Dear Editor:
Re: Shark fin ban could deplete fish, Burnaby NOW, July 11.
Mr. (Henry) Ho's five questions can be boiled down to two words: "uninformed" and "anthropocentric." He is correct in only one thing, that he is no scientist.
Sharks are apex predators. In Mr. Ho's simplistic view, it is: "More predators, less prey." What he does not understand is that predators come in several trophic levels, i.e. there is more than one level of predator. The sharks, being top predators, prey upon the second-and third-level predators only, which in turn prey upon the fourth-and fifth-level predators, which are also prey. If sharks are wiped out, the second-and third-level predators will proliferate and over-prey upon the fourth-and fifthlevel fish, and the entire ecosystem could collapse.
Secondly, sharks have extremely low reproductive rates. While other fish lay thousands of eggs every year, most sharks lay less than 10 eggs once every two to four years. Plus, some sharks do not even reach sexual maturity until age 10 or even 20. If we kill them in such huge numbers, there is no way for certain species to recover.
Third, of the 400 or so species of sharks, at least 50 are classified endangered. Some report up to 200 species. Shark finners are, by and large, illegal poachers, who care not a hoot which species to target. So, short of a fin-by-fin DNA analysis, there is no way to ascertain which fin in Chinatown belongs to which species.
Fourth, all the existing laws are against shark finning, shark fin consumption and the shark fin trade. CITES (Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species) does not allow import/export of endangered species. The Canadian WAPPRIITA law (Wild Animals and Plants Protection and the International and Interprovincial Trade Act) does not allow the trading of endangered species products within Canada. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization specifically bans shark finning, as does the Canadian Fisheries Act. So, Burnaby, Richmond and Vancouver currently allowing the sharkfin trade, when the chances are high that any given fin could have come from an endangered species, is in fact a violation of all these laws, including Canada's own.
Both Mr. Ho and I are of Chinese extraction. The readers will just have to decide whom to believe.
Anthony Marr, Founder and president of Heal Our Planet Earth and the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition
