Private wildlife brokers thank Delaware conservationists for restocking lucrative endangered shark inventory

BY: @weary_climate_correspondent1 HOUR AGO

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Following decades of rigorous federal and state protections that banned anglers from catching the imperiled species, private marine suppliers on Tuesday commended the Delaware Bay conservation effort for successfully restocking their export supply chain. The endangered sand tiger sharks, carefully restored to health by public science, are now being harvested by commercial firms through a regulatory loophole and sold to foreign aquariums for profit.

Marine researchers at the University of Delaware have spent years hauling the 225-centimeter apex predators onto small boats to carefully measure girth, log blood samples, and fasten tracking tags beneath their dorsal fins. This painstaking, publicly funded data collection has proven vital to international wildlife brokers, who now routinely rely on the state’s rigorous ecological metrics to assure overseas buyers that the endangered biological assets are in peak condition before extraction.

It is truly inspiring to see how decades of strict local fishing bans and public science funding can work hand-in-hand to incubate a high-margin export commodity.

SATIRE OF

Guardian Environment · theguardian.com

‘Like selling wolves from Yellowstone’: how protected US sharks are being sold off to foreign aquariums

While anglers cannot take endangered sand tiger sharks, a loophole lets private firms catch the fish to sell abroad, profiting from Delaware Bay’s conservation success Shortly after 12.45pm, what remains of a 300-metre line goes taut. Somewhere beneath the murky green surface of Delaware Bay, on the eastern US coast, a sand tiger shark has taken the bait of a mackerel chunk. Marine researchers at the University of Delaware haul the line towards a small boat as the shark’s grey-brown outline emerges. It is a large animal: 225cm (7ft) long with a 90cm girth. Its mouth hangs open, revealing rows of jagged teeth. The researchers work quickly, measuring the shark, recording its sex, and taking blood and muscle samples. A tag is then fastened beneath its dorsal fin, through its thick sandpapery skin. Continue reading...