News

The increasing demand for shark fin soup is responsible for the sharp decline in Atlantic blue shark populations, according to a study published this week.

Marine scientists from the UK and Portugal followed a sample of blue sharks crossing the Atlantic through satellite tracking and discovered that fishermen using longline nets - or "walls of death" - are hunting the species deeper, and at a higher pace than ever before.

"The sharks are having to cross a wall of death across the continental shelf edge off the south west of the UK," said the Marine Biological Association's David Sims.

"The fishermen know what they are going to be catching. Due to the reduction of target species such as tuna and swordfish, they have come to rely on blue shark and mako shark to improve the profit from each trip," he added.

It is believed that more than 1 million blue sharks are caught and finned in the Atlantic every year.