SaveOurSharks

More Samples!

2012-01-28T10:15:00.000-06:00

As soon as I returned from ScienceOnline2012 #scio12, I drove to Virginia to pick up shellfish samples from Chesapeake Bay. I drove up and back on Monday, and chatted with my collaborator at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences while there. He was able to collect oysters, hard clams, soft clams, and stout razor clams from their experimental plots for me. I was missing soft clams and stout razor clams, so I'm very excited and grateful!

What a week! Seems like I wasn't quite as prepared for #scio12 as I hoped... I spent a lot of time trying to catch up on teaching emails, lesson plans, meeting with students who registered late, and trying to catch up on my readings for Science Education class. I'm still catching up on my SciEd work, but isn't playing catch-up the life of a grad student? I'm taking the morning to blog and do some post-#scio12 wrap up. We have to keep inspired and engaged by doing the things that bring us fulfillment and joy.

I have those shellfish in the freezer in our necropsy lab now, and I've started the tissue extraction process. I had to spend some time cleaning and organizing this past week, so I wasn't able to get to the DNA extraction. That's on the schedule for this weekend. The necropsy lab is used by numerous people in at least two labs, is bereft of a formal "lab manager", and is often a mess. Quite honestly, I think it stays a mess because we all feel like no one else will take the time to keep it clean or keep our samples safe. The last time I was in there, there were fish scales still stuck to the dissection table. It makes me worry about using that area to remove tissue samples that will be used for DNA extraction. So I cleaned and prepared the small hood and wet lab area in our lab to work in...and that is a much nicer set up anyway. I also decided that it would be best to store my frozen samples in small containers in the freezer. I had them in plastic storage bags on a shelf, and with all the other fish and misc samples in the freezers, it just didn't seem like the best choice. So I now feel much better about my sample storage and work area.

All in all, it felt like a nicely productive week. This weekend I must finish prepping my samples so that I can start the DNA extraction process on Monday. And next...sequencing!

And Finally...Research!

2012-01-15T15:52:00.002-06:00

I realized that it's been a year since I posted anything on this blog! I find it really hard to manage all my commitments in grad school along with social media and networking. Technologies change all the time...sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ways...but all of these changes require a learning curve. I've just linked my blogspot account with G+, which might actually help streamline social networking and blogging. We shall see! I've also decided that I want to use SaveOurSharks as a personalized research blog for this moment in my life. I'm hoping that if blog posts go out to all my friends in my ScienceOnline circle (see #scio12), perhaps I'll feel more supported and encouraged in my research...and also responsible to them at the same time... Posting will be a built-in, self-created, self-reporting mechanism to keep my friends updated on my research and also spur me to keep up with my research schedule.

So where am I at this moment?

Thesis Proposal Defense: Done! August 2011

Sample Collection:

North Carolina shellfish samples: Almost Done!

Chesapeake Bay shellfish samples: Collected but died. :( New sample collection: In Progress

DNA Extraction:

North Carolina shellfish: DNA extracted and in storage! Turned out beautifully!

COI Primers: Ordered!

Working On:
I have to acquire some more shellfish samples from NC and Chesapeake Bay. Hopefully I'll have the Chesapeake samples this week or early next week. Hope to have the primers early this week. Soon as those arrive, then I'm off to sequencing!

Feel free to comment, ask questions, and ask me how I'm doing...help me stay motivated, please!

Posts from the Field...

2011-01-24T14:22:00.004-06:00

My good friend Ryan, a MS student working on dietary habits of blacknose sharks, is currently doing research in the Keys. As he does not have internet connection in the evenings, he's sending me mini-blog posts in the form of texts. Hopefully we'll have photos soon!

Thursday, January 20th:
RF: Just blew trailor tire.
Me: Oh no! Everyone ok?
RF: Yeah.
Me: Okay, good. Back on the road yet?
(Attempted to send me a pic of the blowout)
Hours later:
RF: Yeah, it's an epic blowout.
Me: Still fixing it?

Hours later...
RF: Back on the road.
Me: Oh My Gosh! That took hours!

Later that evening:
Me: Where are you?
RF: Mile 161 on FL turnpike
And then...
RF: 83 miles outside of Miami...

