JULY 12,
2019
Sharks—the
sea's top predators for millions of years—are at risk of disappearing from the
Mediterranean as overfishing and plastic pollution choke populations of the
endangered hunters, conservationists warned Friday.
The World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) said that more than half of shark and ray species in the
Mediterranean were under threat, and that almost a third of them have been
fished to the brink of extinction.
Its report,
released ahead of Shark Awareness Day, singled out Libya and Tunisia as the
worst culprits, with each country's fishery hauling in about 4,200 tonnes of
sharks a year—three times that of the next biggest Mediterranean fisher, Italy.
While some
species are targeted for food, many of the sharks fished in the Mediterranean
are bycatch caught up in nets set for other fish.
The WWF said
it had recorded more than 60 shark species entangled in fishing nets across the
Mediterranean.
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