What Tigers are to maintaining the balance of life on land, Sharks are to the Oceanic ecosystems of the world!

Globally, millions of sharks are ruthlessly hunted for their fins. After catching the sharks and cutting their dorsal fins, the sharks are then tossed back into the sea to die a slow and painful death!!

Apart from the horror of this practice, the balance of sea life is seriously disturbed as sharks are high up the food chain and control the population of a large variety of smaller fish-life. India is one of the biggest killer of sharks!!

The barbarians are now at our gates because most other nations of the world have started restricting fishing practices that lead to killing of Sharks. The mighty Mobile Phone that has empowered the fisherman with easy access to shark fin buyers, has made India the centrepiece of the regional shark-finning industry. We should never ignore the compulsions of the poor fishermen of our country, but are we about to sell the health of our oceans for a few measly dollars? We say, NO! There are choices, without compromising the fishermen’s income, to save our ecosystem!

 

These are pictures of  catch from a boat held by local authorities for illegally fishing in the waters of Lakshadweep. The boat responsible was doing IUU, Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing.  Lakshadweep’s territorial waters are an area only boats from Lakshadweep are permitted to fish.

Local fishermen use only the eco-friendly pole and line fishing techniques and target tuna and illegal fishing boats from Kerala and Tamil Nadu pose a great threat to the livelihood and ecology of Lakshadweep, and its an increasing threat these days.