Wildlife

Around 10,000 sharks swarm Palm Beach County coast

Blacktip sharks head south for the winter. But this year the sharks didn’t show up for their Florida migration on time.

The sharks will typically first arrive in mid-January, but the waters off the coast of Palm Beach were empty until the end of the month.

But now that they’re here, the blacktip sharks are congregating in huge numbers.

Dr. Kajiura, Florida Atlantic University biologist, estimated more than 10,000 of the sharks are swimming just off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. “The interesting thing is these sharks are right up against the shoreline. You could stand on the shore and toss a pebble and hit a shark, they’re that close,” Dr. Kajiura said.

So what’s up with the bizarre behavior from the sharks? Part of the reason could be 2016’s particularly strong El Nino. The phenomenon's effects can be felt across the globe, changing the behaviours of sharks and other marine animals including sea snakes, sea lions and seals.

Warming ocean temperatures could also play a role. If waters farther north are staying warmer for longer, then there's less reason for the blacktips to leave on time.

However, Dr Kajiura said the blacktip sharks are relatively harmless.

Wildlife

Texas Bans Shark Finning

Across the globe, sharks are being murdered for a culinary gimmick — shark fin soup, even though shark fins offer virtually no flavour or nutritional value. Shark finners slice off sharks' pectoral and dorsal fins, often while the animals are still alive, and throw them back overboard to drown or bleed to death. According to the most recent statistics from the journal Ecology Letters, shark finning accounts for 73 million shark deaths every year.

This weekend, the state of Texas took an important step forward for global shark conservation by becoming the 10th U.S. state to ban the trade of shark fins. Although shark finning is banned in U.S. waters, it continues in other countries where fishing is more poorly regulated. And even though finning itself is illegal, many U.S. states have no rules against the trade of shark fins, allowing them to be imported and exported within the country.

Wildlife

Tanzania Dolphin Slaughter Linked to Shark Fin Trade

Local fishermen in coastal Tanzania are killing dolphins to be used as bait for sharks. The high demand for shark fin soup is causing an alarming rise in the killing of dolphins off the coast of Tanzania, which an official says fishermen use illegally as bait for the predatory fish.

Most dolphins have been protected by the country’s fisheries regulations since 2009.

Tourists have reported seeing the “distressing” killing of dolphins within plain sight.

Dolphins are being actively targeted by dynamite fishermen around the city of Dar es Salaam because “their flesh makes a very good bait for sharks.”

While the slaughter of dolphins to feed the illicit shark fin market is disturbing to many, researchers recently warned that as many as one in 15 of all sharks on the planet are fished from the oceans each year.

The trend threatens to put the species on the path to extinction.

Wildlife

'Historic' Day For Shark Protection

Three types of critically endangered but commercially valuable shark have been given added protection at the Cites meeting in Bangkok.

The body, which regulates trade in flora and fauna, voted by a two-thirds majority to upgrade the sharks' status.

Campaigners hailed the move as historic and said the vote represented a major breakthrough for marine conservation.

The decisions can still be overturned by a vote on the final day of this meeting later this week.

The oceanic white-tip, three varieties of hammerheads and the porbeagle are all said to be seriously threatened by overfishing.

Their numbers have declined dramatically in recent years, as the trade in shark fins for soup has grown.

Manta rays are killed for their gill plates which are used in Chinese medicine.

Shark supporters have been attempting to get Cites to protect these species since 1994. But there has long been strong opposition to the move from China and Japan.

But a number of factors have changed the arithmetic.

Experts say the critical factor has been a shift in South American nations, who've come to understand that sharks are more valuable alive than dead.

Wildlife

New Shark Refuge

Sharks now have new refuges totaling 2.5 million square miles in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands where they are safe from fishermen. Up to a third of all shark species face some threat of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

They are slaughtered around the world for their fins, which are prized in Chinese culture and used to make soup.

Sharks are often caught, their fins sawed off and then discarded still alive only to tumble uncontrollably in the water until they die.

The new refuges established this month are in addition to several others that have recently begun to provide protection for sharks.

Venezuela and the European Union have banned the practice of cutting off shark fins and discarding the body at sea in their territorial waters.