Promotion of shark eco-tourism could bite into fin trade
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E-mail Xinhua, June 3, 2013
A new study spearheaded by academics at the University of British Columbia could be a blow to the global trade in shark fin as it suggests the animals can generate more money in the water as tourist attractions rather than as food product.
In the paper Global Economic Value of Shark Eco-tourism: Implications for Conservation, the scholars say that 590,000 dedicated shark watchers worldwide collectively spend about 314 million U.S. dollar annually in a tourism sector that supports around 10,000 jobs in such places as the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and the Philippines, among others.
The research, billed as the "first global estimate of the current and potential contribution of shark eco-tourism in terms of tourism, tourism spend and employment," was collected over a one-year period by five academics, three from UBC and one each from the University of Hawaii and the University of Baja California in Mexico. It reviewed such things as the literature available on shark watching and shark fishing practices in 45 countries and regions, internet websites, data bases from the UN, government and NGOs, as well as personal inquiries.
It forecasts the global shark watching market will more than double in 20 years to 780 million dollars, in comparison to the current landed value of global shark fisheries of 630 million dollars, a market it claims has been in decline for most of the past decade.
The report cites the success of whale watching, a global tourism force that was estimated to be worth 2 billion dollars in 2009, as to what could be achieved with sharks. Instead of being admired in their natural habit, these ancient predators of the deep are killed by the millions each year, often illegally, for their fins, marrow, bones and other body parts.
Andres Cisneros-Montemayor, a marine resource economist at UBC who was lead author on the report, told Xinhua he believed the potential for shark eco-tourism was win-win. What it can do is shift fishermen away from shark fishing and potentially they could make more money by taking tourists out to see them in the wild.
He noted the success of shark tourism would eventually benefit conservation measures to protect the animal.
"One cool thing about having fishermen be the ones to start these businesses is that they are the ones who eventually petition the government to help them out. Usually it starts from the bottom up, which is a lot easier to do because waiting for a government to step in can take a long time."
In Canada, the sale or use of shark fin has been banned in numerous cities, but they are bans typically lacking in legal teeth as such bylaws are seldom enforced. In addition, shark products are still widely available, often in municipalities adjacent to those that have banned their sale.
Toronto, Canada's biggest city and home to the country's largest Chinese community, most notably banned the use or sale of shark products in October 2011. It didn't last long as Ontario's highest court overturned the decision last November declaring it invalid.
The challenge to the prohibition had been brought forward by four local Chinese-Canadian business people, who suggested the Chinese community had been unfairly targeted.
With the City of Toronto currently working to appeal the decision, other Canadian cities are taking a wait-and-see approach to the outcome. In Vancouver, another prominent Chinese-Canadian center, the city had championed a regional shark fin ban, but support for it received a blow when the neighboring municipality of Richmond struck down a ban proposal in February. That same month, Burnaby, which borders Vancouver, also rejected a ban, citing that it would be too difficult to enforce.
"There's been a lot of different movements to try and ban shark finning in different countries in the world, but at the same time, and what's worrisome, is we're fishing harder than we ever had in the past and yet were catching less and less sharks. So there's also an issue of populations being in decline," Cisneros- Montemayor said.
"It's really important that people realize that conservation doesn't have to be a negative for industry. There are many ways to use creative solutions to use nature to get economic benefits that in a way are more sustainable."
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