Pangaea Shark Project
Shark Finning
Over 100 million sharks are killed each year!
Shark finning is a barbaric and wasteful practice. The fishermen pull the shark from the ocean, cut of the fins and dispose the still alive shark back into the sea for a slow horrendous death. The fins of a shark represent less than 5% of the total body mass, hence 95% of the shark is discarded overboard. This is the quickest and most profitable way of fishing to meet the high demand for shark fin soup on the Asian market. It is a cruel and inhumane practice and contradicts all principles of sustainable shark fisheries management and conservation. Finning happens all over the world but is most common in open ocean fisheries, far offshore in unprotected international waters. The supply and demand situation makes this an international problem! With dwindling tuna stocks, shark fins have gained even more value, and sharks have become the primary target for many fisheries on the brink of collapse.
Why are shark populations so fragile?
Sharks are very susceptible to overfishing, due to slow growth, late maturity, small number of offspring following a long gestation period. The Spiny Dogfish, commercially fished worldwide, presents an age at maturity at over 20 years, gives birth to less than 20 offspring after a gestation of 18 to 24 months. Consequently shark populations decline rapidly when targeted in such large quantities without adequate fishing management. In today’s oceans, out of a total of 1’044 species of Chondrichthyan fishes (Sharks, Skate, Rays and Chimeras), 181 species are listed in one of the endangered categories on the IUCN Red List, a further 134 species as near threatened, and more worryingly 488 species are listed under data deficient! Conclusion: the majority of all species are at risk!
Why are sharks important?
Shark are apex predators and they have been keeping the oceans in balance for over 400 million years. Fish stocks worldwide are already predicted to collapse within the next 40 years without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry. Without sharks, the fragile equilibrium of the marine ecosystem would be destabilized. This is why we need to Act now!
Our mission
As an Act Project of Mike Horn's Young Explorer Program, the Pangaea Shark Project is deeply committed to the conservation of our oceans. To this end, the Pangaea Shark Project seeks to save sharks by Exploring, Learning and Acting.
- Explore - The project will travel around the globe, exploring the realm of the sharks, diving with many different species, and investigating human impact on shark populations.
- Learn - The project will be involved in assisting research and conservation projects along with leading scientists to further current knowledge of sharks in terms of behavior, ecology, and biology. The project shares this knowledge with the public through outreach programs and distribution of informative material. Through education, the Pangaea Shark Project will dispel myths surrounding sharks and shark bites.
- Act - The objective is to promote shark conservation through awareness, to promote the longterm sustainable use of marine ecosystems through the development of durable tourism activities to divert from fishing activities, and to support the implementation of protective legislation and adequate management plans. The project will focus on a micro-scale model solutions working with communities, to be implemented into resolving macro-scale problems.
Projects
The Pangaea Shark Project is an Act Project that encompasses education as well as field projects. Below are a few of these actions:
2011 Shark Awareness YEP Meeting in Hong Kong
Young Explorers Gregory Antono and Romeo Wong wanted to combine their Urban Raid with campaigning against shark fin soup in light of the Food PANGAEA Green Wave. They enlisted the help of Shark Savers Hong Kong.
2011 European Elasmobranch Association (EEA) Scientific Conference
Young Explorer Akira Biondo (Pangaea Mongolia Expedition YEP and Pangaea Borneo Project Ambassador) and Pangaea Young Explorer Program Coordinator, Michael Scholl, met up at for the annual scientific conference of the EEA in Berlin, Germany at the end of October for two days of intense and diverse conferences from Shark Biologists, Ecologists and Fisheries from around Europe.
Young Explorers Ania Gieroń (Pangaea Canada Nunavut Selection Camp YEP) and Anna Konobrodzka from Gdańsk, Poland decided to take part in this year's 2011 European Shark Week and organise an awareness campaign in their school while raising funds to adopt a Shark to become their school's mascot.
Young Explorer Henko Roukema is a qualified lifeguard with a passion for Ocean life and he fights to raise awareness about the local inhabitants of the rough waters around the Cape Peninsula near Cape Town: Great White Sharks. He takes his actions to the beach to meet with surfers, swimmers and other visitors to these waters, to talk about Sharks and share his knowledge to help people understand, accept and share the Sharks' presence in peace.
2011 Shark Alliance Meeting in Brussels
As a member of the Shark Alliance, we were invited to attend this annual meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Along with Michael Scholl, one of our YEPs, Hannes, was able to attend the meeting representing the Young Explorer community. During the two day meeting, we discussed the proposed new EU fishing legislation that will hopefully close existing loopholes 'Fins naturally attached, without exceptions' and the activities for the upcoming European Shark Week 2011 (ESW).
2011 PangeaSeed Philippine Shark Study Tour
Pangaea Ambassador Akira Biondo joined NGO PangeaSeed and WWF Philippines on a Whale Shark Photo-ID project in the Philippines. Akira's first encounter with one of these gentle giants will forever remain engraved in her memories. During this expedition, the team also further investigated the dangers these Sharks face as their huge fins are targeted by the insatiable and immoral large fishing companies.
Finprinting White Sharks in South Africa
Pangaea's Act Project coordinator, Michael Scholl, conducted research and conservation projects on Great White Sharks from 1997 to 2007 in South Africa. One of the leading scientists on this endangered Shark species, he established the finprinting photographic based identification technique which represents a very efficient and eco-friendly way to identify individual White Sharks based on their unique dorsal fin features. In January 2011, Tiffany, one of our Young Explorers, lived and breathed White Sharks for over a month...
Shark Fisheries and Product Sale Project
In October 2010, we launched an information and documentation project to use our worldwide Young Explorer network to gather evidence of Shark related fisheries and the sale of Shark products (meat, fin, teeth, jaws, cartilage, etc) around the world to showcase that Sharks are facing a global crisis. This evidence will be used in presentations and on a dedicated web site, and the project will target educating the public and stopping the sale of Shark products (e.g. Shark fin soup in restaurants, Shark jaws in tourist shops, etc) in certain shops and areas.
The Shark Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 conservation, scientific and recreational organisations is marking the start of the fourth annual European Shark Week by calling on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to help strengthen the European Union’s ban on finning - the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the carcass at sea.
Stop Shark Finning Competition
During the fall of 2010, we ran a t-shirt design competition on the awareness theme 'Stop Shark Finning' among the members of our online YEP community. The Young Explorers of the Mongolia selection camp produced a series of promotional videos for the campaign.
Shark Awareness YEP Meeting in Zürich
Pangaea's Young Explorers have organised several meetings in European cities to promote the Pangaea Expedition and spread Mike Horn's ethos. This meeting took place in Zürich on July 28, 2010 to raise awareness about Sharks.
Pangaea Borneo Project - Shark nursery in Malaysia
The Shark populations in Malaysia have been depleted and one of the proposed project is to have a small Shark nursery to reintroduce some of the local Shark species around the project island. These nurseries would be in open water pens set below the pier and would require minimal care.
