Protecting Atlantic Sharks
The Atlantic waters off North America contain one of the world’s last great reserves of sharks, mostly because Americans have never had a tradition of shark eating. This began to change in the 1980s, as other fish and shellfish stocks declined and sharks started being hunted commercially in U.S. waters. The American government in particular promoted the consumption of shark meat as a less-expensive alternative to more favored dwindling species such as swordfish and scallops. The new industry swiftly made up for lost time. Within a decade, catch rates, an important indicator of population health, declined by 50-75% for many shark species.
Because they are slow to mature and bear few young, sharks are particularly vulnerable to overfishing. Those hardest hit by overfishing in the U.S. Atlantic are the large coastal species, such as dusky, sandbar, and blacktip sharks. Scientists estimate that some stocks have declined by 70-90% since the 1970s and will need more than 30 years to recover.
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