10 Most Endangered Species

[Mr T.]

Great white shark is seen as a victim
By Sebastien Berger in Bangkok
(Filed: 13/10/2004)

The great white shark, traditionally seen as an avid consumer of human flesh, is to be protected from the people it terrifies, an international wildlife conference decided yesterday.

Great whites, which provided the terror factor in the Jaws films, can grow to 20 feet in length and have enormously powerful jaws and rows of sharp teeth. They attack an average of five people a year worldwide and kill about half their human victims.

Presenting the proposal to protect the great white, Ian Cresswell, of the Australian delegation at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Bangkok, said the fearsome fish had been the victim of bad publicity.

"No other species has been so vilified and so targeted through fear," he said. "International action must be taken to curb trade in great white shark products." He said sets of jaws were available online for as much as £30,000, with individual teeth priced as high as £600.

Japan, the world's biggest consumer of fish, opposed the proposal but the resolution was passed by 87 votes to 34.

The meeting decided to regulate cross-border sales. To issue a permit, a country will have to show that the trade will not damage the species, and activists said that because there was so little information about it that would be "frankly impossible".

Nicola Beynon, of Humane Society International, welcomed the decision. "Contrary to its reputation, the great white is not an invincible predator," she said.

"It has lived for 100 million years at the top of the food chain and has not evolved the reproductive capacity to cope with predation. It breeds very late in life, doesn't produce every year and has very small litters of pups."

Extrapolating from South African and Australian local estimates, Ramon Bonfil, a shark specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, said that despite the main human reaction to great whites being one of terror, the reality was the other way around.

"It's amazing when you think how skittish wild sharks can be and how cautious they are in their approach," he said.

"They are very inquisitive fish and, obviously, if you provoke them you are going to get a response, but normally it's not the behaviour Hollywood has passed to us."

For Bradley Smith, an Australian surfer, the experience was rather different. Savaged by two sharks, believed to be great whites, off Left Handers' Beach near Perth, he was bitten in the abdomen, pelvis and leg within 45 seconds and was dead by the time he was dragged to shore.

As authorities sought to locate his attackers, his brother Stephen said killing the sharks would be "an act of senseless revenge".

The great white is found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. About 500 die annually in Australian waters, most of them victims of fishermen seeking other species. Dr Bonfil estimated the global population of great whites at 10,000 to 20,000, but emphasised: "It's a huge guess."