Tag "Shark"
How Marine Protected Areas are Safeguarding Our Ocean’s Vulnerable Top Predators
The Food and Agriculture Organization conservatively estimates the value of shark fin imports in 2011 was USD 438.6 million and that of shark meat imports was USD 379.8 million [2].
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are protecting many shark populations around the world along with the ecosystems in which they play such important roles.
Sharks are often found in higher abundances and among more species around pelagic biodiversity hotspots such as seamounts and in the waters surrounding remote islands [9].
For example, hammerhead sharks tagged in the Galápagos Islands preferred these types of remote hotspots and often migrated among the hotspots, but rarely remained outside of the hotspots; similar patterns were observed in other pelagic species [10].
However, despite the evident successes of MPAs in safeguarding sharks [12], there is room for improvement in the design, governance [13] and enforcement [14] of MPAs to better protect sharks.
[6] Bonfil, R. (1999) Marine protected areas as a shark fisheries management tool.
(2002) The role of protected areas in elasmobranch fisheries management and conservation.
[8] Barker, MJ and Schluessel, V. (2005) Managing global shark fisheries: suggestions for prioritising management strategies.
[12] White et al. (2017) Asessing the effectiveness of a large marine protected area for reef shark conservation.
[14] White et al. (2017) Asessing the effectiveness of a large marine protected area for reef shark conservation.
More Animal Abuse Claims Emerge Against Boaters Filmed Dragging Shark
Since the shark footage surfaced, members of the public have shared other disturbing photos and videos that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is now examining as part of its investigation of the incident.
Yet another video shows a man shooting at fish from a boat.
The FWC has not publicly identified the individuals involved in the shark speedboat video, stating on Facebook that “Since the investigation is active, we can’t confirm the identities of the individuals, and it is too early to speculate as to what, if any, violations took place in this incident.” The agency has also not confirmed whether the people in the additional images and videos are the same people who dragged the shark behind the boat.
However, social media users and local news outlets, including the Miami Herald, have identified two of the individuals from the shark video as Michael Wenzel and Robert Lee “Bo” Benac.
Screengrabs and captions of other posts showing apparent animal abuse are also linked with the “michaelwenzel” account.
In 2015, Save the Tarpon’s Facebook page shared photos from a social media account apparently belonging to Wenzel.
Save the Tarpon’s post indicates that the man in the photos is not permitted to possess or harvest the fish he’s holding.
McLaughlin told HuffPost he had shared photos of Wenzel holding protected seabirds, spotted eagle rays and tarpon on his Facebook page after seeing Wenzel post them on social media.
The Miami Herald identified Benac’s mother as Manatee County Commissioner Betsy Benac.
“None of the individuals in the video have been charged criminally and no one has been arrested,” Weiffenbach told the Herald.
Violent Video Of Boat Dragging Shark Sparks Outrage, Investigation
Violent Video Of Boat Dragging Shark Sparks Outrage, Investigation.
Instagram/MarkTheShark Conservation officials in Florida are investigating a shocking video that shows a speeding boat dragging a shark as a group of people onboard laugh.
It shows a boat traveling at high speed while dragging a shark by a rope.
Individuals can be seen laughing at the shark as it tosses violently in the boat’s wake.
Quartiano told CBS 4 News that one of the people on the boat sent the video to him on Instagram looking for praise.
The user also sent Quartiano pictures of the shark’s carcass, according to local news station WESH 2.
“It should be against the law.” It is unclear if the shark was alive in the video.
Christopher Lowe, director of Cal State University of Long Beach’s Shark Lab, told HuffPost that the shark may have been a blacktip shark, which is legal to harvest in the state of Florida.
“The FWC has been alerted to a video circulating on multiple social media sites showing a group of individuals traveling at high speed on the water, dragging a shark behind the vessel,” Rob Klepper, the commission’s public information officer told the Bradenton Herald.
“This is just really sick, one of the most horrific things I have seen in 50 years or professional sport fishing,” Quartiano told the news station.
Teeth to tail: 6 stories about sharks this week
Editor’s note: Shark Week 2017 kicks off in a couple of days, featuring everything from an Olympian racing a great white to our very own scientist’s exploration of “alien” species.
Before you dive in, take a look at six of Human Nature’s most popular shark stories — and scroll down to the end to see our Shark Week Photo Gallery.
Sharks help move carbon through the ocean — and they just might be the key to helping scientists cure certain diseases.
Whale shark watch: 4 things we’ve learned from tracking the world’s largest fish Conservation International scientists made headlines in 2015 when they launched a ground-breaking whale shark satellite tagging program in Indonesia.
Check back here next week for fresh updates.
Expedition to ‘island of sharks’ gathers hundreds of hours of new ocean data A team of 18 scientists made a 36-hour boat journey from Puntarenas, Costa Rica, to one of the world’s best dive sites: Cocos Island National Park.
Why ‘walking sharks’ are at greater risk for extinction than we thought Walking sharks are only active at night, when they emerge from hiding places to “walk” about the reef in search of food.
