Sharks are worth more than money

A curious juxtaposition in the July 3 issue of the Sun Herald: As the Sports section celebrated the angling (and thus gratuitous killing) of sharks for money as part of the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, the Insight section touted the Mississippi Sound as a “perfect summer home” for a variety of shark species. Reconciling these two points is not easy.

The Sound may indeed be a perfect home for tiger and bull sharks, thus their populations may be in good order — here. Credible organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature categorize them as either near or almost endangered. Globally each year, nearly 100 million sharks are killed, most through the barbaric practice of “finning,” overfishing, by-catch and degraded water and habitat quality.

That grotesque number may, in fact, be much higher. Given sharks’ reproductive processes, they simply cannot keep up to replace themselves. In other words, every shark counts, even those that comprise the healthy population of the Mississippi Sound.

A suggestion for next year’s 70th annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo: Instead of a $20,000 reward for catching a record tiger shark, how about a $20,000 donation to the USM Gulf Coast Research Laboratory for its Shark Research Program? Just as good: Consider a catch-and-release contest for sharks. Even better: Exclude sharks from the rodeo.

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Sharks are worth more than money."