- Shark harvests in Goa and Kakinada are driven mainly by supply-side factors although there is rising consumer demand, a study has reported.
- India is the third largest shark fishing nation globally and understanding market dynamics could help in developing effective policies for sustainability.
- While shark meat is the main traded product at the study sites, shark fin trade also continues despite a national ban, the study finds.
A new study investigates shark trade in two locations in India: Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh on the east coast and Goa on the west coast and finds that shark meat, rather than fins, was the main traded product at both sites. Shark harvest was driven predominantly by supply-side factors, suggesting fishing is driven more by what fishers catch and sell rather than consumer demand, although the study also uncovered rising local consumption. It also revealed that despite the national ban, shark fin export continues, especially in Kakinada.
India, home to around 160 species of sharks — of which around 11% are threatened — is the third largest shark fishing nation globally. Shark fishing occurs in various states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala where diverse shark species are caught as targeted or bycatch in multi-species fisheries. Currently, twenty-six shark and ray species are protected under India’s Wildlife Protection Act; shark finning and fin exports are prohibited. Understanding market dynamics, which refers to whether the market is dominated by supply- or demand-driven processes, can guide where interventions for sustainability should be targeted, says the study.
Most respondents in this interview-based study reported declining shark catch, consistent with national assessments reporting that shark and ray stocks were either ‘declining’ or ‘less abundant’ on India’s coast. While black-tip sharks are a productive species, population models suggest that harvest rates of juveniles in Goa are unsustainable. “Our work highlights the potentially unsustainable nature of shark fishing and trade in Goa and Kakinada and emphasises the need to intervene for sustainability,” the researchers state in the paper.
The team suggests a suite of interventions targeting different points of the supply chain — from fishers to traders to consumers — to improve the sustainability of the shark trade. The researchers state “our proposed interventions either work directly to manage shark exploitation or indirectly by strengthening or regulating socio-economic drivers to enable a more sustainable and equitable fishery.”
“It’s a good study; very much needed given India’s growing consciousness and responsibilities towards shark conservation,” says Shoba Joe Kizhakudan, Head of the Finfish Fisheries Division of ICAR-CMFRI, who was not involved in the research. “The policy interventions suggested align well with the National Plan of Action for Sharks – India, which was recently notified by the Government of India.”
Goa versus Kakinada
In 2022 and 2023, the team conducted semi-structured interviews with supply chain actors, particularly fishers and traders at Goa and Kakinada. Goa is a small coastal state in western India with 41 fishing villages and five major fishing harbours while Kakinada is a major fishing centre in the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh. The latter hosts two fish landing centres of which Kumbabhishekam fishing harbour is the main hub for shark trade in the region.
Fishers in Goa are small-scale and include gillnetters who seasonally target juvenile blacktip sharks and other fishers who use a variety of gears to capture other shark species as bycatch throughout the year. In Kakinada, the fishers interviewed mainly used motorised boats that operated gillnets and lines and caught large-bodied sharks. Traders in Kakinada also included auctioneers, who were not a major actor group in Goa.
In Goa, small-scale fishers emerged as the supply chain actors who seasonally targeted juvenile sharks, and were found to have relatively high access and negotiation power in the market. “Fishers in Goa had a much better knowledge of the supply chain, of traders, of prices, and they could choose where to sell their catch,” says Trisha Gupta, lead author of the study, which was based on her Ph.D. at Oxford University. Most of the fishers at Goa she interviewed said they “had several different markets and traders whom they had the contacts of, and based on who’s offering the highest prices, they would sell their catch to them.”
In contrast, fishers in Kakinada had low access to benefits from the market and low negotiation power. “They’ve had very limited knowledge about the actual prices, where their catch is going, and how the catch is being sold because it would just go through an auctioneer,” explains Gupta, who is now a conservation scientist at the EDGE of Existence Programme at the Zoological Society of London. “So, they didn’t have much involvement in that process. And ultimately, they receive very little economic benefits; the share of profits is low.” The fishers also had a debt relationship with either the auctioneers or other traders. Auctioneers are a closed group of about 30 men who auction off all catch from boats to the highest bidder. They provided loans to a certain number of boats and had fixed contracts with them.
In Goa, small-scale fishers seasonally targeted juvenile sharks. While blacktip sharks are relatively productive, producing up to 11 pups every two years, the harvest rates of juveniles in Goa are relatively high and models suggest they are likely unsustainable.
