The HSUS has compiled the following answers to some frequently asked questions about sharks and shark tournaments.
For other questions related to sharks and shark tournaments, please click here.
Why does The Humane Society of the United States care about shark tournaments?
Shark tournaments are bloody and ecologically irresponsible spectacles in which some of earth's most ancient predators are hauled out of the ocean and hung up for bragging rights and gruesome pictures. Some of these animals belong to species in decline, and shark tournaments are contributing to the ongoing declines in shark populations.
Tournaments cause more sharks to suffer and die than is immediately apparent. The managers and promoters of some tournaments defend their events by claiming that they consist mainly of so-called catch and release, but few studies have looked at the fate of those sharks that are hooked and subsequently released. One study by researchers at Dalhousie University in Canada found that up to 20 percent of blue sharks probably died after being caught and released in tournaments. At least one international fisheries body has estimated a similar rate of mortality. The greatest cause of death is the swallowing of hooks. Sharks also die from serious injuries—such as a badly torn mouth—suffered while being caught, which either disable the shark or cause subsequent infection. Factors that may make sharks vulnerable to death or serious injury in a catch-and-release situation are size and age, water temperature and stress.
Are sharks endangered?
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), one fifth of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction. A 2003 study in the journal Science concluded that all shark species, with the exception of makos, had declined by more than 50 percent in the previous eight to 15 years. Hammerheads and thresher sharks declined by as much as 80 percent.
Why are shark populations declining?
Relentless pressure from commercial fisheries has rapidly pushed many shark species toward extinction. People kill sharks for meat and fins. The oil in their livers is also used medicinally (e.g., Preparation H and some vitamins use shark liver oil). Longline, driftnet and trawl fisheries may target sharks. Sometimes fishing boats accidentally catch sharks and discard them as waste.
Is shark killing regulated by the U.S. government? Are other countries to blame for population declines?
The decline of shark populations is an international problem. Sharks are highly migratory; those caught in the U.S. are from the same populations caught in Canada and often even Europe. Canadian scientists studying blue sharks—the species most often caught in tournaments—found animals tagged in the U.S. swimming in Canadian waters and those they tagged in Canada in the open waters of the Atlantic and even as far away as Africa.
Still, the United States has not done its share to protect sharks. While the National Marine Fisheries Service admits that all large coastal sharks are overfished and that most others are caught at unsustainable levels, it has banned killing only a few species, such as great white sharks. The United States must do more.
What is The HSUS doing about commercial shark fishing?
Humane Society International is working in conjunction with other groups to address the issue of shark finning and the international trade of shark meat. The HSUS is appointed to a federal panel working with longline fisheries to reduce bycatch associated with the fishery.
If the big problem is commercial fisheries, why worry about tournaments?
While commercial fishing caused the global crash of shark populations, tournaments contribute to the plight of sharks. In the northwest Atlantic, blue sharks comprise approximately 50 percent of the commercial shark catch. Research has found that their population declined 5-6 percent per year but estimated that the weight of blue sharks landed at recreational tournaments increased from approximately 4 tons per year in 1993 to 15 tons per year in recent years. The study also stated that blue sharks make up 99 percent of the catch in recreational tournaments.
Although shark tournaments are responsible for fewer than 5 percent of all blue sharks killed in the northwest Atlantic, they substantially contribute to the problems facing the species. When a species is struggling to survive, any additional and preventable mortality does damage.
Does the U.S. Government let people catch endangered sharks?
Some shark species, such as great white sharks, are off limits to tournaments because of overwhelming conservation concern. But other shark species in decline continue to be caught. For example, the prizewinning animals in the 2005 Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament were a pair of porbeagle sharks. Porbeagles aren't classified "endangered" by the U.S. government—but the same population has been proposed for Canada's endangered species list and is considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN.
Don't scientists study the sharks caught in tournaments to learn about their populations?
Tournaments are about sport, not science. The Canadian Shark Research Lab at Dalhousie University published a study of research on blue sharks. Scientists concluded that, because tournaments target the largest sharks, measurements and samples cannot be considered representative of the population. They also found that most sharks sampled in tournaments are from the same shark population caught by commercial fisheries, so we learn little more from tournament sharks than can be learned from sharks killed by fisheries. To understand shark population abundance and population dynamics, we need a representative sampling that tournaments simply cannot provide. Shark tournaments don't, and can't, collect the most important information needed to understand and protect shark populations.
Will stopping shark tournaments save sharks?
Ending shark killing contests alone won't save sharks, but it is a necessary first step. Stopping tournaments will end one source of unnecessary mortality and begin to challenge the notion that sharks are a vicious predator that oceans are better off without. Sharks deserve the basic protections we give other declining species—such as whales—whose vulnerability was recognized only after they were killed in numbers that caused widespread population crashes. Ending tournaments is one way to promote respect for these ancient and noble predators and it is a very visible way to say that their survival matters.
Posted July 12, 2006
