Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Protecting sharks

This is to bring to your attention that "Over-fishing of sharks hits ecosystem" by Ian Sample carried on the Science & Technology page of The Hindu on April 5 was very similar to "Sharks deserve same protection as pandas" by George Monbiot, carried on the Op-Ed page on April 4. Both these syndicated articles are based on the same source, which was published in Science on March 30. As in the case of Monbiot's, Sample's article also fails to mention that the particular study he draws from was conducted in a bay in the U.S.. How far one can generalise for the whole world about the cascade effect on the ecosystem of catching shark species based on a micro study in the U.S. is anybody's guess.

Carrying such articles could only lend support to lobbying groups such as the Pew Institute for Ocean Science who are interested only in protecting, not conserving, shark species..

Rather than discussing the importance of implementing the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks, developed under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or the need to comply with the 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, which has provisions for the conservation and management of highly migratory shark species, an inadvertent promotion of the language of `protection' could adversely affect small-scale shark fishers of India, and could make the task all the more difficult for those who are tirelessly working towards improving fisheries management regimes without throwing fishers out of their jobs.

Sebastian Mathew
Chennai

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