The Ocean
What’s even more horrible about shark finning is
Covering over 70% of the earth’s surface, the ocean
is by far our planets largest biome. Life on our planet
originated here over 3 billion years ago, and today the ocean
is home to more then one million species of plants and
animals and possibly nine million more that have yet to be
discovered. The ocean also has claim to earth’s longest
mountain chain, and the earth’s largest living structure, the
The ocean currently faces many environmental threats and
Above all, the sharks are experiencing extreme
Great Barrier Reef.
Aside from being the
earth’s largest living
structure, the Great
Barrier Reef and other
coral reefs are home to
the greatest variety of
plant and animal
species in the whole
ocean. They are the
‘rain forests’ of the ocean. The ocean houses a very diverse
group of marine animals, most of which are fish, but some of
which are mammals.
The animals of the ocean all live caught. Each year around 70 to 75 million tons of fish are caught.
in very different environments within the ocean. Animals like
the blue whale, the largest animal in the world, live in the
open ocean, where they can find floating plankton, their main
source of food. Warmer, tropical areas of the ocean which are
close to the equator are home to fishes like the barracuda,
which finds most of its food around coral reefs. Colder parts
of the ocean are the habitat for fish like salmon and bass, and
The United Nations Convention on the Trade of
there are many more types and numbers of fish then in
warmer water because colder water holds more oxygen.
Animals like the barracuda, whose body allows it to weave
seamlessly and quickly through the reefs, have made specific
adaptations to coincide with their habitats.
Vegetation within the ocean includes algae,
plankton, and coral. Algae includes all the different types of
seaweeds in the ocean. Marine algae consumes carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere and produces over 50% of the
atmospheres oxygen. All types of algae include chlorophyll
but not all can perform photosynthesis. Within the pyramid of
energy algae is the producer. Plankton is usually divided into
through trophic levels, the phytoplankton who are producers,
the zooplankton who are carnivores, and the bacterioplankton
who are recyclers, and obtain energy by consuming organic
material produced by other organisms.
The open ocean ecosystems have several different
zones. The first zone is the pelagic zone, which is the area
from the surface of the water to the floor of the ocean. The
pelagic zone is divided into the photic zone, and the larger
aphotic zone below that. Then there is the abyssal zone,
below the pelagic, which is the deepest region of the ocean.
Finally there is the benthic zone, which is the zone along the
ocean floor. The average temperature of the ocean is 39°, and
the top ten feet of the ocean water can hold as much heat as
our entire atmosphere.
that any shark is taken, and age, size or species don’t even
come into concern. Shark specialists have estimated that
around 100 million sharks are murdered each year for their
fins. Additionally, the act of shark finning has become
by Maddy Wood increasingly widespread, and even more uncontrolled and
unmonitored. This has devastating impacts.
problems. One main cause of these problems is global warming. declines in population. Many species are already endangered.
With the changing climate one of the many problems the ocean Scientists and experts predict that within a decade the
faces is the rising sea level. Over the past 100 years the sea level has majority of species will be extinct from long lining. The main
risen an average of 4-10 inches and it is predicted that this rate will cause for the shark populations declining is because the
increase. Global warming is constantly melting ice, and were all of fisheries have received such high demands recently that the
the world’s ice to melt the ocean would rise 200 ft. Another problem populations can’t reproduce quickly enough to keep up.
obviously due to global warming is water temperature. Water has the This loss of sharks also effects the marine ecosystems
capability to hold a lot of store a lot of heat before actually changing that they belong to. When there are less sharks there are less
temperature, so the ocean is only rising by 0.13 °C each decade, but predators, and therefore an abundance of fish that the sharks
that number is also expected to increase over the following years. would normally consume. This threatens the stability of such
Trash pollution is also another serious issue. Just in one year three ecosystems.
times as much trash is dumped into the ocean as the weight of fish Not only does shark finning effect the animals in the
local areas, but it also effects the local fisheries. Larger
This brings us to another major problem, which is the fisheries. industrial foreign fishing vessels create competition for the
There is such high demand for fish from these fisheries that the fish local ones, and this hurts the local areas business. It also
can not reproduce quickly enough to keep up, and therefore many effects the collection of species data for scientists, and hinders
species and populations are decreasing and becoming endangered. their ability to monitor shark and help them. Lastly, shark
Within the problem of fisheries, there is one specific environmental finning is wasteful. The bodies are thrown back into the water
threat that has and valuable proteins are discarded.
recently
become more Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna have already listed
and more of a the whale shark, basking shark, and great white shark as
problem. This species that could be threatened if shark finning is not
issue is called controlled. Many laws have already been put into place
shark finning, banning shark finning, but that doesn’t stop many fisheries. If
and it has also this horrible act does not stop sometime soon, we are in grave
become more danger of loosing all the world’s sharks, and that would be a
publicized in true devastation.
the past few
years. Shark
finning poses
problems for
not only the animals in the water, but also for local fisheries,
scientists, and neighboring countries.
Shark finning refers to a process of catching sharks at sea,
removing and keeping the fins, and discarding the carcasses back
into the sea. A lot of times the sharks are still alive after this brutal
process, and they are unable to swim and sink to the ocean floor and
die there. The price for shark fins is very high and is growing, but the
price for shark meat is relatively low and therefore it is costly to
transport the bodies back along with the fins. The method of
catching the sharks is called long lining, and it is responsible for the
most shark deaths worldwide. The reason that shark finning has
increased so much recently is because of the growing demand for
shark fins for things like Chinese shark fin soup, traditional cures,
improved fishing technology, and improved market economics.