Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Some 73 million sharks are killed each year for their fins, depriving ocean habitats of this vital top predator.

The world’s shark populations are in grave trouble.  With over 100 million sharks killed each year as either bycatch by fisherman or a cruel practice known as finning, shark populations are verging on collapse with at least an estimated thirty percent of open ocean sharks threatened with extinction.  As apex predators near or at the top of the oceans food chains sharks are critical to the stability of our ocean’s ecosystems.  Slow to reach sexual maturity and giving birth to very few offspring, shark populations are slow to recover and very susceptible to overfishing and as their worldwide numbers plummet sharks, and our oceans, face a very uncertain future.  To ensure the species survival and stability countries worldwide must recognize this threat and work towards adopting methods that will ensure their recovery. In order to help further our work on protecting shark species Defenders of Wildlife is happy to welcome the great white shark as our newest adoptable animal in our wildlife adoption center and hope it will make quite a splash.

Alejandra Goyenechea, our international counsel, is one of the staff here who works internationally to advocate for shark protections. I was lucky enough to have a chance to talk with her and find out some of the work Defenders is involved in as we work to protect sharks worldwide.

Q: What is Defenders doing over the next two years to help protect sharks worldwide and how/who are we working with to help protect them?

A: Over the next 2 years Defenders will advocate for sharks in Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for better and stronger conservation measures at the international level. We are going to work in collaboration with countries to adopt conservation measures at the international level at the various fora in which sharks are included in agendas such as International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna and InterAmerican Tropical Tuna Commission both of which we will be working to establish better strategies and stronger enforcement and regulations to stop bycatch as well as the Convention on Migratory Speicies and CITIES for stronger trade laws for the most endangered shark species.

Q: Which sharks most desperately need our help and why?

A: Based on population data currently the sharks that most critically need our help are the hammerhead sharks, ocean whitetip, sandbar, and dusky.

Q: What is the biggest threat to sharks today and how are we working to stop it?

A: The biggest threat to sharks is bycatch, finning and lack of information to consumers. We will work at the international level to collaborate with countries worldwide to adopt measures that will decrease the impact of international trade to these threatened and critically endangered species.

Q: Why is it so hard to protect sharks internationally?

A: The biggest threats sharks face is from the governments of countries that display a lack of good will and refuse to stop the importation or exportation of shark fins and meat despite the growing science pointing to population crashes through the world’s oceans.  Because of this the majority of the government decisions are political and in their own self interest and not science based.

This is Lonesome George tortoise which also lives on the Galapagos Islands but is a different species than the one rediscovered

We here at Defenders of Wildlife are constantly working to prevent the extinction of species because once something is gone, it can never come back. However sometimes something wonderful happens and an animal you thought was gone forever suddenly turns up. That’s exactly what has happened on the northern shore of Isabela Island in the Galapagos archipelago, according to an MSNBC story that appeared today. 

As it turns out, the tortoise wasn’t extinct after all—it had just moved. Even more interesting is that despite not yet having actually seen one, scientists know that it must exist because they have found its DNA in the genomes of a hybrid offspring they have discovered on the island. This marks the first time that a species has been rediscovered by tracing its genetic material through its offspring.  Very cool!  So we here at Defenders would like to say “Welcome back!”

Teyeliz President Maria Elena Sanchez (middle), Defenders Mexico Director Juan Carlos Cantu, and Supervivencia producer Cynthia Ruiz accept a Conservation of Nature award in Communications for their wildlife radio program.

More and more people are recognizing that protecting wildlife is an important mission that transcends geographic boundaries and crosses media. And now our conservation partners in Mexico have the accolades to prove it.

Last week, a Defenders-funded radio show, Supervivencia, won a “Conservation of Nature” award in Communications! The program is hosted by Maria Elena Sanchez, president of Teyeliz, A.C. and wife of Defenders’ Mexico Program Director Juan Carlos Cantu, and focuses on threats to biodiversity.

Supervivencia is broadcasted weekly from Mexico City on IMER, a national governmental radio station that reaches more than 200,000 people across the country. Maria Elena and Juan Carlos created the show with help from Defenders to educate Mexican citizens about threats to parrots, sea turtles, mangrove forests and other major conservation challenges in the country.

Coyote tracks mark the sand at Medanos de Samalayuca near Ciudad Juarez, where the awards ceremony took place

The show was honored last Tuesday by officials of the Mexican government during National Conservation Week at a ceremony in Ciudad Juarez. The celebration and awards ceremony took place at the “Medanos de Samalayuca,” among the highest and largest sand dunes in Mexico, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas in the state of Chihuahua. The dunes are one of the country’s natural protected areas and home to coyotes, jack rabbits and kangaroo rats—just a few of the animals that had left visible tracks on the day of the ceremony.

Places like these exemplify the abundance of wildlife that our Mexican colleagues are fighting to protect. And with award-winning shows like Supervivencia, our allies have shown that they continue to lead the way.

Congratulations to the producers of the radio show and to Maria Elena and Juan Carlos for all their terrific work!

Defenders of Wildlife and numerous zoos across the country are in a fight for the lives of frogs. That’s right. The critters that mesmerized many of us as children are in trouble.  Chytrid fungus, a deadly skin disease, has struck many species of frogs, and is spreading through Central America at an average rate of about 30 km per year. This is a race against the clock, with survival of the worldwide amphibian population in jeopardy.

Already, the disease has wiped out 90 species all over the world, including Puerto Rico, the United States, Australia, Central and South America. Defenders is working with scientists that are on the ground in Panama, capturing frogs before chytrid reaches them and searching for a cure.

Learn More

Read part one of a two-part series on the challenges we are facing to stop this deadly disease.

Check out some pictures of the diverse array of frogs.

Read more about this project in Defenders magazine.