Wholesalers in both sites had the highest market access to benefits from sharks, negotiation power and connectivity with other supply chains. In Kakinada, wholesalers monopolised the fin trade and were important actors in the meat trade. When local demand exceeds supply, wholesalers import sharks from other harbours, potentially driving fishing and retention of sharks in these other sites. “Hence, although we found that harvest of sharks was largely supply-driven, the market appears to be more complex and shows some demand-driven characteristics,” explain the researchers.
Shark fin trade continued despite bans as wholesalers in Kakinada sent fins of large-bodied sharks to Chennai, which was identified in past studies as a major hub for fin export from India.
Shark meat consumption
The findings suggest that shark meat consumption is significant in Goa and Kakinada despite high prices, and likely in other parts of India. “Blacktip sharks and bull sharks (C. leucas) were preferred for consumption and higher priced,” noted the researchers, “while hammerhead sharks (S. lewini) in Goa and tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) in Kakinada were less preferred for consumption and hence cheaper.” The increasing demand for shark meat was not surprising. In 2019, a study reported that the domestic market for shark meat was the main local driver for harvests rather than the global trade in shark fins. A recent survey found that coastal eateries are an important part of the domestic supply chain for shark meat.
This warrants further investigation to understand the demand and consumption patterns such as who is consuming this meat, the frequency, and its motivations, says Gupta. “Based on this information,” she says, “demand-reduction campaigns and alternative protein sources can be developed.”
Kizhakudan, of the CMFRI, disagrees that demand for shark meat is a major driver for shark fishing. She refers to a study conducted in 2017 by ICAR-CMFRI and WWF-India investigating shark consumption patterns across the Indian coastal states where different layers of consumers were surveyed. “Our study indicates that while shark consumption is relatively high in some states, sharks are not considered a ‘must have’. Most of the consumers were ready to forgo shark meat in place of other fishes,” Kizhakudan says.
“I would advise cautiousness in advocating the idea of growing demand for shark meat in India. Yes, we still get reports of illegal fin trade, but that does not indicate shark hunting en masse for meat. That said, there is no doubt that shark conservation actions need to pick up momentum in India, while at the same, time the interests of the fishers should be safeguarded,” she added.
Interventions and policies for shark sustainability
Based on the study’s findings, the researchers have suggested several management interventions and policies that can be implemented for fishers, traders and consumers to make the trade sustainable.
For Kakinada, where fishers have low access to benefits from the market, Gupta suggests improving fisher access through policies that provide credit. She also recommends increasing fishers’ access to market information and strengthening local institutions such as fisher cooperatives. Such measures can improve the share of benefits to fishers and hence reduce unsustainable practices, she says. “Empowering fishers, by putting them in a more financially stable position where they can choose and adopt more sustainable measures, which is not possible if they don’t have that financial security,” explains Gupta.
Policies that strengthen and improve fisher access can help reduce the monopoly of traders. “Improving trade management, through measures like better registration and licensing of traders, can help monitor and improve traceability in the supply chain,” Gupta adds.
For Goa, where fishers have relatively high access and target sharks in a supply-driven fishery, we may need interventions that better regulate the fishery through social incentives. Social incentives, she explains, can be negative or positive. An example of positive incentives is rewarding fishers with an award or a newspaper article for adopting shark-friendly fishing practices. For negative incentives, Gupta explains, “What if the villagers, their village, and themselves as individuals, get a bad name because of the shark fishing practices? Would that be enough to get them to stop doing it?”
Catch quotas could be implemented in Goa or another possibility is to completely halt fishing whilst providing alternative income and food sources. This would be done with community participation, adds Gupta. ”For example, if communities collectively agree to stop shark fishing completely, if they are given some alternatives or some other options, and if it’s also enforced by the government at the same time, that might work, but it’s still a complicated thing that will need a lot more work and a lot more engagement of communities to implement something like that,” she acknowledges.
To curb shark fin trading, the researchers recommend strengthening enforcement of the export ban in Chennai. They also call for improved monitoring and traceability along the supply chain, which can lead to a better understanding of the flow of products and help devise appropriate trade restrictions.
“There’s still so much we don’t know in terms of shark and ray meat trade and consumption in India,” cautions Gupta. “We need more research like this that maps the trade and also understand what’s driving the trade in order to design appropriate interventions.”
Read more: Eating shark meat might be normal in India but it could have an adverse impact
Banner image: Small-scale gillnet fishers in Goa. Image by Trisha Gupta.
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