SHARKS IN DANGER OF EXTINCTION AS NUMBERS CONTINUE TO PLUMMET
Shark and rays are in danger of extinction as numbers continue to plummet
There has been renewed concern for the state of dwindling shark populations, after the announcement of the latest International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) extinction Red List.
The List reassesses hundreds of species each year, and it is a stark message the figures reveal, as 38,000 of the 138,000 species the group track are threatened with vanishing forever.
Shark and rays are in danger of extinction as numbers continue to plummet.
It's a stark warning for the future of sharks and rays as four in ten of the species are now threatened with extinction, as the sit firmly on the "in danger" list.
When figures were last released in 2014, around a third were listed as threatened, that has now risen to 37%. And sadly it is the usual suspects that are hurtling sharks to the abyss of extinction; the pressures from fishing for meat and fins, climate change and pollution.
Dr Andy Cornish, shark programme leader at the conservation group, WWF, told the BBC: "The alarm bells couldn't be ringing louder for sharks and rays. We are losing this ancient group of creatures - starting to lose it species by species right here, right now - we desperately need urgent action."
These alarms bells aren't a wake up call, we've been hitting the snooze button on the plight of sharks for years, we can only hope that we haven't slept through the alarm for too long.
So, what next? Is it already too late for sharks?
Let's hope not. Over nine days, government ministries and 16,000 scientists, will plan and set out crucial conservation proposals that could seal the fate of not just sharks, but us with it.
We could do with that Hollywood ending, where we are saved from the brink of disaster at the last moment. So, who better to open the conference than Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford.
Addressing the conference in Marseille, France, he said - hopefully with pursed lips and lots of finger pointing - “It’s hard to read the headlines – floods, fires, famines, plagues – and tell your children that everything is all right. It’s not all right. Damn it, it’s not all right.”
No, no, it is not. In an unsettling list that saw the Komodo dragon, as well ebonies and rosewoods threatened by logging, join the endangered list; there is a small glimmer of hope.
Fishing quotas have allowed several tuna species to begin to recover in numbers. It's small, but it is something, it is a start.
One thing is for sure, we're gonna need a bigger hope.
Words by Dean Newman
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