Frog Leg Trade Decimates Species and Causes Ecological Chaos
New report highlights dangers of international frog leg trade

WASHINGTON, D.C./MUNICH (July 26, 2011) – International wildlife conservation groups Pro Wildlife, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Animal Welfare Institute, issued a report today titled Canapés to Extinction: The international trade in frogs’ legs and its ecological impact. The report is the first comprehensive study of the frog leg market ever conducted and reveals an industry that is systematically devastating frog populations throughout the world and, subsequently, causing severe environmental impacts to natural ecosystems.

“Humans have been eating frogs for ages. But today the practice is not sustainable on a global scale,” said Alejandra Goyenechea, acting director of international conservation programs for Defenders of Wildlife. “Billions of frogs are traded internationally each year for human consumption, and that industry is responsible for depleting wild populations, spreading deadly disease, and allowing invasive species to destroy the health of native ecosystems.”

In recent years, the United States has imported an average of 2,280 tonnes (4.6 million pounds) of frog legs each year—the equivalent of 456 million to 1.1 billion frogs—and another 2,216 tonnes (4.4 million pounds) of live frogs for Asian-American markets. Most frog and frog leg imports to the U.S. come from China, Taiwan, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Mexico and Indonesia.

During the last decade, the European Union imported an average of 4,600 tonnes (9.2 million pounds) of frog legs each year—the equivalent of 1 to 2.3 billion frogs. Indonesia is the world’s leading supplier, providing 84 percent of total imports to the EU with the vast majority of frogs being caught in the wild. Belgium, France and the Netherlands are the top importers in the EU.

“The decline of many frog species is a global problem that is being greatly accelerated by just a handful of European nations,” said Sandra Altherr, director of wildlife programs for Pro Wildlife in Germany. “The capture and killing of native frogs is prohibited within the EU, so it is incomprehensible that we would be supporting environmentally disastrous practices abroad.”

American bullfrog

Until the mid-1980s, India and Bangladesh dominated the international frog leg export market. Severe exploitation resulted in the collapse of many wild frog populations in those countries, including two of the most sought-after species, the green pond frog and the Indian bullfrog. In turn, the decline of those species resulted in a dramatic increase in the use of pesticides, due to an explosion of insects and other agricultural pests previously kept in check by frogs. In 1985, the two frog species were protected with an Appendix II listing under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). India and Bangladesh subsequently banned exports, their native species have since recovered and the use of pesticides has been reduced.

However, in recent years, other countries have stepped in to fill the void and their frog populations appear to be headed for a similar fate. Indonesia, where billions of frogs are taken from the wild annually, and to a lesser extent China, Taiwan and Vietnam, where frogs are farmed very intensively, have now taken over the export market.

“We must take immediate action to protect frog species from being exploited for international trade,” said D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. “Wild populations across Asia are already in trouble, and unregulated trade puts native species in the U.S. at even greater risk from deadly diseases that have been wreaking havoc on amphibians worldwide. It will take a coordinated effort from governments and the world’s conservation community to prevent the extinction of imperiled frog species and to protect our native species from harmful invasives.”

The report will be distributed to key government decision-makers, including those responsible for the implementation of CITES, with a request that they take immediate action to bring this unregulated trade under control.  Considering that the frog species dominating the frog leg trade are not currently protected under CITES, there is an urgent need for governments to secure CITES protections for them.

Click here to download the full report.

Believe it or not, African lions were making news in Switzerland last week. Though Defenders mostly focuses on domestic species that need our help, we also have a lean and mean team of international conservation experts that work hard to save imperiled species that not only need protection in the US but also around the globe. And last week, Defenders’ International Counsel, Alejandra Goyenechea, traveled to Geneva to help make a case for protecting species that are at risk due to the global wildlife trade.

The CITES Animals Committee convenes for its 25th meeting in Geneva, Switzerland last week.

Alejandra attended the 25^th meeting of the Animals Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This body of scientific experts provides advice and guidance to the Conference of the Parties, working groups and the Secretariat, which are ultimately responsible for enacting laws to protect imperiled wildlife from exploitation through international trade. Defenders was there to advocate for international trade that does not affect the survival of imperiled species, such as lions, sharks and frogs.

We don’t hear about it as often in the United States, but countless species are farmed, hunted or trapped and then shipped across borders as food, trophies, pets and medicinal products. Many of these practices are extremely unsustainable and threaten not only the populations that are being harvested, but also the native species where the animals are imported. Exotic pets, for example, are often released into the wild when their owners can no longer care for them. Some species, like Burmese pythons and Asian bull frogs go on to destroy and displace native species that are ill-equipped to defend themselves against the foreign invaders.

This year, the focus of the meeting was on fish and reptile leathers used for luxury goods. But several other species were being reviewed for the impacts of trade, including:

• Scaphiophryne gottlebei, an endangered native frog from Madagascar;
• Cryptophyllates azureiventris, an endangered frog from Peru;
• Mantella species, some endangered and some critically endangered frogs, native to Madagascar and over-exploited for the international pet trade;
• Dendrobates pumilio from Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

These species are in decline and threatened by international trade, but no course of action has yet been decided on how to best protect them.

Perhaps the biggest news of the week, however, was a decision to expedite the review of African lion populations. Kenya volunteered to lead that effort, which is very promising since the Kenyan government has so far done the most to protect their dwindling populations of lions. Many other African nations are still struggling to combat poaching, poisoning and unsustainable hunting of lions within their borders. Scientists estimate there are fewer than 40,000 African lions remaining, maybe as few as 23,000, so taking swift action is absolutely necessary to saving the species from extinction.

You can read daily meeting reports from Geneva here, including this summary report.

Click here to read more about Defenders’ efforts to protect African lions.

Read more about lions on Defenders blog.