Friday, January 21st:
Me: Where are you? How's it going?
RF: 2 immature great hammerheads, a scallop (scalloped hammerhead), and a silky.
Me: w00t!
RF: So other than starting the day with a bit of a cold and losing my voice by the end of the day, it was great! Seas were 2-3 ft and crystal clear.

Later that evening:
Me: I'm sorry you're not feeling well, even though you had a great day...
RF: It's okay. I don't feel too bad--it's just my vocal chords.
Me: Okay, that's at least good. :) Wish I was there...
Me: Are you staying on the boat or on land?
RF: Land at KML

Sunday, January 22nd:
RF: So yesterday (Saturday) we caught a lot of nurses (nurse sharks) and my voice began coming back. A bit choppy. We snagged a line of lobster traps...took 4 hrs to pull in. Got 2 mokkarans, a mature male blacknose, a small silky, and large bull that got off at the boat.

Later Sunday evening:
RF: God such a long day! I need a massage.
Me: I'm sorry. Good day though?
RF: For the most part. We lost gear but caught animals.
Me: What? Really?
RF: Yup. Got hung up.
Me: Longlines? What did you catch?
RF: Yup. Blacknose, Nurse, Blacktip.

I will post more as I hear from him...

Through the Lurking Grass...

2010-07-20T23:39:00.003-05:00

In today's Adventures Through the Lurking Grass, your heroine found herself analyzing more hours of seagrass video...and again, wishing she was in the field today...snorkeling, identifying seagrass species, and counting percent cover in quadrats...

The good news is that your noble heroine also completed two transects of seagrass footage, so she accomplished her quest! (Well, for this week at least...)

Through the Lurking Grass...

2010-07-20T00:05:00.004-05:00

In this week's Adventures "Through the Lurking Grass"...!

This summer my research and field work involve acoustically mapping seagrass beds, ground-truthing the acoustic data by snorkeling and measuring the seagrass found in 1 square meter quadrats, identifying seagrass samples to verify species identification, pressing and preserving seagrass for our own little herbarium, and analyzing seagrass video.

"Through the Lurking Grass" posts will follow your heroine as she reflects on her seagrass adventures in coastal North Carolina...

This past week one piece of our equipment had to be sent back to the manufacturer for repairs. We had grand plans of field work for last week and part of this week, but that is all on hold until we hear back from the manufacturer and have our equipment back. So, I'm focusing on seagrass video analysis this week.

For our collaborators at NOAA, we identify the presence or absence of seagrass species in the video at the 1st frame of every 3rd second in the video. We have also started adding an estimate of the percent cover at that frame, and I'm "quartering" my television screen (in my mind) in order to get an estimate of 25, 50, 75, or 100% cover. That estimate really just gives us a very general idea of how much seagrass is in the viewing area of the video camera during that 1st frame of the second...which we can use to cross-reference with our acoustic data in order to further ground-truth our acoustic results. All this is important, because it is necessary to confirm and cross-check data from one method with another.

In this week's Adventures "Through the Lurking Grass," your heroine is spending her week analyzing the video transects...and today she wished to be in the water, snorkeling, seeing the images on the television screen through her own eyes...

News from Providence...

2010-07-08T21:37:00.006-05:00

We're having a great time at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists/American Elasmobranch Society meeting so far. But first, here's the news from Providence...all social and very little science.

Tuesday, July 6 we explored the city a bit...found College Hill...drank some amazing iced teas... I met up with some of my friends from past meetings, the previously-mentioned GIANTS in the shark world. That was wonderful, because it's really been years since I've seen them.

We realized that the majority of the conference events on Wednesday were actually business meetings for the various organizations...so we decided to tag along with Dr. Rulifson and Jen in order to see some of the countryside. We went to Newport RI for lunch and a stroll...and then on to Kingston for a meeting with research partners... Newport is a beautiful town, very old, with well-restored buildings, quaint shops, waterside restaurants, and amazing seafood. We met up with Chuck for the meeting and then had drinks and dinner at the Mews Pub. What a great place...great food, excellent beer selection, fantastic atmosphere. (We will be back there for the World Cup Championship match, for sure.) I had the most amazing lobsta mac & cheese! My friend Sean would love it. I do not have a pic of the mac & cheese, but I did however have my photo taken with the delicious clam chowder I had at The Black Pearl in Newport. I've been conducting a survey of clam chowders throughout the East Coast. (So far, the chowders in Maine are winning...) The Black Pearl tavern is such a perfect slice of a 19th century port town that I'm surprised they didn't film Persuasion there.