Here, a pioneer in the study of walking sharks describes key findings about the species.
Aliens of the deep: Deep-sea sharks are the hidden stars of Shark Week Step aside great whites and hammerheads: There’s a slew of little-known shark species that deserve more attention, such as the goblin and megamouth sharks.
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is determined to combat the shark fin trade in Costa Rica and give sharks a fighting chance at survival.
is determined to combat the shark fin trade in Costa Rica and give sharks a fighting chance at survival..
Sharks are often feared in many people’s imaginations as vicious, bloodthirsty predators.
However, the truth is that sharks have far greater reason to be afraid of humans than we are of them.
Oceanic conservation group Sea Shepherd has estimated that each year, “50,000,000 sharks are caught unintentionally as bycatch by commercial tuna and swordfish fisheries using longlines, nets, purse seine, and gillnets.” Another enormous threat to the continued survival of sharks is the existence of the cruel shark fin trade.
Sharks play a vital role in regulating the health of our climate by consuming herbivorous fish who would otherwise eat a large amount of carbon-storing oceanic vegetation.
Costa Rica is one of the world’s major exporters of shark fins, and the government will not protect any shark species of commercial interest.
In 2011 alone, between 350,000 to 400,000 sharks were killed for their fins in Costa Rican waters, despite the fact that this practice has supposedly been illegal since 2001.
This request was made in spite of the fact that the trade in shark fins has been officially banned in Costa Rica.
to export shipments of endangered hammerhead shark fins during a time period when they were banned?
More information about their work is available on their website.
Shark Attack Victim Said She Refused To Die After Losing Her Arm
Shark Attack Victim Said She Refused To Die After Losing Her Arm.
A North Carolina mother of three who lost her arm to a shark this month is speaking out about the harrowing attack while summing her survival up as “a miracle.” Tiffany Johnson, 32, had been snorkeling with her husband in the Bahamas on June 2 when out of nowhere she was “bumped” by something in the water, she told WRAL.
“I just casually turned to my right to look to see, and that’s when I was face to face with the shark.
He had my whole arm in his mouth and he was just floating there, just staring at me,” she recalled.
Johnson, who was on the last stop of a cruise, said she tried pulling her arm out of the shark’s mouth, but it wouldn’t let go.
The water around her clouded with her blood, with her arm being severed near her elbow.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is not the end for me.
He is not going to take my life,’” she told NBC News.
“I was calm, and I told him go get something, get a towel, I need to wrap it up,” she said.
After hearing that news on the phone, she told WRAL that she and her husband broke down crying.
Why You Should Never Buy Shark Teeth
If you put aside your Jaws-inspired fears of this marine predator, you’ll come to learn that sharks are, in fact, incredible animals and not as terrible as you’ve been led to believe.
Overfishing and the fin trade are driving shark species to their end but these two culprits aren’t the only things threatening shark species.
Sharks are also hunted for another body part… The Shark Teeth Trade After witnessing the horrors in ”Shark Week” you would think people would stay as far away from shark teeth as they could.
Shark teeth and jaws can be found in tourist shops in many seaside areas throughout the world.
And the most unbelievable thing, people actually buy them.
If we keep killing them for their body parts, like their fins and teeth, the population is going to keep on declining until eventually, the entire shark population gets wiped out.
By feeding on the dead matter on the seafloor, scavengers like starfish and deep-sea sharks help to keep the carbon cycle in motion.
However, that hasn’t stopped poachers from hunting sharks for their teeth and jaws.
But what they don’t seem to realize is that their greed is driving shark species to extinction.
With over 100 million sharks slaughtered every year, it’s not hard to see why 18 species of shark have already been listed as endangered.
‘Get My Gun!’ Spear Fisherman Films Surprise Shark Attack Off Florida Keys
‘Get My Gun!’ Spear Fisherman Films Surprise Shark Attack Off Florida Keys.
A spear fisherman diving in the Florida Keys went from being the hunter to being the hunted, dramatic video footage shows.
Parker Simpson was swimming off Boca Chica Key with a fish in his hand on Sunday when an estimated 8-foot reef shark appeared, charging at him from out of the blue.
“This shark came out of nowhere,” Parker wrote in a description on YouTube.
“He first went at my dive buddy Justyn but immediately turned toward me.” Storyful The video shows the shark lunging at Simpson’s feet, taking a bite out of his leg and tearing his flipper.
“I assumed he was trying to steal the black grouper I was holding.
But after I lost the grouper and watched it swim to the bottom, the shark kept coming at us,” Simpson wrote.
Once breaching the surface, Simpson cries out: “Justyn, get my gun!
Get my gun!
I have a chunk out of my leg.” Fortunately, the attack ended almost as soon as it began ― though it did leave Simpson with a pretty nasty wound on his leg that cost him more than a liter of blood, he said.
Love Bites: Shark & Diver Enjoy 7-Year Friendship
Author: Steve / Source: WebEcoist Professional diver Rick Anderson and a female Port Jackson shark have forged an unlikely friendship that’s stood
