Essay
April 24, 2013 //
0
Currently there are about 100million sharks killed each year. This number is astonishing when you consider it is around 6-7% of the whole shark population in open sea (“Sharks at risk,” 2013). Years of overfishing has pushed a number of sharks’ species towards extinction with many being threatened. Recently the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has added three extremely vulnerable shark species to its Appendix II which would control their trade so it doesn’t get out of hands (“Cites conference takes,” 2013).
The shark fin soup is the main reason behind the sharp decline in sharks’ population (Ling, 2008). The delicacy mainly served in Asian countries has had a drastic impact on the sharks’ ecosystem. Fueled by the elevating Chinese living standards the demand for shark fins has never been so great. However, sharks’ species at risk biologically need more time to reproduce. This has meant there is a huge gap left to fill in for the demand and it has led to overexploitation (Jha, 2009). In order to deal with the problem of decreasing number of sharks, I will propose three solutions and choose the best one among them.
The first possible solution is banning shark fishing. According to scientist Nick Philips, who proposed this idea to the Brunei government states that the law will bring results in prompt time (Shahminan, 2011). The ban on shark fishing will make it illegal for anyone who possesses and/or trades shark fish products. The ban will make it extremely difficult to trade the shark fish products as well as making it less attractive to anyone already involved in the trade. As there will be criminal consequences for offenders accompanied with a heavy punishment which will likely deter people from engaging in unlawful shark fishing activities. Even if they can afford the shark fin soup, they would not want to be imprisoned for eating it.
The imposition of...