We arrived back in Providence in the evening, met up with other graduate student friends, and went out for drinks. I must explain, before I get further into blogging through this conference, that Shark People Drink. They know how to have a good time. We went to Trinity Pub, which is another great little spot in Providence. Ran into other friends, made new friends, and thoroughly enjoyed the coffee stout.

I will take this moment to explain that I am extraordinarily good at networking. I own it. Within 5 minutes of being at Trinity, I met another awesome graduate student doing cownose ray work, and we had a great little discussion about the controversy over population size. I met his advisor, who was on my "Must Meet" list, followed by so many other really terrific graduate students and post-docs. After that night, I already had so much good information and perspective about my project that even if I don't learn anything else this meeting, it was already a success! I'm owning the quote that my good friend DNLee passed on to me: "I'm *&^#* Brilliant!"

Stay tuned...more to follow!

American Elasmobranch Society!

2010-07-06T18:08:00.003-05:00

I'm currently at the American Elasmobranch Society meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. Elasmobranch includes sharks, skates, and rays, but for the sake of these blog entrees, I'll use shark to mean all elasmobranchs. It makes life easier. This is a meeting where shark people get together and discuss their research! The AES meeting is also held in conjunction with the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, so it gets to be a pretty big conference. 1500 attendees are expected. I'll be here through July 13th, and oral presentations run from July 8-12. It feels like there are more and more shark talks every year...it's terrific!

Of course, keep in mind that the World Cup finals are also during this time period, so I'll definitely be taking some breaks to watch the finals matches... Go Netherlands!

The first AES meeting I ever attended was in 2002 in Kansas City. I knew nothing about shark research, my undergrad degree was in History & Theatre, but I knew I wanted a change in fields. I showed up at the conference as a general attendee, sat through some fish morphology and taxonomy talks, and made my way to the shark talks... I met a couple graduate students and then a Mote Marine Lab researcher, who took me and another pre-graduate student under his wing... He introduced us to other scientists, professors, and graduate students. He's now a professor at a university in Florida with his own lab. He's a fantastic mentor...and hooked me on shark reproduction with a talk on "Why (clasper) Size Does Matter."

I met so many great people at the first meeting who continued to support and mentor me, and met up with them 5 years later in St. Louis. Now it's been 3 more years, and I get to catch up with all the GIANTS in the shark world, whom I am honoured to call my friends. How wonderful and wild life is...

I've been hanging out in the lobby, stalking the arrival of my shark guys, who are slowly showing up... So I'm going to go network and catch up! Stay tuned...

Shark Finning Film

2010-02-27T23:34:00.003-06:00

My goodness, it's good to be back blogging again! I apologize for such an extended absence. I've been attempting to get settled into graduate school. My move went well, and I'm doing great in Eastern North Carolina...North Carolina is the place to be if you're a science blogger! More about graduate school and my research soon.

For now, I want to share a link to an Anti-Shark Finning movie that was sent to me by my friend Peggy of Gateway Hammerheads (a SCUBA club in St. Louis). This film was partially funded by the Shark Foundation. It's sobering, sickening, horrifying, and nauseating. Most of you have probably seen similar footage. The more times and different ways we can illuminate the realities of shark finning, the faster we'll rid of the planet of this scurge.

We can not continue to remove sharks from the ecosystem at the rate we are...it is entirely unsustainable and the ramifications of removing these apex predators will quickly trickle down the food web. If this sort of thing was happening to other apex predators around the world (lions, leopards, tigers, wolves, bears), the outcry would be tremendous!

http://www.vimeo.com/7645560

Feel free to share this link. Pass the word!

Sorry to be Absent!

2009-06-14T00:08:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry that I've been away from blogging for so long! My only excuse is that life took over and overwhelmed me for awhile... Grad school apps, GRE studying, moving, getting settled and organized, and a new job. I'm having a blast...working for the Missouri Department of Conservation doing fisheries management assistance...but it keeps me pretty darn tired.

My good news is that I'll be moving to North Carolina in August to start a MS in Biology at East Carolina University! I'll be doing elasmobranch research... I'm so excited to start my new adventure and move to NC!

I'll be back at it very soon, I promise!

