Shark product trade.

[Finless]

HI- I am a UK diver and the below link was posted up on the Yorkshire Divers forum.

http://www.sealifegifts.net/shark_theme.html

I wondered if this site was already known on here etc.

 

[Adrian Kelland]

Various UK forums have been posting about this site;

http://www.sealifegifts.net/shark_theme.html

They appear to be selling dead baby sharks and part of sharks. Not nice. Some of the items on sale i.e. Queen Conch would appear to breach the CITES convention. This would also breach the Ebay terms of service.

We are joining up in emailing Ebay and other organisations to try to get these sales stopped.

Will you do the same?

Adrian

 

[DennisS]

There are piles of Queen Conch shells in the Bahamas. People eat the meat. They raise them on Turks and Caicos in farms for food.

 

[Adrian Kelland]

There are piles of Queen Conch shells in the Bahamas. People eat the meat. They raise them on Turks and Caicos in farms for food.

Dennis

Queen Conch is on CITES Appendix II, meaning that while they are not yet threatened with extinction, they could become so without trade controls.

Importing Conch into the US from the countries you mention (and some others) is legal with accompanying CITES documentation. Importing into the US from Barbados, for example, is not legal. http://international.fws.gov/pdf/queen conch.pdf

What of the sharks Dennis?

Adrian

 

[DennisS]

I don't know enough about the sharks to have an opinion. Were they caught as bycatch that would have been discarded as trash by commercial fishermen or were they targeted. If someone can get $99 for a dead shark that would have been thrown overboard anyway, why not. My only question is "who would buy a dead fetal shark for $99?"

I do know that I can buy conch meat, ie. Queen Conch in my local south florida supermarkets for $9 a pound. They've been fished out of S Florida for about the last 20 years but due to restrictions they are making a comeback, it's good to see them returning.

The conch in the supermarkets is raised on commercial farms. When they remove the meat they are left with the shell. The farms return a certain percentage of their aquaculture raised stock to the wild.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0115/p16s01-lifo.html

 

[Amy B]

We are joining up in emailing Ebay and other organisations to try to get these sales stopped.

Will you do the same?

Adrian

I will. I just looked at the website and I think it's disgusting. As a marine biologist and conservationst I just can't stand this kind of thing. There are other ways to make money. Humans are just destroying everything in the world for their own benefit and it's time we stopped and faced the consequences.

How are you going to go about emailing eBay etc? Do you have a standard email or something, or a petition or anything?

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Hi all

The site is terrible we should all work at getting things like this banned

 

[The Great Orca]

I will. I just looked at the website and I think it's disgusting. As a marine biologist and conservationst I just can't stand this kind of thing. There are other ways to make money. Humans are just destroying everything in the world for their own benefit and it's time we stopped and faced the consequences.

How are you going to go about emailing eBay etc? Do you have a standard email or something, or a petition or anything?

Yes you are 100%, humans are ignorant and money is everything now a days, it's even sicker when they sell Whale meat and Dolphins. If money wasn't an issue people would have jobs they actually like, more people in Marine Biology and Zoology.

 

[Finless]

I will. I just looked at the website and I think it's disgusting. As a marine biologist and conservationst I just can't stand this kind of thing. There are other ways to make money. Humans are just destroying everything in the world for their own benefit and it's time we stopped and faced the consequences.

How are you going to go about emailing eBay etc? Do you have a standard email or something, or a petition or anything?

I haven't checked that thread for a while. It started with individuals contacting Ebay and .... I will add a link to the thread later so that you can check for yourself.

[EDIT] http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=129232#post129232