Aug. 2, 2007 — World demand for shark fin soup has resulted in a marine ecosystem domino effect that is reducing shellfish numbers to the point where an American soup favorite, clam chowder, is now under threat, according to a Current Biology paper published earlier this month.
Fishermen and diners alike are feeling the consequences.
The demand for shark fin soup "has not only left once economically valuable bivalve fisheries in crisis, but has precipitated an ecological and culinary bankruptcy," explained Andrew Brierley, the paper's author.
Brierley, a marine ecologist at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, added that "in many East Coast eateries, the famous clam chowder is resoundingly off the menu."
The relationship between shark fin soup and clam chowder has to do with nature's predator-prey balance. When shark populations are thriving, they eat other related species, including skates and rays. Such prey eat bivalves, so more skates and rays means fewer shellfish.
Brierley analyzed findings gathered by world-renown Dalhousie University fisheries biologist Ransom Myers, who died earlier this year, just three days before his groundbreaking work on shark-dominated ecosystems was published in the journal Science.
Myers found that intentional hunting of sharks, primarily for the Asian delicacy shark fin soup, along with unintentional shark deaths due to fisheries bycatch, has led to up to 98 percent declines for tiger sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and blacktip sharks along parts of the East Coast.
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"With fewer sharks around, the species they prey upon — like cownose rays — have increased in numbers, and in turn, hordes of cownose rays dining on bay scallops have wiped the scallops out," said Myers' colleague Julia Baum.
Brierley believes many other bivalves — including the hard-shelled Quahog clam — have suffered sharp population drops, due to large skate and ray populations.
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