May 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 5   What's this?

More Marine Species on the Brink

these are next on the endangered list

from the May, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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We've written often about sharks and the threat posed to them due to the voracious demand of shark-fin soup in upwardlymobile Asian countries. But sharks aren't the only ones under the gun. Mantas, mobulas, whale sharks, even sting rays are under siege. Following are three articles that show the rise in demand -- and decline in numbers -- of species you always thought would be admired more for their beauty than for their meat, fins, so-called medicinal qualities, and even their use as billboards.

Who Would Have Thought Gill Rakers Are in Demand?

A few years ago, something surprising began turning up in Asia's fish markets: the gill rakers of manta and mobula rays. Shawn Heinrichs and Paul Hilton, photographers who have been monitoring the international soaring trade in shark fins, decided to find out what was going on. The appearance of those creatures in the markets "came as a real shock to us," Mr. Heinrichs said by phone from Indonesia. "They don't even taste good, so what was the reason?"

In January, the conservation organizations Shark Savers ( www.sharksavers.org ) and WildAid ( www.wildaid.org ) released a comprehensive global study showing that these species have been driven to the brink of extinction within a chillingly short space of time. The main reason is demand from China, where their gill rakers (filaments that filter the animals' food from the water) are marketed as a supposed cure for a variety of ailments. The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is the hub of the trade in the dried parts, which retail for as much as $225 a pound. The gills are boiled along with other fish products in a soup that is promoted as a cure for anything from chickenpox to cancer. "I call it endangered species soup," said Mr. Heinrichs, who led the research....