News Forum - Thai ecologist sounds alarm on declining shark numbers

[Thaiger]

A Thai ecologist is sounding the alarm on the decline in the number of sharks in the country’s waters. The marine ecologist, Assistant Professor Thon Thamrongnawasawat, the deputy dean of the Faculty of Fisheries at Kasetsart University, presented some worrying facts about the situation. Dr. Thon said that around 75 of the 87 shark species …

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[Grumpish]

Illustrated by a picture of a whale shark - which is not a shark, in spite of it's  name. 

[TWS60]

1 hour ago, Grumpish said:

Illustrated by a picture of a whale shark - which is not a shark, in spite of it's  name. 

That didn't sound right to me, so I trotted off to ask know-it-all Uncle Google.

[Smiler]

The point is that whale sharks as well as other species are killed for their fins! Apparently they don’t taste of anything and shark fin soup has chicken broth added to it to give it any taste, what a waste of these incredible animals.

[Grumpish]

28 minutes ago, Smiler said:

The point is that whale sharks as well as other species are killed for their fins! Apparently they don’t taste of anything and shark fin soup has chicken broth added to it to give it any taste, what a waste of these incredible animals.

Yes,  unfortunately fishermen don't make the distinction. A number of years back a group of whale sharks that were seen regularly along the Andaman coast, following the seasonal plankton bloom, disappeared at the same time as large Japanese fishing boats were seen in the area. Once again, a trade in rare and endangered species driven largely by the Chinese, whose deep respect for all types of conservation is well known.