Valuing Sharks ALIVE

Worth more than the sum of their parts:

Sharks play a critical role in ocean health. This fact alone should be enough of a reason to protect them. But most of the world does not acknowledge this connection because more importance is put on the economic gains of commercial fishery catches. Therefore sharks are only valued as a collection of body parts, chopped up and sold for soup, meat, or cosmetics. But if we truly want to compare economics, then we must look at what sharks are worth to humanity and to economies from more than one perspective.

Sharks keep commercially viable fish species healthy. They are the drivers of dive and eco-tourism and entertainment industries that generate billions of dollars per year, making use of the animals as a renewable resource, providing jobs to thousands, and bringing benefits to whole communities around the world. A shark that is being fished and killed only brings in a one-time profit of a couple of hundred dollars at most, for a few people that catch, import and export, and sell that fish.

When we compare the numbers then the killing of sharks and rays becomes blatantly illogical and short-sighted. And slaughtering sharks for fun or for competition seems absolutely insane. In this section, we investigate and report on the many ways sharks must be valued. Dive deeper into the different ways sharks play a key role in ocean health: Why Sharks Are Important.