Illegal Trade in Protected Sharks: The Case of Artisanal Whale Shark Meat Fisheries in Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, including that of sharks, poses a significant threat to marine ecosystems and individual species. I use data from the media, tourists, and artisan fishermen to gain insight into the trade in the world’s largest fish, the whale shark (Rhincodon typus). I focus on the Indonesian island of Java where, along its south coast, whale sharks are landed and butchered on the beach in view of hundreds of people and local media. Whale sharks are typically caught in fishing nets and dragged alongside boats to the shallows, where they are butchered. The meat and oil (valued at ~USD 2000 per shark) are sold and distributed within the community. I document 58 landings of mainly immature whale sharks (2002–2022). Artisanal fishermen see the landing of whale sharks as a fortuitous event, but the species is protected, and Indonesia is a signatory to various international agreements that preclude the fishing of whale sharks. It is imperative for the conservation of whale sharks that the various parties in Indonesia adhere better to their own rules and regulations protecting this species.

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“…Whale sharks strand occasionally on beaches in southern Africa (Wosnick et al, 2022) and more rarely in Australia (Speed et al, 2009) and other localities (Sampaio et al, 2018;Whitehead et al, 2019), but access to these sharks is complicated by the very unpredictable timing of strandings and the sometimes remote coastlines where it occurs. Whale sharks are also taken by fisheries in Asia, although in many cases access to these sharks can be complicated by the legal status of these industries (Nijman, 2023). Reproductive and some general sonographic anatomy has been reported in several other captive and wild species of sharks, mostly using restraint (Walsh et al, 1993;Carrier et al, 2003;Daly et al, 2007;Tomita et al, 2019), and there is a comprehensive description of anatomy of the banded houndshark (Triakis scyllium) imaged by CT and MRI (Kim et al, 2021), however there is no published data on the abdominal anatomy of the whale shark.…”