Threatened Species
In 2009, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) produced the first red list for threatened oceanic sharks and rays. They claim that about one third of open ocean sharks and rays are under threat of extinction. There are 64 species of oceanic sharks and rays on the list, including hammerheads, giant devil rays and porbeagle.
Oceanic sharks are captured incidentally by swordfish and tuna high seas fisheries. In the past there were few markets for sharks, which were regarded as worthless bycatch. Now sharks are being increasingly targeted to supply emerging Asian markets, particularly for shark fins, which are used in shark fin soup.
The northwest Atlantic Ocean shark populations are estimated to have declined by 50 percent since the early 1970s. Oceanic sharks are vulnerable because they don't produce many young, and the young can take decades to mature.
-
The scalloped hammerhead is classified as endangered
-
The oceanic whitetip shark has declined by 99 percent in the Gulf of Mexico
-
The devil fish, a large ray, is also threatened
-
So is the porbeagle shark
In parts of the world the scalloped hammerhead shark has declined by 99 percent since the late 1970s. Its status on the red list is that it is globally endangered, meaning it is near extinction.
Read more about this topic: Pelagic Fish
Famous quotes containing the words threatened and/or species:
“The most threatened group in human societies as in animal societies is the unmated male: the unmated male is more likely to wind up in prison or in an asylum or dead than his mated counterpart. He is less likely to be promoted at work and he is considered a poor credit risk.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“There are acacias, a graceful species amusingly devitalized by sentimentality, this kind drooping its leaves with the grace of a young widow bowed in controllable grief, this one obscuring them with a smooth silver as of placid tears. They please, like the minor French novelists of the eighteenth century, by suggesting a universe in which nothing cuts deep.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)