Shark and Shark Products Trade Channel and its Conservation Aspects in Bangladesh

Shark, a major group of elasmobranch talked about globally as its population has been under serious threats due to over-exploitation mostly to meet the demand of shark fin soup especially in USA and China.

One of the most heavily fished regions in world’s ocean for shark is Bay of Bengal. Catching sharks haveincreased in the recent years mainly by using hooks and lines during wintermonths in this region. A group of dry fish traders are allegedly patronizing the shark hunting, processing and trading. Shark harvesting is done by using different fish trawl, shark net (modified long mesh drift gill net), hooks andlines and sometimes by trammel nets. Coastal waters of Kuakata, Sonar Char, Ruper Char, Fatrar Char and Char Gongmoti in Patuakhali; Dublar Char in Khulna; Ashar Char, Patharghata, Barguna and the Sunderbans; Sandwip, in Chittagong; Kutubdia, Moheshkhali and Elephant Point in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar are major shark hunting grounds of Bangladesh

Vibrio Species Isolated from Farmed Fish in Basra City in Iraq

The world fish production has grown recently- as a consequence of the decline production in capture fishery- with food fish supply increasing at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent, above the growth of the world population to 1.6 percent. World per capita apparent fish consumption increased from an average of 9.9 kg in the 1960s to 19.2 kg in 2012. According to the latest available statistics collected globally by FAO, world aquaculture production attained another all-time high of 90.4 million tons in 2012, including 66.6 million tons of food fish and 23.8 million tons of aquatic algae.

But this worldwide growth of aquaculture is overwhelmed by catastrophic fish diseases and spoilage caused by pathogenic bacteria, which are introduced to the fish farm through natural or artificial food sources, treated inlet water or through vertical transmission from brood stock. The most diseases are caused by Vibrio spp., which are considered the well-known cause of a significant problem for the development of a sector with strong economic losses worldwide because of its high morbidity and mortality rates (mortality ≥ 50%).