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Sharks have existed for 450 million years but if we continue to
slaughter them, they may be gone within a few decades. When is
shark finning going to stop? When there are no sharks left? Famous
restaurants like Flower Drum in Melbourne, and hotel groups like
the Peninsula and Shangri-La have banned shark fin from their
menus. Sharks are animals that we cannot afford to be eating
anymore because they are too important to lose. Instead of killing
sharks, humans should be living in harmony with them. For example,
in a village called Oslob in the Philippines, fishermen catch shrimp
but they are not the only ones. In that area, whale sharks come to
feed on those shrimp too. The fishermen could have kept all of the
shrimp for themselves and sold the fins of the whale sharks, but
instead they decided to share their shrimp with the whale sharks
after every catch. Many organisations, such as Shark Savers, have
been trying to recover shark populations after finning. Shark Savers
is an organisation which works to protect sharks and manta rays by
building awareness and educating people about these animals and
about the importance to take action.
Shark sanctuaries should be established to reverse the falling
population of sharks. All fishing countries and international organ-
isations should regulate shark fishing and trading of their fins. On
23rd August 2013, India, the second largest catcher of sharks in the
world, announced a ban on finning sharks at sea. This ban has now
effectively allowed the country to monitor how many sharks and
what species of sharks are being caught. We hope that India’s recent
ban on shark finning at sea will be a turning point for shark conser-
vation in the region.
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Shark Finning
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