Is the tide slowly turning for sharks?

Sharks populations have had a rather bad time of it over the last century. Their populations have suffered greatly and public perception had them painted as mindless killing machines. Sharks have been killed for simply existing, killed for sport and killed for food, more often than not, just for their fins. The release of Jaws in 1974 and its subsequent film the following year proved a watershed moment in shark hunting. Sadly the film led to a marked increase in shark persecution, especially for the great white shark as many where slaughtered from an unfounded belief that they were out to get humans and for macho sport. This increased persecution of sharks disastrously coincided with a great increase in the consumption of sharks fins soup. It is estimated that between 26-70 million sharks each year are killed for this industry. These events have seen shark populations decline great across the world, with species suffering over 70% drops in the population of some species.

Despite the continued threat to sharks, there does appear to be some hope on the horizon. The first breakthrough came back in 1991 when South Africa gave legal protection to great whites in its waters. More recently though truly major breakthroughs have occurred. In 2009 the Pacific island nation of Palau declared itself to be a shark sanctuary forbidding all commercial shark fish in its exclusive economic zone waters, which cover an area roughly the size of France. In 2010 Palau's example was followed by the Maldives and more recently the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Guam agreed to for join Palau in forming a 5200000km² region where sharks are protected and recently proposals for a similar sanctuary have been proposed for the Cook Islands. In addition to this, Kiribati, along with the United States formed the worlds largest marine reserve in 2009. Furthermore, Taiwan has declared a ban on shark finning commencing 2012. In North America, Honduras banned shark fishing in their waters in 2010 and the United States has given protection to 19 different species of shark and has banned finning on all US flagged vessels. The state of Hawaii has also implemented a ban on the sale and possession of shark fins with California, Oregon and Washington considering similar bans along with bans in numerous cities in Canada. In 2009 the European Commission proposed the first conservation measures for sharks in Europe. Progress has however been slow, although species such as the basking shark, the angel shark and the great white shark have protected status in European waters and as of November 2011 a protected status has been granted to the porbeagle shark as well.

Although there has been some improvement, progress has been slow and a great deal of work still needs to be done; many species of sharks are still in imminent danger, but slowly but surely there seems to be some hope for sharks. If we can continue to educate people on the importance of sharks to our ecosystems and show people that they are not mindless killers we can make a difference.

I would love to hear comments; I know this is going to be a long struggle, but has recent news given hope for sharks to anyone else?