The world's shark population is in danger, the species has lost millions over the past year alone.
Sharks have been around for longer than most of the world's vertebrates, and their loss could be a huge blow to the ecosystem, a Florida International University press release reported.
"This is a big concern because the loss of sharks can affect the wider ecosystem," Mike Heithaus, executive director of FIU's School of Environment, Arts and Society and co-author of the paper, said. "In working with tiger sharks, we've seen that if we don't have enough of these predators around, it causes cascading changes in the ecosystem, that trickle all the way down to marine plants."
A loss of shark species' could negatively impact other species and dependent fisheries.
Shark fishing is a huge contributor to their decline. They are being hunted and killed for their fin significantly faster than they reproduce.
"Sharks are similar to whales, and humans, in that they mature late in life and have few offspring' Boris Worm, lead author and professor of biology at Dalhousie, said. "As such, they cannot sustain much additional mortality. Our analysis shows that about one in 15 sharks gets killed by fisheries every year. With an increasing demand for their fins, sharks are more vulnerable today than ever before."
Researchers suggest tightening shark fishing laws. Governments could also impose trade regulations, catch limits, and high taxes on the import and export of valued shark fins.
The yearly range of shark mortality is between 63 and 273 million. In the year 2000 there were 100 millions shark deaths, in 2010 97 million sharks either died or were killed.
The findings were published in the paper "Global Catches, Exploitation Rates, and Rebuilding Options for Sharks."
The paper was published this week in the journal Marine Policy.
