For the Wild Podcast
Tune in to Stefanie Brendl on For the Wild podcast. Stefanie is an advocate for sharks, and a creative and social entrepreneur that leads campaigns and projects in all corners of this planet. As founder and executive director of Shark Allies and team member of various NGO coalitions, she has dedicated her last two decades to bringing greater protection to sharks.
"The people making the money and paying for sharks right now, they are not paying for the damage that is being done to the ocean. That's all of us. All of us will be paying for that. That goes all the way to the fish oil industry for supplements and it goes all the way to cosmetics and squalene, they consider shark squalene an inexpensive product - that's because they're not truly paying for the sharks that they're using, only paying for the oil that somebody gave them." -Brendl
"This episode explores how sharks regulate the ocean’s ecosystem, the ramification of dwindling shark populations, and the many reasons that the market for shark, ray, and skate meat has more than doubled since the early 1990s; ranging from the depletion of other fish stocks to the burgeoning pet food, cosmetic, and wellness industries... Additionally, we explore the United State’s complicity as the 7th largest shark-fishing country in the world and the significance of understanding our own Fisheries Act in context to multilateral treaties like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. Closing our conversation, we meditate on the reality that our rapid consumption is incompatible with biological paces, sexuality maturity, and gestation periods of most life around us. For example, the Greenland shark, which has the longest known lifespan of all vertebrate species (up to 500 years), does not reach sexual maturity for 90 to 150 years, with a gestation period of 8 to 18 years. Unable to breed sharks in captivity or reintroduce them to replenish their stocks, we must ask ourselves who will pay the price for the damage done to the ocean if we propel sharks into extinction?" -For the Wild