Fishing is a profession that faces two major problems. First, it is extremely difficult to make a decent living as a fisherman. Fluctuating market prices and unpredictable weather conditions, not to mention climate change, make the occupation inherently unstable. Yet some protected marine animals, most notably sharks, are worth massive sums in certain markets. The fishermen who are willing to illegally catch these animals are some of the only fishermen with relative financial stability.
I would like to make an outrageous suggestion that would in one fell swoop increase financial stability for many fishermen and severely cut into the black market in shark cartilage and meat. I would propose that the government sponsor a project to find a shark species that is suitable to farming, and then train fishermen to open and operate farms that raise those sharks for their lucrative commodities. This scheme would give struggling fishermen a stable, profitable alternative to trawling for ever-lessening schools of commonly sold fish like cod and salmon. At the same time, the unregulated black market would lose its monopoly on shark products.
You might object that fishermen aren't farmers or that the international black market in a given commodity is not our concern. I agree. We should not ask fishermen to do this work if they don't care to, and we should not try to farm sharks solely to eliminate a black market in their products. But, you might argue, fish farming has many inherent issues and, by providing shark products, we are condoning the capture of wild sharks. And here, we part ways. Fish farming is only problematic when it is undertaken irresponsibly, and there is a marked difference between farmed marine commodities and those that are obtained by poaching.
Our current thinking about sharks is limited to (often endangered) wild sharks, because no species has been found that is suitable for farming. The image that comes to mind when we think about shark products is one of a poacher slicing off a shark's fins and dumping the helpless animal back in the water to die. This limits our ability to think creatively about the animal itself and its value to the world economy. If we could farm sharks to relatively large sizes, say, five or six feet, then (in addition to, of course, not hunting wild sharks) we could generate a significant amount of income for struggling fishermen: sharks' fins, jaws, meat and skin are all worth significant amounts in markets around the world.
It would be unrealistic to suggest that shark poaching would end entirely if this plan were undertaken. But the demand for the illicit product would be significantly reduced. Who would want a fin torn from a wild shark in an unknown state of health and under inhumane conditions when another was available from a healthy, safe, well-documented stable of sustainably harvested animals?