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Sharks as Biofuel: Another Milestone to Extinction?
Written by Mary Chipman   
Monday, 25 April 2011 13:00

Thousands of shark carcasses being processed. Photo: Shawn Heinrichs
Several news items about the feasibility of using sharks for biofuel have popped up recently, one targeting the little-known Greenland shark, and more recently, a project initiated by fishing industry research groups and companies from Vigo, Spain.1

The Vigo process involves chemically extracting oil from mako shark livers for use as biofuel for longline fishing vessels. The companies involved estimate that the possible savings from a shark liver biofuel may range between 5 and 7 percent. These numbers are not stated in relation to the specific costs involved, the proportion of shark biofuel to regular fuel, or the quantity of fuel consumed per voyage. If a mako shark weighing 70 kilos (154 pounds) has a liver weighing 5 kilos (11 pounds), then it will yield approximately 3.5 liters or just under a gallon of oil.2

Greenland shark. Photo by Doug Perrine
Even a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis of these incomplete figures shows that the benefit is minimal and accrues only to vessels equipped to process the shark biofuel. The unstated assumption behind the figures put forth is that sharks are a renewable resource or readily available resource.

They are far from it. Sharks are already being fished out of our oceans on a staggering scale for the shark fin soup trade and as bycatch. Mako sharks are threatened, and Greenland sharks near-threatened, according to the IUCN’s Red List.

Mako shark. Photo: Paul Spielvogel
You can't farm sharks and harvest them like corn. Sharks mature slowly, and like many species, cannot thrive in a crowded pen. No shark species can reproduce fast enough or is available in sufficient numbers for shark liver biofuel to become a viable, long-term economic option.

History should have taught us that the unfettered harvesting of marine animals for their oil leads inevitably down the path of extinction, as the whaling industry demonstrated in the 19th century. Even if the argument could be made that the rest of the shark was used for food, or that it was bycatch and was going to be thrown out anyway, it's doubtful if sharks could survive yet another economic incentive to harvest them. The kind of overfishing that could occur if the technology for turning sharks into biofuel becomes economically feasible is depressing to contemplate.

The event that saved whales from extinction was when they were replaced by electricity as an energy source (whale oil was used for lamps). It would be cruelly ironic if the act that hastened the extinction of sharks was their use as an energy source.

Mary Chipman
Contributing Editor


1. The Institute of Marine Research (IIM), the Cooperative of Shipowners of the Port of Vigo (Arvi), the Department of Applied Physics, the University of Vigo, and the companies Xenotechs and Mecanasa.

2. Data from FIS World News.

Comments (3)

Mazurel said:

Mr
To make biofuel from sharks. A bad bad idea. Sharks belong to the oceans, they are a very important for the health of the oceans. There are no endless supplies of sharks to catch and they too can go extinct or nearly extinct - just like the buffalo. The oceans without sharks will be filled up with trillions of non eatable yellifish, you can see it happening already with the giant yellifish
It all goes down to : The oceans and its inhabitants need URGENT protection. Casper Mazurel
 
June 11, 2011
Votes: +0

John Smart said:

Mr
there is more oil in the world than sharks, so I do not think the cost of catching sharks for fual would be cost effective, but if they did use sharks for fual then it would not last long as there are not many left. who ever suggested this idea is clearly not of sound mind.
 
May 02, 2011
Votes: +0

Helen Woodfield said:

Ms
If this were feasable, and I sincerely have my doubts, then hypothetically, shark liver oil would be used to fuel the vessels to go and catch...more sharks. This madness should be nipped in the bud right now.
 
April 26, 2011
Votes: +0

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