Seafood Survey

2009-03-06T21:47:00.003-06:00

Please join me in helping Cathy Preston, who is a graduate student doing her master's project on sustainable seafood, by taking her short survey here on your seafood choices.

I've already taken it, and it's a very straightforward survey. Cathy asked me to help spread the word and pass on this invitation to all of you. Please take the survey, add to Cathy's data set for her master's, and contribute to better seafood management and improved sustainability practices!

Love

2009-03-03T13:47:00.002-06:00

"In the end, we conserve what we love. We love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." --Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-25T22:13:00.000-06:00

Seafood Choices

2009-02-16T19:34:00.005-06:00

A lot has been written and talked about consumer choice and activism, but we shouldn't underestimate its impact. When it comes to the health of our oceans, consumer activism can have an enormous impact.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

Most of our seafood is not farmed. Unless the label specifically states that the seafood was farmed, you can assume it was wild-caught. There are pros and cons to both wild and farmed seafood. I think the jury is still out on the sustainability of farmed seafood. Now, wild-caught might sound good, and the oceans might seem like an unending supply of food. But they are not. There are billions of us humans. Seafood is the only source of food that is wild and harvested in the wild. Imagine how many "wild" cows it would take to supply one McDonald's alone...never mind all the other fast-food joints around the world. And there are a LOT of unsustainable harvesting/fishing practices occurring as we speak. But that's a post for another day!

There are some fisheries that are better choices than others, and that's where consumer activism comes in. When using the term fisheries, I am referring to one particular species of seafood (fish, shellfish, other invertebrates) that is fished/harvested in a general geographic area. Some fisheries are in better "health" than others. The fishery is managed better, the population is larger, there are limits on how many organisms can be taken at one time, and the ocean waters are in good condition in that area.

Sometimes fisheries have to close because of water pollution that affects the organisms in that area. Some fish species you shouldn't eat because the level of mercury that is in the fish's tissue (bioaccumulation) is so high that it can gradually poison us. And in some cases, some species of fish are so vital to the marine ecosystem, and/or the population numbers are so low, that they shouldn't be harvested at all. In my opinion, sharks are a good example of species who are too important to the ocean's health to be removed!

If we make responsible decisions about the seafood we buy, then there is less economic benefit for companies to continue to fish in unsafe ways (unsustainable). There are a couple of good sources for this information:

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch publishes very handy seafood pocket guides each season specific to your region. They even have a Sushi guide now!
SeaWeb is an ocean conservation organization. They have a number of on-going conservation and policy projects, including KidSafe Seafood. KidSafe Seafood suggests the best choices at the grocery store, specific to childrens' nutritional needs. (At a recent science conference, I picked up a magnet for my sister-in-law.)

Happy Shopping!

Shark Products Boycott

2009-01-25T20:33:00.003-06:00

The San Francisco Chinatown shark finning protest is being held today. I haven't heard news from the protesters, but we can help in making our cities Shark Safe. There are a number of things we can do to help increase awareness about shark finning and boycott the consumption of shark products.

From the Shark Safe Project:

What you can do to help

Refuse to buy any shark products.
Refuse to patronize any restaurant that serves shark.
Whenever you see shark fin soup or other shark products on the menus of restaurants or fish stores, complain politely to the proprietor before leaving.
When spending your vacation near the ocean, avoid going on fishing excursions aimed at also catching sharks.
Call up your TV station and complain every time sensationalize a shark related incident.
If you read articles or see TV transmissions which portray sharks as being bloodthirsty monsters, write to the authors or those responsible. Explain that such sensation reports are extremely damaging to the worldwide shark populations.

Anti-Finning Protest

2009-01-24T22:06:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow is the anti-finning protest in San Francisco's Chinatown! If you happen to read this and you're in the Bay area, please join them. I plan on monitoring the Shark Safe project blogsite for details throughout the day. I will relay them to you.

See my previous post for information about the protest as well as previous posts for information about the destructiveness of shark finning.

The Chinatown protests tomorrow are taking a different form than the standard marching and chanting that is so common, especially in San Francisco. They're dividing in small groups, thereby spreading throughout the whole area, and targeting restaurants that serve shark fin soup. Shark Safe project is trying to educate and inform restauranteurs and patrons of the health risks of consuming shark products (high mercury levels) as well as the dangers to our oceans. Please see their latest blog for more information. It's an excellent approach, and I'm excited to hear how it goes tomorrow!

shark fin protest & boycott

2009-01-21T18:44:00.002-06:00

I'm copying an email that I received about a shark fin protest in San Francisco. I actually received this email through my local dive club, Gateway Hammerheads, and Gary & Brenda Adkinson of the Shark Foundation.

