It is difficult to nail down the exact number of sharks killed every year for their fins and accidentally as 'bycatch', but studies estimate somewhere between 30 and 100 million--70 million being a reasonably firm estimate. Much of the killing is done illegally or never comes aboard the fishing vessel. One participant in the SBflix contest made an excellent short film about the plight of sharks globally and aptly called it: 70 million. Watch it here.
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Jennifer Jacquet is a Ph.D. candidate with the Sea Around Us Project at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She works closely with Dr. Daniel Pauly, who coined the term Shifting Baselines, the syndrome on which this blog focuses.

Josh Donlan is a conservation scientist and a Visting Fellow at Cornell University. He often hides out in the backcountry of the Teton Mountains, pondering bygone giant beavers and ground sloths. He also is also the founder and Director of Advanced Conservation Strategies and has a habit of restoring remote islands.
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November 2008 Jennifer Jacquet is lead author of the study In hot soup: sharks captured in Ecuador's waters published in Environmental Sciences.
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Jan. 2008 Jennifer Jacquet launches the Eat Like a Pig Seafood Wallet Card
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« Illegal Shark Fishing in Galapagos | Main | Another Decline: Lobsters »
More on Shark Finning: 70 million
Category: Communicating
Posted on: May 15, 2007 10:01 AM, by Jennifer L. Jacquet

Comments
Thanks so much for mentioning my entry. I really hope the message about sharks continues to get out.
PS. I just heard about a great new film coming out - check out www.sharkwater.com
thanks stephen v2 www.outsideinthemovie.com
Posted by: stephen v2 | May 17, 2007 9:20 PM