Squalene found in sharks livers, is perhaps the second most sought after raw product of sharks. Where the value of the animal is almost worthless compared to just its liver. Used in high end cosmetics millions of animals each year are killed just to acquire their squalene. Unfortunately this poor use of sharks gets almost no media attention compared to the well covered and ongoing eco disaster of shark finning. Here's a graphic example of why the shark conservation community should focus in 2009 on the twin killers of sharks, finning and squalene harvest.
This gravid female Tiger shark is having her liver carefully harvested while near term pups litter the ground in the UAE. This is a scene being replayed in thousands of small ports all over the planet right now. The bigger the shark the more squalene a fisherman can harvest leading to the one time "targeted kills" of entire breeding populations:
The shark diving industry blog covering sharks, shark cage diving, shark conservation and things we find "amusing" since 2008 www.sharkdiver.com, www.sharkdivers.com, www.divingwithsharks.com
2 comments:
All the more frustrating because a suitable substitute - a botanical "squalene" - is available from olives. Check this August posting from my RTSea blog: http://rtseablog.blogspot.com/2008/08/dr-larkcom-losing-sharks-for-bottle-of.html
As always sir you're on target waaaay before us;)
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