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Sharks: The hunted hunters
Wednesday, 7 February 2007, 19:30, Bonn
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Wednesday 7 February 200, 7:30 pm
Conference Room - Hotel President Bonn
Clemens-August-Str. 32-36
53115 Bonn , Germany
Tel. +49 (0)228/7250-0
Free Entrance
Public lecture for the protection of sharks
Heike Zidowitz (German Elasmobranch Society) and
Onno Gross (DEEPWAVE inc.) |
A hammerhead shark without fins © Jeffrey Rotman
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For more than 400 million years, sharks have been living in the oceans. They are highly adapted to their environment and these marine predators show extraordinary senses. Recently, modern research has also cleared up the common misbelief that sharks are “man-eating” hunters: only 5-10 deadly accidents occur each year. On the other hand, humans kill more than 100 million sharks each year.
“If we do not address this over-fishing now”, says Dr. Onno Gross from the German marine conservation organisation DEEPWAVE, a member of the Shark Alliance, ”some species may very soon become extinct”.
Experts believe today that 120 of the 146 European shark and ray species are highly threatened in their survival. Over-fishing and the practice of “finning” for the Asian soup market are main causes of the rapid decline. Two species, the Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and Porbeagle Shark (Lamna nasus), are at risk of extinction and have been proposed by Germany for listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
“As long as the EU-fishery landing data are inconsistent and not transparent”, says Heike Zidowitz from the German Elasmobranch Society, “the sharks will be further a target of over-fishing”.
The “hunters of the sea” tragically are now hunted to the brink of extinction.
Contact:
Dr. Onno Gross, info@deepwave.org, Tel. mob +0179-5986969
Dipl.-Biol. Heike Zidowitz, info@elasmo.de, Tel. mob +0176-61016367
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