Human Interactions
The pelagic thresher has never been implicated in an attack on humans; it has small jaws and teeth for its size and tends to flee from divers. This shark is taken by commercial fisheries in the central Pacific and western Indian Oceans, as well as off California and Mexico. Abundant off northeastern Taiwan, it comprises over 12% (c. 3,100 fish, 220 metric tons) of the annual Taiwanese shark landings. The meat is sold for human consumption, the skin is made into leather, and the fins used for shark fin soup in Asia. The squalene oil in the liver of the pelagic thresher can comprise 10% of its weight, and is used in the manufacture of cosmetics, health foods, and high-grade machine oil.
Though rarely caught, pelagic threshers are also valued by sport fishers and are listed as game fish by the International Game Fish Association. The largest overall records are from New Zealand, while the light tackle records are from California. Pelagic threshers are frequently taken as bycatch on longlines and in driftnets meant for other species such as tuna, and also rarely in gillnets and anti-shark nets. All three thresher shark species were assessed as Vulnerable by the IUCN in 2007, as their low fecundity cannot sustain high levels of exploitation.
Read more about this topic: Pelagic Thresher
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or interactions:
“The day the world ends, no one will be there, just as no one was there when it began. This is a scandal. Such a scandal for the human race that it is indeed capable collectively, out of spite, of hastening the end of the world by all means just so it can enjoy the show.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“In child rearing it would unquestionably be easier if a child were to do something because we say so. The authoritarian method does expedite things, but it does not produce independent functioning. If a child has not mastered the underlying principles of human interactions and merely conforms out of coercion or conditioning, he has no tools to use, no resources to apply in the next situation that confronts him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)