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Iran Caught In Persian Gulf's Record Rise In Illegal Shark Hunting

The Persian Gulf has become lucrative fishing territory. Sharks, a threatened species, are being hunted to be used in cooking and medicines. Local fishermen are being arrested, but the operation involves people much higher up the food chain.

A hook for shark fishing.

Illegal shark fishing poses a threat to this already endangered species.

Kayhan London

LONDON — Iranians were informed in mid-May of another piece of endemic lawlessness in their country: illegal fishing of sharks in the Persian Gulf, with the catch destined for unspecified destinations and part of an ever bigger black market .

Authorities found a haul of 8,000 dead shark and shark fins in the port of Chabahar in south-east Iran, and 2,500 shark fins on the island of Kish, in the south-west of the country, in less than a week earlier in May. The chief environmental officer of the Sistan-and-Baluchestan province described the consignments, found in cold storage facilities, as the biggest so far.


Six fishermen were reported as arrested in Kish for the shark fins, and an unspecified number of suspects were separately identified in Chabahar, according to local media.

Sharks at the fish market in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

Fishermen sell sharks from the Persian Gulf at the fish market in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

OXLAEY.com

Worldwide firms

But with such figures, it seems unlikely the arrests of a dozen or so people will end illegal fishing in the Persian Gulf when it is a big business worldwide. The daily Payam-e ma recently cited a former marine environments officer at the state fishing organization, Hamidreza Bargahi, as qualifying shark fishing as "a huge trade, with the participation of big, global firms and organizations. But all we hear is about the arrests of a few fishermen."

We can add another threat, shark fishing for tourism.

The sharks are used for purposes that go beyond making soup, including medicine, or in the production of pet foods or even snacks. Shark fishing in the past 50 years is said to have reduced shark numbers worldwide by 70%. Unofficial reports put the retail price of a kilogram of shark fin in Persian Gulf coastal states at U.S. $400, which somewhat explains the interest.

Big fish, big fines

The IUCN, an alliance of conservation groups, has categorized several shark species as threatened or gravely threatened with extinction, because of overfishing. Today, we can add another threat, shark fishing for tourism. While big fish caught this way are usually released back into the water, the ecological effects of the practice remain uncertain.

Shark fishing is banned in Iran, and the practice is liable to big fines. It is thus thought to be done at night. The main regional countries identified with the trade are India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. In Iran's case, it is not clear if fished sharks are destined for those countries, and just how much shark fishing is even discovered or reported.

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Society

What's Spoiling The Kids: The Big Tech v. Bad Parenting Debate

Without an extended family network, modern parents have sought to raise happy kids in a "hostile" world. It's a tall order, when youngsters absorb the fears (and devices) around them like a sponge.

Image of a kid wearing a blue striped sweater, using an ipad.

Children exposed to technology at a very young age are prominent today.

Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ — A 2021 report from the United States (the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) found that 42% of the country's high-school students persistently felt sad and 22% had thought about suicide. In other words, almost half of the country's young people are living in despair and a fifth of them have thought about killing themselves.

Such chilling figures are unprecedented in history. Many have suggested that this might be the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sadly, we can see depression has deeper causes, and the pandemic merely illustrated its complexity.

I have written before on possible links between severe depression and the time young people spend on social media. But this is just one aspect of the problem. Today, young people suffer frequent and intense emotional crises, and not just for all the hours spent staring at a screen. Another, possibly more important cause may lie in changes to the family composition and authority patterns at home.

Firstly: Families today have fewer members, who communicate less among themselves.

Young people marry at a later age, have fewer children and many opt for personal projects and pets instead of having children. Families are more diverse and flexible. In many countries, the number of children per woman is close to or less than one (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong among others).

In Colombia, women have on average 1.9 children, compared to 7.6 in 1970. Worldwide, women aged 15 to 49 years have on average 2.4 children, or half the average figure for 1970. The changes are much more pronounced in cities and among middle and upper-income groups.

Of further concern today is the decline in communication time at home, notably between parents and children. This is difficult to quantify, but reasons may include fewer household members, pervasive use of screens, mothers going to work, microwave ovens that have eliminated family cooking and meals and, thanks to new technologies, an increase in time spent on work, even at home. Our society is addicted to work and devotes little time to minors.

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