Shark Diving Prompts Island Nations to Urge End to Fin Trade
- Countries with shark-diving tourists want fin trade to stop
- Shark sanctuaries may provide protection, activists say
Blacktip reef sharks, South Africa
Photographer: Mike Korostelev www.mkorostelev.com/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Island nations that will call for the protection of sharks at a global conservation conference starting in South Africa this week need the support of bigger countries to reverse the decline of the fish, whose fins are coveted in Asia, according to activists.
Shark diving and other forms of ecotourism are key sources of income for archipelagos from the Maldives to the Bahamas, prompting governments to push for the protection of sharks from the international fin trade. But local measures aren’t enough, said Edd Brooks, director of the Cape Eleuthera Institute Shark Program, based in the Bahamas.