Why a COVID-19 Vaccine Could Further Imperil Deep-Sea Sharks - National Geographic

Michele Westmoreland

The press isn’t stopping on #SharkFreeVaccines, and neither are we! Thank you to National Geographic, and Justin Meneguzzi, for writing an out-of-this-world piece on not only the danger sharks could face for a COVID-19 vaccine, but also the demand for their livers across multiple industries, and the barbaric practices that come from it (livering). We are at a loss for words for this one, what a dream to get this initiative out in National Geographic. If you would like to learn more, or sign our petition, to demand #SharkFreeVaccines, please click here.

“Though all sharks have squalene, fishermen target deep-sea species, which have the biggest livers and thus the highest concentrations of the oil. These sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they mature slowly—some take a decade to begin reproducing.

As a result, nearly half the 60 shark species most wanted for their livers—including the scalloped hammerhead, the longfin mako, and the whale shark—are considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the body that sets the conservation status of wild animals and plants.

Many of those species are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which restricts or bans fishing of certain marine species such as sharks and rays.”

Comments by our Allies at Beneath the Waves as well!