Australian Anti Shark Finning Alliance (TAASFA)

Shark Plan 2 submission

Australia is a country obliged to preserve its oceanic territories and the marine ecosystems they sustain.  As an island nation, Australia has the opportunity to set an example the world can follow.

Since white settlement in 1788 23 birds, 4 frogs, and 27 mammal species are recorded as having become extinct in Australia.  According to the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species Australia has the highest number of threatened amphibians and reptiles.  Our track record on wildlife conservation is poor, but we have the opportunity to turn over a new page and shark conservation is that next page.

Shark finning is causing a massive decline in shark numbers in oceans around the world and Australia is not immune.  According to the PEW Environment Group, Indonesia is the largest taker of sharks in the world representing 13.25% of the global shark catch, for the period 2000 to 2008.  I don’t need to point out that Indonesia is Australia’s northern neighbour and to think Indonesian fisherman aren’t plundering Australian waters of sharks would be naïve in the extreme.
According to Rob Stewart of Sharkwater fame, shark populations worldwide have dropped by about 90% in the last 30 years. 
Dr Mark Meekan of the Australian Institute of Marine Science claims Scalloped Hammerheads and Silvertip Whalers have been virtually eliminated from Australia's northern reefs due to shark finning.
The removal of the apex predators from marine ecosystems has catastrophic flow-on effects and this is evident in the Northern Atlantic where research shows that the great sharks (those greater than 2 metres in length) have dropped by 50% to 75% in the last 15 years.  There has been a significant increase in the number of cownose rays in this area and with it the collapse of the century old scallop industry due to over-predation by the rays.  The cownose rays, with few scallops left to eat have turned their attention to clams and oysters.  The dramatic resultant drop in the Quahog clam (the main ingredient in the famous American dish – Clam Chowder) from ray predation has recently seen many American restaurants having to remove this dish from their menus.

Sharks even influence the oxygen we breath! At the very bottom of the marine food chain is phytoplankton.  This tiny animal is responsible for providing over 70% of the world’s oxygen and it consumes more C02 than anything else on the planet!  Remove the apex predators and its prey numbers increase along with the demand these species place on their prey, all the way down the chain to the tiny phytoplankton.  People think the Amazon is the earth’s lungs and while it might act as a very important bronchial tube, if I can use the analogy, the world’s oceans are the lungs and phytoplankton are the cells that make up those lungs!  We’re interfering with the marine ecosystem at our peril.

While governments, consevationsonists and other concerned stakeholders squabble of the number of sharks killed each year and the statistical impacts this is having on our marine ecosystems, the fact is shark killing is having an impact on our marine ecosystems and a negative one at that.  We need to put the brakes on shark killing now and take time out to accurately measure the factual implications otherwise we will be doing so in hindsight in the absence of sharks from our oceans.

TAASFA wants to see tough enforceable legislation introduced by the states and territories and mirrored in federal legislation that makes it a criminal offence to possess or trade in shark fin products and their derivatives.  We want to see legislation introduced in much the same form as has recently been enacted in Hawaii and the CNMI.  We feel this is the only way to adequately protect our dwindling shark populations.

While Australia is a signatory to the UN FAO - IPOA-Sharks, it is a non-binding agreement and put simply it has not worked.  The Pew Environment Group and TRAFFIC (The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network) commissioned a report in January 2011 – The Future of sharks – A Review of Action and Inaction to reflect on ten years of hindsight of IPOA-Sharks.  It summarised with the following “... it is apparent that the key top 20 shark catchers … have not adopted the recommendations of IPOA-Sharks … (and) the principles of IPOA-Sharks”.  IPOA-Sharks has proven to be a failure with respect to protecting global shark populations. We need to move forward from IPOA-Sharks to a legislative based protection scheme.