Think Green Live Clean

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The Gulf of Mexico has had its fair share of environmental disasters over the last decade with its annual hurricane season and the recent BP oil spill. What gets lesser attention is the impact that human beings have had on the Gulf with overfishing and more specifically shark fishing.

The Gulf of Mexico’s shark population is said to be as low as 50% for some species. Such a decrease can be attributed to China’s ever growing demand for shark fin soup, which in recent times has spiked due to their prosperity. Shark fins can fetch up to US$54 a kilogram which is quite significant considering the low average monthly salaries for Cubans and even Mexicans.

With 73 million sharks killed annually world wide something must be done to reduce this amount. Sharks are a very important part of the eco system and without significant numbers we will see the negative impact of the overfishing trickle down through the food chain.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to a variety of sharks and therefore has a large shark fishing industry. With this in mind The United States, Cuba and Mexico have recently met to discuss an alliance to curb such widespread killing of the environmentally important animal. Such an alliance would involve recording numbers of and species of sharks killed and targeted, registration of shark fishing vessels and restrictions on numbers being taken. It seems that some education for consumers of the apparent delicacy of shark fin soup is also in order.

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