Conservationists say the technology will be used to help protect the shark from predators of the human sort.
By Associated Press
Published August 19, 2003
DANIA BEACH - Scientists working to save one of the ocean's top predators are developing DNA technology to distinguish great white sharks from other kinds.
The research is being conducted by scientists from Nova Southeastern University's Guy Harvey Research Institute in Dania Beach and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. The breakthrough could help protect the great white from smugglers.
"With this tool, we'll be able to identify any part of a white shark and say, "This is a white shark: You lied to us by smuggling it in under a different name,' " said Ramon Bonfil, a Wildlife Conservation Society scientist. "We'll be able to nail the culprits."
While killing the great white is banned in several countries, including the United States, it is still being hunted out of existence.
Mahmood Shivji, director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute and the genetics research team, said the northwestern Atlantic great white population has dropped by 79 percent in 15 years.
Shivji said the drop was calculated by a study on catch records that found there were significantly fewer great white sharks caught now than in the 1980s.
"That's in an area where sharks are managed; in most parts of the world, where there's no management, we suspect declines are even greater," Shivji said. "There is a big market for white shark products. Much of it is underground, and prices are very high."
Great whites are hunted primarily for their jaws and teeth - a set of jaws can cost up to $30,000 - and fins are used for shark fin soup and meat, popular in Asia.
Researchers said DNA analysis of the sharks could be a good tool for law enforcement and lead to better protection.
A fisherman who catches a great white now can cut off the fins, carve up the meat and take it to market. "Unless the enforcement agent is extremely astute, great whites might slide through," said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville. "If the agent says, "This fin doesn't look quite right; I think it's a white shark,' the fisher can say, "That's not a white shark; it's a blacktip.'
"DNA analysis will allow real identification," Burgess said.
