Some traditions hurtWhat you don’t know about sharks hurts them and the environment

Introduction

Story of US Virgin Islands

Tradition

Process

Environmental effects

US VIRGIN ISLANDS

Eagle rays

Sting rays

Long spined sea urchins

Tangs

Blennies

Sea turtles

Sargent Major fish

Some traditions come at a cost

Bycatch:Bycatch is when a fisherman throws out his net to catch fish and “catches other things than what he intended”.

De fining

*Why don’t the fins grow back? Fins are made of cartilage, such at the top of your ear is made of. Cartilage doesn’t grow back once removed.

*Why is just the fins harvested? Why isn’t the meat eaten? Sharks urinate through the muscle tissues and it comes out through the skin. The meat is high in ammonia.

Disposal

I think it’s obvious how disposal happens

Environmental effects…

Sharks as apex predators regulate species abundance

Without them

Coral reefs shift to algae dominated systems.

Seagrass beds in decline.

Ecological chain reactions set in motion. Species diversity and abundance declines with the loss of habitats. And the list goes on...

Some traditions hurtSharks fin soup is used as a means to elevate

social status

To make shark fin soup you fist have to catch, remove the fins and then dump the body

The environmental effects of removing shark populations is detrimental to the ocean and it’s health.

We should not eat shark fin soup.

CitationFreitas, B, E Griffin, and et al. "Predators as Prey: Why Healthy Oceans Need Sharks." www.oceana.org. Oceana, n.d. Web. 8 Apr 2013.

Aydin, Kerim, Jefferson T. Hinke, et al. "Visualizing the Food-Web Effects of Fishing for Tunas in the Pacific Ocean." Ecology and Society. 9.1 (2004): n. page. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

Citation

Bakalar, Nicholas. “38 Million Sharks Killed for Fins Annually, Experts Estimate.” National Geographic News. National Geographic. 12 October 2006. Web. 4 November 2012. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061012-shark-fin.html>.

J.R.P. "The Environmental Magazine." Environmental Magazine. 19.5 (2008): 24. Print. <www.emagazine.com/magazine-archive/freedom-from-finning>.

Kaiman, Jonathan. "In China, banning shark fin is uphill battle." Los Angeles Times, 31 January 2012, n. page. Print. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/31/world/la-fg-china-shark-fin-20120201>.

Spooner, Samantha. "How demand for delicacy drives silent massacre of Kenya’s sharks." Daily Nation 10 March 2012, n. page. Print. <http://41.215.122.106/dspace/bitstream/0/642/1/How demand for delicacy drives silent massacre of Kenya.pdf>.

United States. U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service. “FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR A FINAL RULE TO IMPLEMENT THE SHARK FINNING PROHIBITION ACT.” Washington D.C., : 2001, pgs. 1-88. Print.

 

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