If you're in San Francisco on January 25, 2009, please come out and help the Shark Safe project. Many shark species are endangered, some close to extinction. Sharks are under increasing threat from destruction of habitat, world-wide overfishing, and from the direct and enormous impact of shark finning. Shark finning is the distinctly inhumane and completely unnecessary practice of removing the fins of the shark for use in soup or as trophies. After finning, the sharks are dumped in the ocean, while still alive, and drown.

Please see the Shark Safe project blog site for more details about their efforts. I hope the protest is very successful, and I wish everyone the best. I'll be thinking of you!

Greetings Nor Cal UW Photographic Society Directors

The Shark Safe project is a new grass roots shark conservation group. As divers I am sure you are very aware that shark populations are threatened globally. I am also sure that you are aware that the main source of this threat is over fishing for shark fins used in shark fin soup. I am not here to preach to the choir! I am not asking you to sign another petition!

I am asking you to join us and take real action to help save sharks!

We are organizing a shark finning protest demonstration in San Francisco's Chinatown on Sunday January 25th 2009.
for more info: http://sharksafe.blogspot.com

There are over 100 restaurants in San Francisco's Chinatown that offer shark fin soup on their menus.

We are only asking them to remove one item from their menus.

That simple act can save thousands of sharks.

There are other groups taking up the cause all over the country. Please, as concerned divers join us and help us save sharks today.

Please forward this message to your customers and friends.

Yours in sharks,

Lawrence Groth

Shark Safe

Great White Sharks

2009-01-01T12:56:00.007-06:00

Let's just start the year off right with Carcharodon carcharias!

White Sharks (Great Whites) are large, with long spindle-shaped bodies and a large dorsal fin. The top of the body is a dark grey colour and the underside is white; there is a sharp colour change. The colouring allows for camouflage from prey or predators that may view the shark above or below it.

At birth, they are 110-160 cm long (3-5 ft). Females are generally larger at 450-500 cm (11-13 ft) and males average a 350-400 cm (14-16 ft) total length. Maximum length is approximately 600 cm (20 ft).

Distribution & Habitat:
White Sharks have a wide-ranging distribution throughout most of the world's oceans. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats: from shallow waters to open ocean (depths up to 1300 m) to rocky reefs and oceanic islands. They are a highly migratory species, easily crossing oceans. Satellite studies are starting to reveal their migratory paths (similar to migratory fly-over paths of birds).

Behavioural studies are also revealing complex social behaviours, intelligence, and curiosity. They are well known for breaching the water while hunting for prey, particularly seals, in South Africa and Australia.

Biology:
White sharks have the ability to maintain an internal body temperature higher than the surrounding water, which effectively makes them endothermic. Endothermic means animals generate heat in order to maintain a stable internal body temperature. This adaptation allows White Sharks to swim quickly and hunt in cold water. Prey sources include small fishes when juvenile to large marine mammals.

Reproduction:
Internal fertilization. Gestation period is approximately 12 months; litters of 2-10 pups is common. Birthing cycles are in 2-3 year intervals, so they do not have litters every year. White sharks are live-bearers, which means that the pups are birthed. The pups are fully formed at birth and do not require care from the mother (parental care). They swim off right after birth to search for prey.

Conservation Status & Issues:
Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Populations are depleted through commercial fishing bycatch, finning, and declining prey sources. Most shark species are depleted. Protected by the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Also protected from international trade through CITES.

Please see the Monterey Bay Aquarium for their extensive research on juvenile White Sharks!

Compagno, Leonard, Marc Dando, and Sarah Fowler. Sharks of the World. Princeton Field Guides. Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey. 2005.

A New Year...

2008-12-31T14:29:00.007-06:00

New Year's Resolutions:

I want to blog more! I can't believe that my last post on Save Our Sharks was in March. (Tisk, tisk, tisk!)

So here's to the New Year...

My wish is for new Choices, Resolutions, and Beginnings.

