'Air Jaws' Photographers Make Desperate Plea for
South Africa's Dwindling Shark Population
Cape Town, South Africa
() To all involved in the battle against shark finning.
Mozambiquean colleagues of ours sent us yet
again more disturbing images of finning taking place on an ongoing
basis. We are getting similar images almost on a weekly basis
from all over East Africa and also including South Africa.
The sad and simple truth is governments in South
Africa and in many other countries within Africa do not seem to
be bothered by this state of affairs. As a result I have sent
this plea to either spread the word of this abuse or suggest ways
in which we can remedy it. We have on numerous occasions over
the last 5 years had meetings with the South African body known
as Marine and coastal management who are in charge of monitoring
the resources along our coast. To date a lot has been said but
very little delivered. We cannot sit around and wait any longer.
Marine and coastal management are well aware
of the problem but cross border politics and a lack of urgency
are once again retarding efforts to send up vessels to help the
huge shark long lining problem. East, Southern and West Africa's
sharks are vanishing before our very eyes at alarming rates. On
the East coast of Africa alone over 200 dedicated shark longline
vessels of Asian origin are currently targeting shark for their
fins whilst millions in Africa starve. Any one of these vessels
is capable of catching over 100 tons of sharks per trip, offloading
to factory ships and then catching and finning again.
In South Africa we also do not seem to realize
the need for adequate shark resource management and enforcement.
An example of this was MCM issuing permits to fish pelagic sharks
off our coast 4 years ago as an experimental fishery even though
no base line data existed on the size of the target species populations
etc. They simply went ahead and issued these permits and now these
permit holders are entrenched and are highly successful catching
many tons of makos and blues per trip. Getting rid of them from
a legal point of view is now going to be very difficult.
South Africa has been a signatory to various
policies such as the World Summit, UN meetings and others stating
our willingness to conserve resources and manage them sustainably
for the future, yet nothing is being done to stop the most wasteful
practice, namely, shark finning.
In Mozambique and other parts of Africa, Asian
business men offer poor local fishermen money for fins and so
create a market for this very wasteful fishery. For hundreds of
years these fishermen depended on the ocean to feed their families
often utilizing sharks as a food source and had a low impact that
was sustainable. Today traditional fishing is becoming unsustainable
due to huge numbers of foreign flagged boats raping the coast
lines of these poor countries to catch sharks for their fins as
well as other threatened species such as billfish, turtles etc.
The result is starving families not able to catch their daily
meal whilst just a few miles offshore large numbers of sharks
are stripped of their fins and dumped back into the ocean.
What is needed is a immediate ban on shark longlining
off the South African coastline as well as the Mozambiquean coastline
and declaring sharks a no take species. The future of sharks as
well as other species hangs in the balance if rapid action is
not taken. If South Africa and Mozambique lead the way and the
benefits can be seen countries such as Tanzania, Namibia, Angola,
Kenya and others will follow suit.
South Africa has 4 state of the art patrol vessels
purchased with the specific purpose of marine protection yet none
of these vessels are actively attacking this huge problem with
only a small handful of arrests being made. Not for a moment am
I attacking the people who run these boats however it is blatantly
obvious that a hell of a lot more could be done from higher powers
who govern spending on enforcement exercises that these boats
were built for.
Great white sharks being the glamour species
they are have tremendous amounts of money being spent on scientific
projects in South Africa to study their movements and other behavior,
however little money on their protection. Five different research
projects are currently being done on this single species by 5
different researchers yet nothing on any other species which are
in more need than the white sharks. In fact many of the main prey
species of the white shark are shark species which are heavily
targeted by the shark fishery and over the last 5 years have almost
disappeared from areas where they were once abundant, any person
can surely see a problem in the making. Sharks as a whole need
to be looked at immediately and energy needs to be concentrated
into this field. Can you imagine the great plains of Africa only
having herds of Wildebeest and Zebra and no predators, well this
scenario is rapidly going to occur in the ocean if nothing is
done soon and whilst I am no scientist I am sure big problems
lie ahead as a result of the removal of apex predators.
Mozambique has a large tourism related income
each year that is directly related to diving and yet this golden
goose is being allowed to be slaughtered, not by local people
but by foreigners in the name of greed for a meal that is the
table fare of the rich.
What needs to be done to stop the small scale
poaching as depicted in the images is to give these locals alternatives.
Perhaps local dive or game fishing operators could try to start
a directed shark diving/viewing/tag and release project with the
local people involved so that they can govern their own living
cash cow and see the value of a living shark as is done in the
Maldives, Bahamas and elsewhere.
As far as I know no shark fishery has ever been
sustainable over the long term and all have gone through the same
boom and bust cycle.
Shark diving however is a huge industry worldwide
and rapidly growing. At the same time, the resource is rapidly
shrinking making the potential for shark diving in these areas
even more lucrative in times to come. Mozambique has such great
potential from a marine eco-tourism point of view yet this is
being ignored in favor of short term gain.
Each week I return many emails from concerned
people on this shark longlining issue. Howerver, I can honestly
say whilst many of us have small victories, I feel nothing is
being done with regards to the larger picture that we as individuals
have little control over.
South Africa has the potential to really make
a stand against this rape of our oceans through the use of our
patrol vessels to arrest and confiscate these illegal boats therefore
sending out a clear message of zero tolerance. Mozambique and
other African nations do not have the resources of South Africa
and as such are unable to fund running costs for these vessels
which our government appears unwilling to do.
My plea therefore is if any of you can contribute
through your contacts, your magazines, film companies, private
resources or personal influence to helping this issue in any way,
be it exposure, finance or experience, please do so. Many of you
do not live in Africa, yet have visited our shores and know of
the great beauty and potential which I know can still be saved
now if action is taken.
Help expose this problem, hopefully through
this exposure will come the need for action by those in a position
to make a difference.
South Africa has the opportunity to set a precedent
for others to follow. We can lead the fight against this unsustainable
rape of our oceans.
This shark longlining problem is a cancer which
if not stamped out here will spread and spread and spread perhaps
even to your shores in times to come.
If any of you would personally like to make
suggestions to the South African department of Marine and coastal
management or get comment from them on why this issue is being
allowed to run rampant please address your contributions to Marcel
Kroese who is highly involved with enforcement at MCM and is one
of the few individuals really dedicated to stopping this sort
of activity. He will be able to pass it immediately onto the relevant
parties who are holding up a concerted effort to take action Mkroese@mcm.wcape.gov.za
or he can pass it onto the Minister of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism and see exactly what is going on and be accountable if
no action is taken.
Many thanks for your support.
On behalf of Thousands of shark and marine conservationists
who want to make a difference.
Chris & Monique Fallows
