Article: Steven Surina
Animal in a voice of extinction, the shark is nonetheless a very important source of income. It is marketed either for consumption via fishing, or in attraction for tourists in different regions of the globe. He died in one case, living in the other ...
Recent studies have shown that the market value of a live shark lifts more money over a lifetime than a shark caught and sold.
From the fisherman to the exporter, a set of shark fins from the Carcharhinidae family is indeed sold for around 50 USD, while, in a tourist area, a living shark brings roughly 75 USD per day to the local economy. .
The preservation of sharks is mainly due to the economic logic they represent. Socio-economic studies have shown that 71% of divers are willing to pay more for their stay or cruise to see sharks than any other species.
The annual global value of the shark fishery marketed directly from fishermen to exporters is approximately 480 USD. This manna is declining due to the significant decrease in shark populations worldwide. In contrast, a University of British Columbia study in 2013 has shown that global spending on shark ecotourism is approximately 314 million USD per year. Estimates show an increase of 50% in the next twenty years.
Some countries whose economies are highly dependent on ecotourism have understood the value of shark conservation and have moved towards creating sanctuaries and marine protected areas for sharks.
Today, there are twenty shark sanctuaries in nineteen countries, with a total area of more than 18 million square kilometers. In these areas, shark fishing is strictly prohibited and controlled, under penalty of heavy penalties. Sharks evolve there in peace, far from the fierce pursuit of the fishermen. This is a first step for their conservation, although it is difficult to really control these vast areas and prevent poaching. Some island nations lack the human and financial resources to properly implement these measures.
In some cases, for example in Fiji, Maldives or Donsol in the Philippines, shark fishing activities have been converted into ecotourism activities and created sustainable jobs, such as diving instructors, sailors, boat captains, drivers. taxi, hotel industry, etc. Even in the Bahamas, a hotspot for sport fishing, each shark hooked on a line must be thrown back into the water, even dead, in order to avoid trade. In this archipelago, shark ecotourism contributes 60% of the country's GDP annually!
Shark tourism is therefore strongly involved in the creation of sanctuaries and shark conservation and protection programs.
In addition, ecotourism can have an educational role and allow synergy between tourism activities and scientific research. Indeed, such a marriage between research and ecotourism can be beneficial to the management of shark populations.
However, it is legitimate to ask whether this activity does not contribute to the direct human impact on the shark environment and whether, in the long term, ecotourism is really beneficial for sharks and their ecosystems, or if the interest would not be more economical than ecological ...
Today, the collection of data on the impact of ecotourism does not allow us to have enough perspective. However, the first results show two trends:
- For some species or in certain regions of the world, shark-oriented ecotourism seems to favor the sedentarization of sharks, or on the contrary their relocation. Their eating habits could be modified, as well as their natural distrust of humans, such as, for example, the limon sickle sharks, N. acutidens, in French Polynesia.
- For other species and other places, the impact of ecotourism activities is not detectable, despite a strong human presence. Sharks seem indifferent to human presence. Migratory sharks continue their seasonal migrations, continue to reproduce and feed naturally, such as great hammerhead sharks, S. mokarran, and tiger sharks, G. cuvier, in the Bahamas, whale sharks in Mexico or in the Philippines, aggregations of scalloped hammerhead sharks, S.lewini, Galapagos, Costa Rica, Colombia, Egypt, Sudan… etc. Likewise, sedentary sharks that live alongside divers almost daily do not seem disturbed by their presence, such as the Caribbean gray sharks, C. perezi, in the Bahamas.
The significant development of these ecotourism activities has given rise to much debate, even within the scientific community. Beyond the phenomenon of "diving with sharks", it is also legitimate to ask the question of whether scuba diving is an ecological activity, even for "organic" divers! However, it is undeniable that these activities contribute to the protection and conservation of sharks. The economic aspect of these activities is a key factor, especially when there is competition between operators. We must therefore ensure that this competition does not lead to abuses and dangerous behavior, by drawing up a charter of good conduct, for the benefit of all stakeholders… and in particular of course… the sharks themselves!