Shark Finning Industry Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Shark Finning Industry - Research Paper Example The paper states that the finning industry is based on the following practice: ‘the fin of each shark is chopped off and the rest is discharged’ (Verclar et al. 1078). Then, the fin is likely to be used for soup, after being diverted to the market, in its natural form or using an appropriate package. The consumption of fin of sharks is quite common in many countries worldwide. However, this ‘custom’ threatens the population of sharks internationally. In accordance with recent research, the finning industry worldwide is a continuously growing industry, with the value of the fin to reach the $116/ kg (Verclar et al. 1078). India is among the countries with the highest performance in this industry; in accordance with Verclar et al. the annual shark production of India reaches the 45,500 tonnes (Verclar et al. 1078), a significant figure if taking into consideration the price of the particular product in the market, as presented above. It is clear that the profi ts of the particular industry can be significant, a fact which may be considered as a barrier to the control of the phenomenon. As noted in the study of Verclar et al., about 20 species of sharks will be extinguished by 2017 if the shark finning industry continues its current rate of expansion (Verclar et al. 1078). However, the current signs regarding the development of this industry are rather discouraging; instead of being reduced, the finning industry is further expanded with other countries to be involved in such activities. An indicative example is China, which has started to activate in many areas of the specific industry – acting as ‘producer, importer, consumer, and processing center’ (Verclar et al. 1079); other countries also have been attracted by the prospects that the particular industry offers. Indonesia, Pakistan, and Singapore (Verclar et al. 1079) are some of the countries, which have been involved in various areas of the shark finning industry. Â  The shark finning industry offers many prospects as a business activity, as it combines the trade of fin, as a product of significant value, with the trade of other parts of the shark – meaning the body and the bones (Verclar et al. 1080). At this point, it should be noted that ‘not all fins of a shark are of the same value’ (Verclar et al. 1080). In any case, since all parts of the body of a shark can be disposed to the market, the fishing of sharks is quite popular, guaranteeing high profits. Efforts have been made for setting limits to the particular activity since a threat of the extinction of many species of shark has been made clear. Under this threat, the Government of India prohibited the fishing of a particular species of shark, the Elasmobranchii, in 2001 (Verclar et al. 1080); the Gazette Notification through which this prohibition was imposed has been proved particularly valuable for the protection of the above species. Another practice used for t he control of shark finning industry worldwide is the DNA checks; through these checks, the level of limitation of each shark species can be identified – by checking various parts of the bodies of sharks disposed to market (Verclar et al. 1080). The above method has the following disadvantage: not all parts of the body of a shark can prove valid information on the species of the shark; however, new DNA checks have been improved allowing the identification of sharks’ DNA even from dried fins (Verclar et al. 1080). Particular attention should be paid to the effects of shark finning industry for the marine ecosystems. In accordance with Taylor (2010), sharks are predators, which helps to keep balance in prey worldwide (Taylor, online article).