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If current trends continue, the world's shark stocks will be depleted in ten years, experts warned Wednesday at the International Shark Conservation Conference in Beijing.

 

 

About a third of the 450 shark species are threatened with extinction, or are close to becoming threatened, said Sarah Fowler, Co-chair of the IUCN (the World Conservation Union) Species Survival Commission's Shark Specialist Group at a press conference.

 

"Fisheries can remove 50 to 90 percent of an entire shark stock in only ten years, and it takes over a century to recover from severe depletion if fisheries close down completely," she said.

 

Fowler's worries were echoed by other shark specialists at the meeting, who issued a number of recommendations calling for collaboration, education and investment in protecting the animals that have swum the world's oceans for over 400 million years.

 

"Better management should be introduced to halt and reverse the depletion in threatened shark populations," said Steve Trent, a founding director of the international conservation group WildAid, the conference's co-sponsor. 

 

A WildAid report said a major reason for the sharp decrease of sharks is the soaring demand for shark fin on the international market, far surpassing sustainable levels for slow-reproducing sharks.

 

Whilst some countries have tightened controls on some fish species like tuna and cod, shark has become an alternative catch for fishermen in west Africa and Europe, threatening the survival of the "overlord of the sea".

 

Between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year for their valued fins, according to Dr. Shelley Clarke, an American fisheries scientist based in Hong Kong and Japan.

 

Most of the fins are flown into Asia, especially in China and Southeast Asian countries, where they are considered a delicacy and made into shark fin soup.

 

The annual shark fin trade has reached around 10,000 tons with Hong Kong alone accounting for about 52 percent of the total, according to Clarke.

 

"It is difficult to change people's dining habits, but we can educate and engage the public to achieve sustainable development of the sharks and people's dining culture," said Li Yanliang, deputy general director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Aquatic Wild Fauna and Flora Administrative Office, another sponsor of the conference.

 

Currently, China's fisheries do not specialize in catching sharks and catching them is strictly regulated in accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), which protects whale sharks, bask sharks and white sharks, said Li.

 

In order to protect shark and fish stocks, China closes its fisheries for two to three months every year and has invested 2 billion yuan (US$250 million) to retrain 120,000 fishers for jobs in agriculture or industry since 2002, said Li.

 

The country is also amending the National Conservation List of Key Aquatic Wildlife to include some endangered shark species, said Li. 

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)