Surfers are zipping and drifting on Queensland's Gold Coast, and further away from the coast, a hunt is on -
Fishermen set up seines, throwing out large iron hooks and bait, and all kinds of sharks, many of which are endangered, come sniffing and biting.
What you might not expect is that many sharks are made into meals that make their way onto your family pet's plate.
This is the phenomenon noted in new research published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Canned food for cats and dogs can have shark meat hidden in it, and the owner who buys the food is completely unaware of it.
▲ Image from: Unsplash
The study was conducted as follows.
Two scientists from the National University of Singapore used DNA testing to study meat from 45 pet foods from 16 brands.
As a result, they found multiple endangered and vulnerable species in the composition list.
Of these, blue sharks, silky sharks, and whitetip reef sharks are the most common, and there are many Caribbean sharpnose sharks, sand tiger sharks, and sickle skunk sharks.
Forty-five of the 144 samples, or 1/3, contained shark DNA.
Generally, after the shark is caught and the lucrative fins are removed, the shark meat amounts to "cheap protein" that few people will eat, so most of it is discarded.
Many manufacturers have taken this shark meat and turned it into pet food to sell, cunningly labeling the sharks as "fish," "whitefish," "ocean fish," and various other vague names in their food ingredient lists.
So the owners who buy this food don't know exactly what species of fish these are.
▲ Image from: Unsplash
When overfishing seeps into the pet food industry, there's an even worse point, because shark meat is so low in nutritional value that it's, in fact, hardly good for pets either.
To put it directly, it's a double whammy.
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There is also another industry that contributes to the killing of sharks - many cosmetics such as oils, lotions, and creams use squalene, which is extracted from shark livers.
ETC data estimate that 3,000 sharks can only produce 1 ton of squalene and that there is a global demand of 1,000-2,000 tons per year, so about 6 million sharks are killed each year.
Global shark populations are in steady decline, having declined by more than 70 per cent in the last 50 years.
At the same time, fishing has increased 18-fold and studies show that humans kill about 100 million sharks each year and 3/4 of shark species are on their way to extinction.
Overfishing has always been a problem, and it is critical to remain sustainable in the face of a predicted resource.
As apex predators, sharks are also at the top of the marine food chain and are particularly important for maintaining a healthy, balanced functioning of the marine ecosystem.
Now, because of the rising action to protect sharks in the wild, plant-based (e.g., olive oil) extraction of squalene is starting to become a major source.
Of course, extraction from shark livers has still not completely disappeared in some countries.
Because shark fishing is legal, there is even a class of wealthy people who are proud to fish for sharks.
▲ Image from: Unsplash
How can this be changed?
In terms of the regulation behind it, many of the fishing regulations around the world are not strict.
And there has been very little regulation and research on pet food, which is why food ingredients that are vaguely labeled can be muddled.
Scientists and more people making this information public can make the public all aware of how consumer products can affect endangered species, as well as increase transparency in the labeling of cosmetics and pet food ingredients and continue to push for regulatory improvements.
And the most basic thing we can do on a daily basis is to take a look at the ingredients when we place an order for something and choose products that are clearly sourced and labeled.
As the zoologist Jane Goodall has said.
Only by knowing do we care; only by caring do we act; only by acting do we have hope for life.