With every bowl of shark fin soup you wolf down, you are delivering one more death blow to our eco-system. Worldwide, the population of sharks is depleting at a frightening pace thanks to mankind’s voracious appetite for its fins which many a time, are ripped off the hapless creature, leaving it to die a slow, agonising death. According to the website Shark Angels, in the last 50 years, the slaughter of sharks has risen by 400 per cent, and by 2017, it is anticipated that 20 species of sharks could become extinct. In such bleakness, strong laws enacted to protect and control shark decimation come as a ray of hope.
The UAE’s new resolution to monitor illegal shark fishing is a significant step forward in righting the wrongs. By adopting a host of measures such as limiting the hunting of sharks to designated areas, banning import or export of sharks on the Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) list, employing permits for trading of live sharks and closely monitoring the re-export of all imported sharks, among other precautions, the UAE is ensuring it extends its utmost protection to these magnificent creatures from being slaughtered during their migration through its waters.
