Photo credit: Tim Huntington (UK – Poseidon)
Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
The inserted picture shows a pile of sharks displayed in a fish market in Hadramout, Yemen.
According to relatively recent statistics (2000s), the overall fish landing in Hadramout is about 78,000 tons total annually; out of which about 4,500 tons of sharks. Sharks are exploited by artisanal fishery whether cooperative or private fishery using gillnets and longlines. Although the shark fishery in Hadramout Governorate witnessed some fluctuations, its production was on the increase trend from 2001 onward.
In regard to shark fins, its trade showed a remarkable and rapid increase resulting in a significant fishing pressure on shark stocks during the last two decades. The high price of dry shark fins in the markets of East Asian Countries has been behind the heavy fishing on sharks in Yemen. In addition to shark fins, the dry shark meat and also the fresh shark as shown in the inserted picture have some demands in local markets particularly in the East Governorates. However, discarding finless shark may also in practice. There is a growing concern about the possible collapse of shark populations in the near future as long as the demand on shark fins remain that strong bearing in mind the long recovery times of sharks in response to overfishing.
