Fishermen based in Donsol, the Philippines, caught one of the world’s rarest sharks, the megamouth (Megachasma pelagios), in a trawling net on March 30th.
The megamouth is so rare that each one gets numbered, and only 40 other sitings have ever been recorded, making this shark number 41.
Not a lucky number for this one, as it ended up as dinner.
The megamouth is named after its enormous mouth – a meter wide – and is a recent discovery, with the first one caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. The discovery prompted the creation of a new family and genus for it because of the major differences between it and previously known sharks. It was called “the 20th century’s most significant marine find” by the scientific community.
The megamouth shark is one of only three filter-feeding shark species, along with the basking and whale shark, and feeds on plankton, small fish, and jellyfish at shallow depths (15 meters).
After identification, it was butchered and eaten. WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca identified the shark and tried to talk fishermen out of eating it, but shark meat is a delicacy in the Bicol region of the Philippines, and the megamouth ended up on the table.
Image: ©WWF-Philippines/Elson Aca
About Derek Markham
A message to WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca :
Why don’t you simply pay the fishermen for the shark and then set it free, you know, in human society “money talks”, much better than yours “tried to talk fishermen out of eating it”…….
Please remember, next time make sure you bring along some hard cash before wasting your time on such issues….this is shameful ! It was your incompetent that ends up with such tragedy, either you are empowered to stop them or you are financed to stop them, otherwise it’d only make people felt much hurt with your hopeless and foolish act.
The fisherman were advised of the rarity of this animal. This shark is not a danger to humans and sounds as though it’s extremely docile. There have got to be enforced international rules/laws that will protect the rare/extinct animal populations. As a consequence, the people who caught and ate the shark should be severely reprimanded such as taking away their work permit/fishing license, whatever. That way officials can say to the perpetrators: “Hope you really enjoyed that meal cause it’s going to be your last good meal for a while.”
On the other hand, poor countries/people only see this animal as a meal for their families and who are we to say who can or cannot eat.
I’m a Christian and was taught that man has “dominion” over every other animal on earth. My parents to me and my siblings to respect and give thanks to/for the food we’re eating but to also respect all of nature and to be kind and protect innocent life. Probably paying these people off not to eat the shark would have been the best thing to do in this situation.
Why do these sort of people/countries always get off the hook because they are “poor people”?
They are killing a MASSIVELY endangered creature, only the 41st one EVER recorder since 1976! That is only just more than ONE sighting per year!
THat is so cool
sure its bad that they ate the shark but really it makes no difference the shark species being alive does not benifit mankind in fact any endangered animal is more trouble than its worth we should be spending that money we are using on those animals on something better because in the end they are gonna b extinct all we are doing is slowing the process slightly