Haven’t people been eating shark for years?
Yes. Shark or ‘flake’ has long been one of the key ingredients in fish and chips. Most Australians who have eaten fish and chips have probably eaten shark at some stage without being aware of it. The historically lower levels of shark fishing are likely to have had a lower impact on shark numbers (although any level of fishing of sharks is notoriously hard to manage sustainably). With the increased popularity of shark fin soup, all commercially caught shark species in Australia that might find their way into your fish and chips are threatened with extinction or classified as ‘near threatened’. In developing countries, subsistence fishing often relies on low level shark fishing to feed coastal communities. Large scale, industrial shark fishing (and other fishing) is making it harder and harder for subsistence fishers to feed their families.
