The Unseen Endangered Species at CITES
Trade Without a Future
Edward Dorson, Director of Conservation Strategies, Shark
Research Institute
The current Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) reached its mid-way point last Thursday; clearly
working against the very mandate it had vowed to protect. The
science was irrefutable, nevertheless, CITES denied much-needed
protection for polar bears and the Atlantic bluefin tunas.
The emergent, yet still unseen other endangered "species," is
trade in species itself. All trade in a species vanishes when
that species no longer exists.
CITES must now intensively inspect its definition of just what "trade" is
in fulfilling the organization's mandate properly. What CITES
should not tolerate, while still claiming legitimacy, is "trade
without a future." With the bluefin tuna defeat, a financial
scheme that willfully banks on species' extinction has now
been legitimized as a means to hyper-inflate short-term profits.
Unfortunately, the natural world cannot respond to economists’ projections
for maximizing profits. Shortsighted gains in the form of set
quotas simply cannot be met through natural reproduction of
species that are being depleted at a demanded-upon pace. This
pattern of thinking has no place on a planet where a species
continued existence is essential for the biodiversity that
must remain intact to support future generations as well as
future economies.
In the case of the bluefin tuna, failure to support a trade
ban on fishing until populations recover to sustainable levels
is projected to have negative consequences for the other commercially
exploited marine species, particularly the equally endangered
sharks. Almost a quarter million sharks are killed each day,
mostly to have their fins hacked off for a status symbol soup
served at weddings and banquets. Some shark populations are
already functionally extinct, having declined by as much as
99%.
Sharks targeted by finners aren't taken whole; their valuable
fins (which fetch up to US$700 a kilo) are brutally hacked
off and the less valuable finless shark is tossed back into
the sea to sink and slowly die. That's not only despicably
inhumane; it wastes over 95% of the shark that could go for
consumption. The obliteration of 400 million years of evolution
for some perceived social status with serving shark fin soup
isn't just incredibly wasteful and cruel -- it's tragic. A
healthy ocean depends on sharks.
Sharks, as apex predators, are vital to regulate species abundance
and distribution necessary
to maintain an intricate ecosystem full of diversity and life.
The removal of sharks is causing devastating impacts with harmful
results rebounding into the food chain.
"Cascade" events demonstrate how the elimination
of sharks ruins both ecosystems and
economies. One such example began in the western north Atlantic
in the late 1990’s as shark
populations were depleted. The rays and skates the sharks had
once fed upon underwent a population
explosion. The rays and skates, in turn, rapidly depleted the
scallops, oysters, and clams. Once shellfish stocks collapse,
their beneficial role in filtering toxins from the water ceases,
and results in algal blooms that are harmful to all marine
life. Events such as this disrupt tourism and devastate coastal
economies.
The ecological and economical consequences of an ocean without
sharks is staggering. As
the ocean is the very engine that runs the systems that maintain
all life, this hidden holocaust will ultimately critically
impact life on land as well. We must denounce this travesty
against the planet, and take considered action to deny such
predation upon the natural world.
A prime responsibility of all generations is to ensure that
the world left to the next one is at least as vital and habitable
to the one we live in today. Natural processes can't be compromised
or bartered. Grotesque greed and indifference must be denied
for the sake of the sharks and a planet that requires their
continuing existence. All reasoning people must now reach a
threshold that says no more to the senseless slaughter of the
world's sharks for soup.
Many nations are contributing to this tragedy...countries with
damaged economies or a quick-fix determinism to prey upon the
natural world until all is consumed. Surely this is outright
madness.
Reckless decision making at CITES must be countered with a
resounding cry for reason going into
the final sessions starting today.
Denying CITES protections for the sharks would add a major
ingredient in the rapid creation of a vast lifeless soup, formally
known as the ocean.
