A meal with consequences: The quiet slaughter of ocean giants
- Feb 25
- 2 min read
Sharks have survived for millions of years, outliving the event that wiped out the dinosaurs. But today, eating them could help push some species even closer to extinction without us realising it.
This is because meat from CITES’s Endangered and Critically Endangered sharks is being sold in grocery stores, seafood markets, and online in the United States and around the world. Similar problems have been documented in the UK, Brazil, Mexico, Greece, Italy, and other countries.
To investigate the extent of this problem, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill used DNA barcoding to test 30 shark products. They purchased steaks and jerky from stores and websites in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia.
The results were alarming. Nearly a third came from species listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered, including great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, tope and shortfin mako sharks. The remainder included Vulnerable-listed spinner, lemon, common thresher, and blacktip shark, and the Near-Threatened smooth-hound and Pacific angelshark. Only one was from a Least-concern species.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, revealed that in one instance, an Endangered shortfin mako was labelled as a Vulnerable blacktip shark.
The discoveries highlight a serious regulation gap. “The legality of selling shark meat in the United States depends largely on where the shark was harvested and the species involved, due to regulations under CITES and the Endangered Species Act,” explains Dr Savannah J Ryburn, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Beyond conservation concerns, shark comes with a health risk. Some contain high mercury levels, methylmercury, and arsenic that can damage the brain and nervous system, cause cancer, and harm unborn babies.
Yet, shark meat remains surprisingly cheap in the US. Fresh steaks were found on average for as little as $6.56 per kilogram, while jerky averaged around $207 per kilogram.
Dr Ryburn offers recommendations for addressing this issue. “Sellers in the United States should be required to provide species-specific names, and when shark meat is not a food security necessity, consumers should avoid purchasing products that lack species-level labelling or traceable sourcing.”
This article was originally published in the fourth edition of ThisWildEarth. Explore our publications here.
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