January 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 1   What's this?

The Shark Massacre at Malpelo

from the January, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Sandra Bessudo, Colombia's top government advisor on environmental issues, didn't believe the initial report when she first received it in October. She called it "unbelievable." But after getting the initial e-mail from a team of scientific divers and seeing their video of shark bodies lining the ocean floor, she had to investigate for herself. Taking a boat to Malpelo Island, a wildlife sanctuary located 300 miles off of Colombia's Pacific coast and a famous site for liveaboard divers, Bessudo unfortunately had to confirm it was true -- invaders from another country had slaughtered as many as 2,000 hammerhead, Galápagos and silky sharks just for their fins....