just have to transport the shark fins without their body and this enable them to save the cost of transportation.

Removal Of Shark Fins

This phenomenon is due to the high demand for shark fins for preparing shark fin soup and traditional cures, improved fishing technology and improved market economics. A fisher who involves in shark finning activity will cut off the fins from living sharks and throws the remain of living sharks back into the sea. This happened because the shark meat is less valuable and the act of throwing the remain of sharks back into the sea will make more room for the more valuable shark fins. 

Normally, the sea will be tainted red due to the blood from bleeding shark remains. Finally the shark will die either because of suffocation or eaten by other predators because they are unable to move freely. The main markets which import the most sharks are China and Hong Kong due to Chinese delicacy- shark fin soup. According  to official reports the year 1980 saw about 3,000 tons of shark fins traded worldwide. While in 2004, it was 22,000 tons traded. This is a great increase in the amount of shark fins traded and should be a concern to all human being.

Just Like A Shark Without Its Fins

Now, shark finning activities still remain as a widespread problem around the world. Some of the countries have banned shark finning activities but unfortunately most of the countries in the world have not take any action to ban shark finning activities yet. Hopefully, the governments will ban this activity as soon as possible. One of the effective way to stop shark finning activities from worsen is to prevent ourself from consuming shark fin soup. We should also stop our family and friends from eating shark fin soup. As the demand for shark fins decreases, shark finning activities will drop.

Shark which is one of the main predator in sea will maintain the marine ecosystem balance and ensure the marine lives remain in a stable condition. If shark finning remains widespread, it will give impacts on the balance of marine ecosystem. Besides, the population of sharks will decrease and become extinct one day if the depletion of shark remains active.