| Shark Species
Threatened in Gulf of Mexico
February 4, 2004
By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - The population
of oceanic whitetip shark, once among the world's
most common tropical sharks, has plummeted by
99 percent since the 1950s and the species is
nearly extinct in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists
reported Wednesday.
The study published in the journal Ecology
Letters blamed over fishing and called for new
restrictions, but federal fisheries officials
said the study was flawed and further assessments
are needed.
Biology professors Julia K. Baum and Ransom
A. Myers based their research on a comparison
of data compiled by the U.S. government in the
1950s and data collected by trained observers
aboard fishing boats in the 1990s.
"They're not extinct, but there's virtually
none left. This requires a drastic reduction
in the amount of fishing," said Myers,
a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax,
Nova Scotia.
In addition to the oceanic white tip shark,
the study also found sharp drops in two other
species in the Gulf: the silky shark, down 90
percent since the 1950s, and the mako, down
79 percent.
However, federal fisheries officials questioned
those findings, saying silky and mako sharks
can be found closer to shore than the area studied
in Baum and Myers' research.
|
White
tip sharkes face extinction |
Chris Rogers, a fishery management specialist
at the National Marine Fisheries Service, also
said comparing data from the 1950s and the 1990s
could be misleading, partly because the sharks
studied are highly migratory and their populations
can fluctuate widely.
In May 2003, Myers published a study in the
journal Nature reporting a 90 percent decline
in large predatory fish in the world's oceans
in 50 years. That study also drew skepticism
from commercial fishermen.
The latest study was funded by the Pew Fellows
Program in Marine Conservation at the University
of Miami.
An advocate for U.S. fishermen disputed the
study as a whole, saying its authors failed
to recognize that changes in fishing technology
over the past 20 years had drastically reduced
the amount of sharks accidentally caught by
fishermen going for tuna or other fish.
"This study is not science. It's pretty
random speculation," said Nelson Beiderman,
executive director of the Blue Water Fishermen's
Association.
But Myers said previous studies have shown that
changes in fishing technology had little effect
on accidental shark catches. He said fishermen
in the 1950s reported that whitetips were everywhere
in the open Gulf. Now they are rarely seen,
he said.
"In descriptions from earlier studies,
scientists were astounded at how abundant whitetips
were," he said.
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