With a 98 percent population decline between 1970 and 2005, the distinctive scalloped hammerhead shark is one of the latest species to make it to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) endangered list. The cause? Overfishing due to a growing demand for shark fins in China.
Julia Baum of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, told the Times of London, "[T]he oceans are being emptied of sharks, and the scale of the problem is global.... If we continue in the way we are going, we are looking at a really high risk of extinction for some of these species within the next few decades."
Another eight species of shark will be added to the IUCN's list in October. Baum and other shark researchers attribute this increasing threat of shark extinction to China's economic boom, and its attendant rise in demand for shark fin. Served at weddings and important business functions, the dish is considered a delicacy in China. Shark fins can sell for $300 a kilogram, and 26 million and 73 million shark fins are sold annually in the Hong Kong market -- more than three times the total declared to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation.
But it's not just sharks that are coming under threat due to the burgeoning Chinese middle class. In this week's List of the World's Worst Poaching Markets, FP identifies four other creatures that are facing extinction through illegal poaching for reasons ranging from taste to treatment. Check it out here.
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