Top Twenty Countries Killing Sharks

The Shark Twenty (% of Global Reported Shark Catch):

Indonesia (13%)

India (9%)

Spain (7.3%)

Taiwan (5.8%)

Argentina (4.3%)

Mexico (4.1%)

Pakistan (3.9%)

United States (3.7%)

Japan (3.0%)

Malaysia (2.9%)

Thailand (2.8%)

France (2.6%)

Brazil (2.4%)

Sri Lanka (2.4%)

New Zealand (2.2%)

Portugal (1.9%)

Nigeria (1.7%)

Iran (1.7%)

U.K. (1.6%)

South Korea (1.4%)

This list released by Pew Oceans Commission and Traffic illustrates the frustrating reality surrounding marine protection, in this case, sharks.

The oceans' vastness, part of its allure and diversity, creates the conundrum. How can we possibly protect all these areas? How can we successfully get nineteen other countries to curtail their behavior when we can barely get the US (Eighth) to do so? The US passing the Shark Conservation Act just recently is a great start. Nineteen more to go. Yippee.

We have to try though, of course. As Jill Hepp, manager of shark conservation for Pew says in a related Associated Press story, sharks play a critical role in the ocean environment.

"Where shark populations are healthy, marine life thrives; but where they have been overfished, ecosystems fall out of balance," she said.

Read the whole story here.

Read the Traffic and Pew The Future of Sharks: A Review of Action and Inaction report executive summary here.

Cut me some slack