The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 6: March 1996
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Social and economic importance of
elasmobranchs
Debra A. Rose, TRAFFIC USA
Elasmobranchs are versatile fisheries resources, providing meat and
shark fins for human consumption; leather; shark liver oil used to
produce lubricants, cosmetics, and vitamin A; live specimens for
aquaria; and shark teeth and jaws for sale as tourist curios. More
recently, shark cartilage has been exploited as a treatment for cancer
and other ailments, and sharks and rays have become an important
attraction to scuba divers and recreational fishers.
The social and economic importance of elasmobranchs is
increased by the fact that fisheries for sharks, skates, and rays are
seldom regulated or limited, and therefore readily available when
other species are depleted, restricted, or seasonally unavailable.
According to published data (FAO 1993a), world elasmobranch
catches total led 6,460,500 Mt in the decade 1982-1991, with an upward
trend from 617,446 Mt in 1982 to 698,249 Mt in 1991. A recent review
of world elasmobranch fisheries (Bonfil 1995) estimates total world
elasmobranch catches at 6,474,000 Mt in the decade 1982-1991,
reaching 704,000 Mt in 1991. Catches by China are not included in FAO
data, but are known to exceed 10,000 Mt annually, giving a minimum
estimated world catch of 714,000 Mt in 1991. However, FAO data are
likely to significantly underestimate commercial elasmobranch catches
and landings, due to the limited reporting capabilities of many nations,
the difficulty of extrapolating from processed weights, and the exclusion
of recreational landings. Furthermore, an estimated 230,000 to 240,000
Mt of elasmobranchs may be discarded annually in high seas fisheries,
but this incidental catch is often not reported (Bonfil 1995).
Elasmobranch fisheries, directed as well as incidental, are often
described as being characterised by a great deal of waste due to the
low commercial value of the meat and the difficulty or economic
unfeasibility of obtaining all potential products from a single animal.
Utilisation of elasmobranchs is often poorly known, however,
because national fisheries statistics seldom report products such as
skins and leather, jaws, fishmeal and fertiliser, liver oil, cartilage, or
even fins. Artisanal fisheries producing salted meat and other products
for local consumption are also under-reported.
Drying and salting of shark and ray meat has traditionally been
practised in rural areas world-wide, and allows for simultaneous
removal of skins, cartilage, and other by-products. However, drying
is time-consuming and the dried/salted meat commands low prices,
limiting possibilities for export. Shark meat contains high tissue levels
of urea, so that production of fresh chilled or frozen meat requires
immediate processing to prevent spoilage and therefore requires the
installation of costly refrigeration or freezing facilities.
Smaller sharks are more easily marketed for human consumption
due to lower concentrations of mercury and urea, ease of processing,
and size comparability with other fisheries species, while large sharks
are sought for dried fins and leather. Markets for skins are limited by
the small number of specialised facilities available for the tanning of
shark leather and removal of denticles from the skin. It is also difficult
to simultaneously process sharks for fresh meat and skins.
As a result, shark fisheries have been historically undervalued and
ignored except during boom-and-bust cycles for export products such as
liver oil and fins. In the 1930s and 1940s, the use of shark liver oil as a
lubricant and source of vitamin A prompted a boom in fisheries for
soupfin or liveroil shark Galeorhinus galeus and the spiny dogfish
Squalus acanthias. The development of synthetic substitutes soon
caused the shark liver oil market to collapse; although the oil is still
used in the manufacture of cosmetic and pharmaceutical products,
reported production totalled only 609 Mt from 1982 to 1991.
Commercial production of shark meat began in the 1950s and
1960s. Fresh or frozen shark steaks and fillets are increasingly
popular in urban markets, but world-wide human consumption of
sharks, skates and rays is poorly reflected in FAO data. Their fisheries
production data report only 38,445 Mt of chilled or frozen shark fillets
and 105,593 Mt of dried salted meat of mixed sharks, skates and rays
in the period 1982-1991 (FAO 1993b). However, a separate FAO
document (1991) reports that EEC imports of shark totalled 35,400 Mt
in 1988 alone. Shark cartilage obtained as a by-product from
commercial and artisanal fisheries is increasingly marketed as a
health supplement world-wide, but no information is available on the
volume of production or trade.
Shark fin soup is a Chinese delicacy that has been used for more
than 2,000 years to honour special guests or important occasions, and
world trade in fins has been recorded since the 19th century.
According to the FAO, reported world exports of dried shark fins
totalled 43,732 Mt during 1982-1991, with a declared value of more
than US$600 million. Hong Kong and Singapore are the world's
largest traders of shark fins, together accounting for 84% of reported
world imports and 41 % of reported world exports. In the mid-1980s,
a surge in demand for fins in China, coupled with declining shark
stocks available to many traditional suppliers (e.g. Nicaragua, Nigeria,
Pakistan), led to a rapid increase in fin prices. As a result, marketing
of shark fins has expanded to new regions and has increased for fins
from species previously considered undesirable and smaller fins and
fin pieces (Cook 1990). Opportunities for cash earnings in subsistence
and commercial fisheries have risen, contributing in some cases to
increased catches or landings of shark bycatch that was previously
discarded. However, available data are substantially incomplete, as
several countries do not report fin exports.
The paucity of historical information on elasmobranch fisheries
and uses, poor reporting of production and trade of products other
than meat for human consumption, and lack of species-specific
catch, production, and trade statistics have hindered efforts to assess
the impacts of fisheries and use on elasmobranch stocks and to
predict the management implications of rising demand for products
such as meat, fins, and cartilage. In 1994, the TRAFFIC Network, the
wildlife trade monitoring program of WWF and the World Conservation
Union (IUCN) began to address these information needs by initiating
a study of international trade in sharks and shark products. This
research is expected to greatly enhance available information on
elasmobranch utilisation, markets, and trade, and thereby to assist
current management and conservation efforts. Regional reports by
TRAFFIC offices in North America, Europe, India, Africa, East Asia,
Southeast Asia, and Oceania, accompanied by a global overview
report, are currently being developed. They will be available in
October 1996 to national and international fisheries agencies and
organisations, the CITES Secretariat, the Shark Specialist Group,
industry, and other interested individuals and organisations.
References
Bonfil, R. 1995. Overview ofWorld Elasmobranch Fisheries. FAO Fisheries
Technical Paper 341. FAO. Rome.
Cook, S.F. 1990. Trends in shark fin markets: 1980, 1990, and beyond.
Chondros (March 1990): 3-6.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. 1991.
Sharks: An underexploited Resource? Globefish Highlights (2/91): 23-28.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. 1993a. FAO
Yearbook of Fishery Statistics 1991: Catches and Landings. Rome.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. 1993b.
FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics 1991: Commodities. Rome.
Debra A. Rose, Staff Consultant, TRAFFIC USA,
1250 Twenty-fourth St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037 USA
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