Baiting up to count the world’s sharks

However, the population of sharks is slowly diminishing in some parts of the world.

“Recent estimates suggest around 100 million sharks are taken from the oceans every year for their fins and meat”. The study is being conducted with a view to understand full role of Sharks in the food-chain of oceanic ecosystems. They’ll cover coral reef systems in the Indo-Pacific, tropical western Atlantic, southern and eastern Africa and Indian Ocean islands.

Though the survey project will not provide an absolute number, it will give researchers a “relative idea” of the number of sharks in different areas and which areas have “healthy populations”, Heithaus said.

To better understand these worrisome declines, researchers need more accurate data on regional and localized population numbers. Allen’s Vulcan Inc. “Results from Global FinPrint will provide critical trend analyses and establish baselines in places that have never before been systematically assessed”. Vulcan Inc. has given four million dollars in investment to the Global FinPrint project. But data collected for the new shark census could be used to help scientists and policy makers arrive at informed decisions about protecting imperiled shark populations, according to a statement from Florida worldwide University (FIU), which is taking part in the survey.

Dr. Mark Meekan from the Australian Institute of Marine Science said that sharks were chosen for the study because they are “uniquely vulnerable” to human pressures.

“If you’re a researcher going to work on coral reef, small fishes are territorial and easier to manipulate and experiment on than a reef shark, which is large, highly mobile and acutely risky to work with”.

To help route on the map the world’s racketeer people and create grasping and retention endeavors, a brand new grand undertaking is now being charge, by using Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder managing the amount of effort.

The new data will be consolidated with thousands of hours of existing video to form a single dataset, producing the first global standardised survey of sharks, rays and skates in coral reef environments.

Once the project starts, the data will be available to the general public on an open-access platform that will be constantly updated with information relating to species density, species diversity and habitats.

All in all, Ives is hoping that the research causes people to think deeply about the repercussions of the possible extinction of sharks.

Such concerns have to be met because many countries reply on healthy coral reefs for food security, tourism and coastal protection.