Five shark species gain international protection

After years of government wrangling, five types of sharks have gained protected status under an international treaty. Although shark advocates welcome the decision, enforcement of the protections could be tricky.

Deutsche Welle, 15 Sep 2014

Steven Spielberg's Hollywood film "Jaws" painted the great white shark as a vicious monster, which in that movie attacked and killed four people in just a few days. But statistically, only around five people per year die as a result of a shark attacks. In most of those cases, the massive fish have confused people for its prey, like seals, while hunting.

And because it is threatened in many regions, the great white shark in 2004 gained protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), even though it is not commercially fished.

The conservation situation was not much better for the porbeagle, oceanic whitetip and three types of hammerhead. Overall, many shark species have declined by up to 90 percent. Nor has the manta ray been doing too well.

On Sunday (14.09.2014), these five sharks species and all manta rays were entered onto the CITES Appendix II list, which is meant to limit their international trade.

Heike Finke, a species protection expert at German conservation organization NABU, called the animals' decline "frightening." The sharks' troublesome conservation status may be traced back to intensive fishing, she said. But it also has to do with the sharks' lifecycle, she explained: "It sometimes takes up to 22 years for them to reach sexual maturity," Finke said.

Humans get attacked by sharks only typically when confused with prey

More endangered than tigers and snow leopards

If a marine species takes 20 years to reproduce, there is a high probability it will end up in a fishing net before it has the chance to produce young. This is one of the main reasons why the shark is declining.

While endangered species as tigers and snow leopards can be captive bred - including in zoos - sharks don't present that possibility, Finke thinks.

Sharks are not suitable for being held in aquariums, she explained. "If they disappear, then the species will be gone forever."

Shark-finning shame

In Germany and Europe, shark meat is made into steaks, Schillerlocke (a strip of smoked dogfish), or fish and chips. In China and Japan, a special delicacy is shark-fin soup.

Finke said sharks are more endangered
than tigers

This appetite for shark-fin soup has also been driving the species toward extinction. It's led to the especially wasteful practice of many fishermen cutting in particular the dorsal or top fins off the animals, and then throwing the rest of the body back overboard. Shark fins are compact and relatively easy to transport with minimal refrigeration, yet the meat must be kept cool.

Heike Finke called the practice outrageous. "It's perfectly good meat," she said of the rest of the animal. Sharks remain alive once the fins have been removed, she explained, but then they "suffocate slowly and horrifically over the course of several days."

Cartilage from the fin is used in China for medicinal purposes, as the folk belief is that it's effective against diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's.

Meanwhile, sharks' teeth and the gill rakers from manta rays are used in jewelry or sold as souvenirs.

Still little known about sharks

Despite their intimidating reputation, there's a lack of real scientific research about sharks. "It is difficult for us to observe the animals underwater," said Finke. She continued to explain how great white sharks have more recently been fitted with transmitters to gain insights into their habitat and mating behavior.

With hammerhead sharks, for example, it is known that pregnant females travel in groups. For several pregnant hammerheads to land in a fishing net then amounts to a blow for the species.

More knowledge about the animals will be essential in establishing no-fishing zones for sharks, for instance during the periods when they bear their live young. With the species' inscription onto the CITES list of protected species, it's possible to better control fishing.

Enforcement challenge for new protective status

The restrictions on commercial exploitation of the five species that came into force on Sunday follows European Union guidelines. The EU banned commercial capture of the dogfish and porbeagle in 2010.

If the protected sharks are fished and traded internationally, then the exporter theoretically has to show evidence that the fish came from an area where there was sufficient population.

Limiting shark-finning amounts to a tricky equation

Joachim Flasbarth, secretary of state of the German environmental ministry of, has campaigned vigorously for shark conservation. Flasbarth welcomed the decision to add the species to the CITES protection list, and told the German press agency dpa that the treaty has finally created an international venue for punishing violators.

Implementing shark protections could, however, be tricky. Although all countries that are party to CITES are obliged to enforce the protection through national law, most shark exploitation occurs in international waters on the high seas by industrial ships of often nebulous national origin. Shark finning also takes place in countries that haven't signed the treaty.

According to NABU, in the year 2000 more than 800,000 tons of sharks and manta rays were officially registered as being caught - this represents some 100 million sharks.

"How high the number of unreported cases is, one can only guess," Finke concluded.

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Kryon Q&A

Question (2002): Dear Kryon, A friend and I are meditating on the recent shark attacks and feel that it has to do with the planetary changes. We just can’t understand why they have become aggressive. What is the message the sharks are bringing? Why is this happening?
—Thank you,
Maryann

Answer: Indeed there are changes with the environment and also with biology regarding the 12-year grid change. I will first give you what was happening in general: What you are seeing are mammals, amphibians, insects, and even fish that are in areas that are new to them. Every life-form that migrates is effected by magnetics. All life forms that follows certain feeding scenarios and are “following the food” have the potential to be affected. This is due to the changing of the magnetic ley lines of the earth as we have stated before.

The areas where you can see in the ocean most clearly are within those migration patterns closest to the land. Where the ocean interfaces with the land, there are challenges for all these creatures for at least one of their generations. Whales will beach themselves by following old magnetics headings that now “drive” them into peninsula’s and other land areas that were marginally on the edge of their old paths. Birds, amphibians, and insects will be seen to do odd things for awhile.

So these shark fish may be in greater numbers in these coastal areas than in the past, but the increased aggressive behavior was actually something else: There was a tremendous “release” of energy due to the Sept. 11 event. Much like the energy of earthquakes and other earth movement, much of the environment “feels it” coming. We have spoken about how the Sept. 11 event was not a surprise to the earth. [See Lee’s article “Did Kryon give us hints”] So, some of the new actions of these fish were due to an actual energy buildup of coming events... of which you now understand.

If you are paying attention, therefore, you might ask, “Does this mean that Human consciousness issues affect the actual earth?” Yes they do! Finally you may begin to see how global consciousness is tied into the environment, and even to basic physics and reality. They are not separate, and never were. The indigenous knew it, and now the “modern” world is beginning to wonder.

Blessed is the Human Being who understands that what they think, do, and intend, actually drives the reality of the dirt of the planet!