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Tens of millions of sharks are killed for their fins each year. It's not just a tragic abuse of the animals. It's bad business.
"They're basically swimming dollar signs, whether you're trying to kill them for their meat or their fins or you're interested in looking at them for ecotourism." That's Austin Gallagher, a doctoral student at the University of Miami. I spoke with him on February 26th.
"We did some calculations and the results were remarkable. We determined that the average shark was worth about $200,000 over the course of its life. And when you compare it to finning that animal--a one-time extractive use--seeing it for diving is worth about 40 percent more."
Gallagher and his doctoral advisor Neil Hammerschlag published the study last year in Current Issues in Tourism. ["Global shark currency: the distribution, frequency, and economic value of shark ecotourism"]
"Since this paper came out, I got an e-mail from somebody in Bali just a weeks ago saying, `We're using your paper to stop illegal harvest of thresher sharks in Bali at a local dive community.'"
--Steve Mirsky
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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9 Comments
Add CommentGo ahead and puke - but do it at home, not here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you don't understand the article, it is not the fault of the article.
Whether or not you agree with killing sharks this logic for not killing them is beyond inane. If I were a conservationist I'd be livid with this guy for giving all conservationists a reputation for idiocy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"They're worth more alive than dead" sounds like a logical approach to me. The only way to stop a lucrative trade like shark finning is to show the people prfitting from it that not killing them will be more profitable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it possible for those who sharkfin to actually get money from the living sharks. This is the real issue here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it a comfort to know that in this latest economic crisis that millionaires are still doing well? The people doing the sharkfinning will continue to do it if the eco-tourism idea is not actually profitable to them.
As others have said, fish finning and similar practices will continue as long as someone profits from it without suffering significant penalties. These activities do not require any public policy support or large scale economic commitments...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf a somewhat intellectual and primarily scientific web site such as "SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN" can somehow draw an audience of internet troller's with little or no actual intellect then the fishermen of Bali should have no trouble converting soup swilling fin suckers into shark watching ecotourists. The proof is on these global and Web Wide COMMENT pages. While some try to contribute useful information and informed opinion these internet bottom feeders just stir up the muck, stick to the newspaper and porn sites. An example will be the first to nibble at this comment and ultimately take the bait..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCall me clueless, but do people really pay for shark fins?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_fin_soup
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a word "few" lost in the sentence "I got an e-mail from somebody in Bali just a weeks ago saying".
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