The killing machine fighting for its very survival

SHARKS are often demonised as the ultimate killing machine. But largely unnoticed by the public, they are being driven to the brink of extinction with quiet, ruthless efficiency.

They are prized for their meat, sold in the UK under pseudonyms like Rock Salmon; for their liver oil, which is used in Omega-3 supplements, lipstick and haemorrhoid cream; and for their fins to make shark-fin soup.

Shark-fins are among the most valuable things found in the sea: a fin of a basking shark, legally protected by Europe, can fetch as much as £7,000 in Asia, while the average shark-fin sells for about £175 per lb.

While "finning" - when the fins are cut off sharks with the body dumped back in the sea - has been banned in European waters, there is an alarming mismatch between the number of fins for sale and the number of sharks caught worldwide.

Some 73 million sharks are reported caught every year, but four times that number must be being killed judging by the amount of fins on the market, according to a US study.

In Scottish waters, sharks like the porbeagle and spurdog were once relatively common, but are now classed as "critically endangered" in the north-east Atlantic by the World Conservation Union. The numbers of spurdog, also called Rock Salmon on menus, are estimated to be at 5 per cent of historic levels in the north-east Atlantic.

According to the Scottish Government's latest figures, a total of £321,000 worth of sharks were landed north of the Border in 2003 - up from £72,000 the previous year.

While sharks are not deliberately targeted by Scottish fishermen, they do appear as "by-catch" in nets of those seeking something else.

Ali Hood, conservation director of the Shark Trust, said it was time the public recognised the real danger posed to sharks by humans, calling for a boycott of Rock Salmon, legal protections for endangered species and measures to reduce by-catch.

"Shark fisheries are generally unmanaged and unsustainable," she said. "Assessing the threats to sharks is often complicated by the lack of accurate fishing data and we are concerned about habitat destruction. But all of this does come back to overfishing and the diversification from fish stocks to alternatives that do not carry quotas or have ineffective quotas."

The spurdog is covered by a quota and it can only make up as much as one-quarter of a boat's total catch.

But Miss Hood said: "We have grave concern about spurdog. Spurdog meat is highly valued in the UK, Germany and France. A 5 per cent remaining stock is quite pitiful. You have to consider at what level that stock becomes biologically unsustainable. This is where the public can help ... I think it is essential that demand for that is reduced by not purchasing things marketed under the name Rock Salmon."

The levels of shark by-catch are a concern: in the mid-1990s, it was found that 86 per cent of the fish landed by Portuguese boats targeting swordfish off the Azores were blue shark.

Dr Becky Boyd, of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said sharks were more vulnerable than other sea life to overfishing because they mature slowly and give birth to only a few young at a time.

"What we need is a responsive fisheries 'stop' measure, so that when fishers encounter numbers of sharks they immediately stop fishing and there is a temporary fisheries closure in that area.

"Without this precautionary approach some of these sharks face extinction in UK waters."

While great whites and basking sharks are legally protected species, others such as porbeagle and blue shark can be fished.

But Bertie Armstong, of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, said: "There is effectively no shark fishery in Scotland, people just don't target them. These things are very much a bycatch."

Tom Blasdale, of the government advisory body the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, said: "There have been Scottish directed fisheries, but nowadays I would guess there are not enough [sharks].

"The European Commission is moving very slowly towards managing shark species.

"The intention is to prevent targeted fisheries and reduce landings. It is arguable that it's not really having a terribly great effect.

"If nothing is done about it, there is a danger of local extinction for some species."

SHARK FAILS TO BASK IN PROTECTION

BASKING sharks are the UK's largest animals and have been compared to elephants and rhinos in conservation terms.

But even though these giant creatures - they can reach up to 36 feet long - are supposedly legally protected throughout European waters, a basking shark was caught by a Belgian fishing boat this summer in the Celtic Sea and landed at Zeebrugge. The fishermen said they were unaware of its protected status and it is unclear whether the Belgian authorities have taken any action.

Sonja Fordham, policy director of international umbrella group Shark Alliance, said: "They were going to auction it off and then they realised it was illegal.

"By the time I saw it, the liver was gone but the fins were still there."

She said she had been told the case was under investigation, but stressed the need to take the matter seriously. "If exceptions to fishing rules are made for accidental catches, we are likely to start seeing more accidents - something that this endangered population simply cannot withstand," she said.

The Scotsman's manifesto to protect the seas

THE Scotsman has launched a campaign for urgent steps to be taken to protect our precious marine life.

We want:

• a network of marine reserves and protected areas to be created to safeguard properly such sites as St Kilda, one of just 30 marine World Heritage Sites, the Sound of Mull, an important area for whales and dolphins, and Loch Sween with its lagoons and tidal rapids;

• a system of marine planning, effectively zoning areas for appropriate use, to safeguard important fishing grounds from offshore wind farms and other developments and allow humans to exploit the seas in the most sustainable way;

• a single marine management organisation for Scottish waters to ensure this system operates as efficiently as possible;

• Scotland should also be given control of conservation to the 200-mile boundary with international waters. At present, the Scottish Government controls out to 12 miles, with the UK government responsible for the waters beyond that.