By Emre Küpcük
This opinion piece has also been published on The Maastricht Diplomat.
The latest European Citizens Initiative that made headlines and managed to pass over 1 Million signatures was the Stop Finning - Stop Shark Trade Initiative. The initiative has the aim to legally ban the trade of shark fins in Europe. However, up until the rise of the initiative and its push on social media platforms such as Instagram, the issue was barely recognised and only was a problem European conservationists, and environmentalists knew of, not European citizens. The factuality of the latter points to a larger problem within the EU which is its lack of attentiveness and transparency when it comes to its species protection and nature protection laws.
Even though officially the removal of shark fins on board of EU vessels and waters is prohibited, it is still legal within the EU to catch sharks with their fins still attached. The European Union is further one of Asia’s major exporters of fins and shamefully acts as a transit hub for the global fin trade. The IUCN lists 38 shark species in European waters, out of which only 2 are listed as Least Concern, one of which lives 200m below sea level and another which is not at all an apex predator.
The real picture is that all shark numbers in European waters, especially the Mediterranean are decreasing. The effects of this decrease are also already present with European reefs dying and ours seas rising in temperature as a result of the damage with the removal of sharks. The bigger picture is not any better, even if we include the entire primary classification of ‘shark species’ there are 77 species of Chondrichthyes within European domain waters (Sharks, Rays, Skates and Sawfish, Chimaeras), only 10 are listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, again, none are apex predators, or even predators at all.
The European Union is further one of Asia’s major exporters of fins and shamefully acts as a transit hub for the global fin trade… The real picture is that all shark numbers in European waters, especially the Mediterranean are decreasing.
Sharks and Climate Change
Sharks help balance the ecosystem, their disappearance would lead to an explosion of fish populations, which in turn would lead to a shortage of other marine resources. As plankton, algae, and other food sources die off, the fish and corals would eventually follow suit, along with marine mammals, leading to a collapse of the entire marine ecosystem.
If the oceans die out, climate change as a result only worsen. This is why sharks are especially important to keep alive and protect. Removing apex predators from ecosystems have time and time again shown catastrophic change for the environment and climate change.
Removing apex predators from ecosystems have time and time again shown catastrophic change for the environment and climate change.
Real life example of apex predator loss and consequent havoc is the extinction of the Caspian tiger (2003), the caucasian leopard (1950s) extinct in Southern Europe and maybe the most famous extinction of wolves from European forests by 1970s due to over hunting and habitat loss. This has resulted in a huge surge in prey animal numbers like the wild boar. Today there is an est. 10 million wild boar in the EU and they cause €100 million in crop damage annually only in Italy alone. This is simply because the guys at the top were wiped out and the ecosystem is now in shambles.
The EU’s Role
The European Union, despite having considerable goals and ambitious aims for green energy, the environment and sustainability, time and time again has proven that it cares little to null about anything other than human well-being and economy within its borders and has no regard to any other living organisms. This is worrying as from the conservationist point of view, the EU nor its members cannot be trusted with any goals and aims which have to do with nature, sustainability and the environment, as long as there are economic gains to be made.
Thus, the European Union and its members’ stolidness when it comes to species protection is not only an issue for conservation, or for the climate goals of the EU, it is also a stab in the back of its own self when it comes to its goals to sustain the nature around it.
Whether this is due to the pitiful lack of conservationists and naturalist scientist working in the Joint Research Centre of the EU (the EU’s main source of scientific advice and knowledge), or just wilful ignorance, the fact that the citizens of the EU had to bring up the topic of banning shark fin trade from the EU has become a horrendous stain on EU’s track record as a normative power actor on climate and environment politics.
The EU and its members’ stolidness when it comes to species protection is not only an issue for conservation, or for the climate goals of the EU, it is also a stab in the back of its own self when it comes to its goals to sustain the nature around it.
BridgeEurope Blog serves as a platform for reflection and discussion on current topics. The opinions expressed in the blog represent the view of the authors solely and not the view of BridgeEurope.
Emre Küpcük Emre Küpcük is a student of European Studies at Maastricht University and the Chief Communications Officer of Bridge Europe. He focuses on the connection of human development to conservation and biodiversity, through building 'bridges' on sensitive topics with his organization.