Written by: ANNIE ROTH
Basking sharks are rich in oil and fat, and the liver weight can reach 25% of the body weight, which is quite economically valuable, so it has been hunted on a large scale in the range of activities.
摄影：BRIAN J. SKERRY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
Also known as the "fin shark", the olefin shark is also killed because of the value of its fins and the oil-rich liver. The already slow growth of the oilfin shark, coupled with overfishing, has led to a sharp downward trend in its population worldwide.
Photo by DAN SULLIVAN, ALAMY
The bluntnose sixgill shark is one of several deep-sea sharks listed as a near-threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The grey sixgill shark is a slender, distributed in tropical and temperate waters around the world, and its liver oil is rich in squalene, making it a hunting target for fishing fleets.
Photographed by PAULO OLIVEIRA, ALAMY
It's a multimillion-dollar industry that kills millions of rare deep-sea sharks every year. If you know its name, you're likely to be surprised.
In remote areas around the world, fishermen catch sharks from the deep sea and remove their livers. Shark liver contains an oil, as we know it, squalene, which is widely used in sunscreens, lipsticks, foundations, lotions and other cosmetics.
Rich in fatty acids and antioxidants, squalene is an important moisturizer, the source of which varies from brand to brand. According to experts, squalene can also be extracted from olives, wheat germs and other plants, but extracting squalene from sharks is easier to handle and much less expensive.
In 2012, a report released by bloom, a French marine conservation nonprofit, showed that while squalene extracted from shark livers can be found in other types of consumer products, such as vitamin supplements and vaccines, as much as 90 percent of shark squalene goes into the hands of cosmetics producers.
In recent years, public concern about shark conservation has grown, with many companies in Western countries responding by switching to plant-based squalane, even though production costs are 30 percent higher.
Andriana Matsangou, a spokeswoman for Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch joint venture, said the squalene used by the company was "taken entirely from vegetables to avoid using squalene extracted from shark liver." ”
Coincidentally, L'Oréal spokesman Alexander Habib responded, stating that French companies had stopped using squalene extracted from shark livers 10 years ago and that L'Oréal had "implemented strict measures to control the source of squalane from suppliers."
Unknown impact
Still, sharks remain the main source of squalene used in the cosmetics industry worldwide, and will such fisheries, and how will, affect the balance of life in the lowest layers of the ocean? It is not known at this time. David Albert, director of the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, said.
"The problem is that we really don't know what's going on at the bottom of the ocean," Albert said. "There are many sparsely populated places in the world where such fisheries operate."
Of the 60 shark species at risk of being fished for liver oil, 26 are listed as perishable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, including the leaf scaly shark.
The development of the seafood industry is already putting pressure on shark populations: about 100 million sharks are killed every year, mainly to meet consumer demand for shark fin soup.
More serious cases
Albert points out that deep-sea sharks are the targets of fishermen, such as spiny sharks, basking sharks and winged sharks, because their livers are rich in oil, which helps them stay afloat under the enormous pressures of the deep sea.
He added that overfishing can easily affect this type of shark because most of them grow slowly and have lower reproduction rates.
A 2011 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations showed that squalene fisheries operate mainly in the Indian Ocean, the southeastern Atlantic Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean, with a long-standing lack of regulation.
Because it can be accessed through other sources, "the current demand for squalene may not be as great as it was 50 years ago, but I don't think anybody is monitoring it all the time, and people don't know exactly what's going on," Albert said.
Oceana is one of those groups that has called for greater regulation of squalene fisheries and greater protection for sharks in the deep sea. In 2006, the European Union imposed severe restrictions on deep-sea shark fishing in the northeastern Atlantic, but this practice was hardly carried out in other countries.
Over the past two decades, Albert has discovered more than 20 new species of deep-sea sharks, and he worries that without increased protection, "we may have lost these new species before we realized the seriousness of the situation." ”
(Translator: Strange Flowers Blossom)