- Target:
- Congress
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- ocean.org
Due to overfishing, there has been a 90% decrease in the population of sharks across the world, and in the U.S. east coast waters, there has been a 99% decrease. Just for fins and oil, about 270,000 sharks are killed each day. The number of sharks in our oceans today is only 10% of what it was 50 years ago.
Three main causes that are endangering sharks is killing them for their squalene, finning sharks, and sharks getting caught in byctach. Deep sea sharks are still being killed for their squalene, an oil found in their livers, even though it has pushed several species to the brink of extinction.
Sharks are still being finned, and then thrown back into the ocean to die. The nets that are used to catch fish and other marine life are not discriminatory so they end up catching and killing species such as sharks, dolphins, and whales.
We, the undersigned, call on Congress to...
1. Make killing sharks for their squalene illegal.
2. Ensure that all sharks are landed with their fins still attached.
3. Create alternatives to the current fishing nets so that they are discriminatory and reduce the amount of bycatch.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Protect Endangered Sharks petition to Congress was written by Cori Hume-Flannery and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.