Marine conservation must be a priority in this new year. If marine food webs collapse, so will our food sources. That will greatly affect developing countries. When you remove apex predators from the ecosystem, the entire food web collapses. We must have balance.

Here's to good choices, responsible consumption, and understanding our place in the ecosystem.

Happy New Year!

Shark Eco-tourism

2008-03-01T16:52:00.005-06:00

I read an article today about shark dives and shark eco-tourism, and it started me thinking about all of my shark experiences. I have been so lucky to observe sharks in their environment without the assistance of any external triggers. I was living in Guam when I was certified, so it was easy for us to take a dive trip to Palau. Palau has (hopefully still has) a large population of grey reef sharks, and I was unprepared for that. There were so many sharks on the first dive that I couldn't keep count. We were diving in their environment...we went to them.

There is a lot of controversy about shark eco-tourism and shark dives, whether they involve chumming, the use of cages, or more normal settings. It is rare for a human to be killed during one of these excursions. And it's my opinion that excursions, dive or otherwise, that provide people with experiences to observe sharks in their natural setting will only eliminate prejudice, create awe, and increase conservation efforts.

One of the problems with some shark eco-tourism companies is that they lure sharks with chum (ground up fish), decoys, or actual food. It is a legitimate concern that sharks should not associate chummed water with human presence. Luring sharks to a certain area in this way only elicits behaviours that are not normal or natural for that particular setting. The practice of feeding sharks with divers present may also create a worrisome precedent, and accidents do happen under those conditions. These sorts of accidents can involve accidental bitings while feeding or mistaken-identity bites during the frenzy. A lot of shark eco-tourism is specific to reef settings and may involve species with more predictable behaviour patterns (nurse sharks, reef sharks, whitetip sharks, black tips, etc.). However, I want to clarify that all wild animals are unpredictable and should be treated with the utmost respect.

There is a demand for shark dives in areas frequented by larger and rarer species like tigers, bulls, and whites (great whites). Some of these shark dives involve the use of cages and luring. These charismatic species are sometimes difficult to find, and chumming is an effective method of drawing them near. But consider that, and I'm just guessing at numbers, say 2 trips a day over 7 days results in 14 trips in a week and 56 trips a month. Those numbers may be a little high, but that's just one company. If that one company heads to the same area (or even areas) for each trip, and the water is then chummed, the same sharks are being lured. They may associate the boat with chum and expect food, or they may eventually become desensitized to chumming in that area. I think the goal of all shark eco-tourism should be moderation, safety, and shark conservation.

Scientists utilize luring of sharks with chum and decoys in order to trigger hunting and feeding responses. Some of the white sharks at the Farallon Islands showed resistance to decoy response after desensitization to decoys by shark dive companies.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to cage dive with white sharks. Given the opportunity, I would do it. But I would want to chose the most scientific-minded and responsible company I could find. Open water diving with whites would be even more amazing! Now that's an opportunity to observe the shark's behaviour in its natural environment! The benefits to shark conservation and research are invaluable.

Sharks in Trouble

2008-02-19T08:57:00.005-06:00

I'm new to blogging, but I've been thinking about it for awhile. I'm feeling helpless against the tide of global climate change, extinctions, and loss of marine biodiversity. I laid awake last night worrying about the status of Hammerhead shark populations. (See link to BBC article.)

I want to share my passion for sharks with the larger internet world, in the hopes that my knowledge and perspective might educate, enlighten, and inspire you to conservation. The more I learn about sharks, the more I am amazed. The more I explore their world, the more I learn about their behaviour, the greater my respect.

Please see the link below. BBC reported on the addition of the Scalloped Hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini, as globally endangered on the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List. This was reported at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston. 233 species of sharks are currently on the Red List, with 12 spp. listed as criticially endangered, and 9 spp. to be added this year alone.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7251651.stm

The largest threat to shark populations is overfishing for fins and liver. Finning is the excessively wasteful and cruel practice of slicing off the dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins and then just dumping the shark back in the water. The shark is still alive after finning and slowly drowns after being dumped. We're decimating populations merely to make shark fin soup.

In international waters, shark fisheries are entirely unregulated. Even in national waters, very few countries protect shark populations. For the ones who do, it is extremely difficult to enforce those regulations. Shark species that are protected in one country's waters easily disperse into other waters where they may not be protected. We must create Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in international waters to protect the world's shark populations. Before it is too late.