A growing taste for shark steaks and shark-fin soup has for the first

A growing taste for shark steaks and shark-fin soup has for the first time in 400 million years put the scourge of the sea at the wrong end of the food chain. Commercial landings of this toothsome fish have doubled every year since 1986, and shark populations are plunging. It is hardly a case of good riddance. Sharks do for gentler fish what lions do for the wildebeest: they check populations by feeding on the weak. Also, sharks apparently do not get cancer and may therefore harbor clues to the nature of that disease.

Finally, there is the issue of motherhood. Sharks are viviparous. That is, they bear their young alive and swimming (not sealed in eggs) after gestation periods lasting from nine months to two years. Shark mothers generally give birth to litters of from eight to twelve pups and bear only one litter every other year.

This is why sharks have one of the lowest fecundity rates in the ocean. The female cod, for example, spawns annually and lays a few million eggs at a time. If three quarters of the cod were to be fished this year, they could be back in full force in a few years. But if humans took that big of a bite out of the sharks, the population would not recover for 15 years.

So, late this summer, if all goes according to plan, the shark will join the bald eagle and the buffalo on the list of managed species. The federal government will cap the U.S. commercial catch at 5,800 metric tons, about half of the 1989 level, and limit sportsmen to two sharks per boat. Another provision discourages finning, the harvesting of shark fins alone, by limiting the weight of fins to 7 percent of that of all the carcasses.

Finning got under the skin of environmentalists, and the resulting anger helped to mobilize support for the new regulations. Finning itself is a fairly recent innovation. Shark fins contain noodle-like cartilaginous tissues that Chinese chefs have traditionally used to thicken and flavor soup. Over the past few years rising demand in Hong Kong has made the fins as valuable as the rest of the fish. Long strands are prized, so unusually large fins can be worth considerably more to the fisherman than the average price of about $10 a pound.

But can U.S. quotas save shark species that wander the whole Atlantic? The blue shark, for example, migrates into the waters of something like 23 countries. John G. Casey, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service Research Center in Narragansett, R.I., admits that international co-ordination will eventually be necessary. But he supports U.S. quotas as a first step in mobilizing other nations. Meanwhile the commercial fishermen are not waiting for the new rules to take effect. “There’s a pre-quota rush on sharks,” Casey says, “and it’s going on as we speak.”

1. According to the passage, shark populations are at greater risk than cod populations because

(A) sharks are now being eaten more than cod.
(B) the shark reproduction rate is lower than that of the cod.
(C) sharks are quickly becoming fewer in number.
(D) sharks are now as scarce as bald eagles and buffalo.
(E) sharks are scavengers and therefore more susceptible to disease.



2. According to the passage, a decrease in shark populations

I. might cause some fish populations to go unchecked.
II. would hamper cancer research.
III. to one-quarter the current level would take over a decade to recover from.

(A) II only
(B) III only
(C) I and III only
(D) I and II only
(E) I, II, and III



3. If the species Homo logicus was determined to be viviparous and to have extremely low fecundity rates on land, we might expect that

(A) Homo logicus could overpopulate its niche and should be controlled.
(B) Homo logicus might be declared an endangered species.
(C) Homo logicus would pose no danger to other species and would itself be in no danger.
(D) Homo logicus would soon become extinct.
(E) None of these events would be expected with certainty.



4. Which one of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward the efforts to protect shark populations?

(A) strong advocate
(B) impartial observer
(C) opposed
(D) perplexed
(E) resigned to their ineffectiveness



5. It can be inferred from the passage that

I. research efforts on cancer will be hindered if shark populations are threatened.
II. U.S. quotas on shark fishing will have limited effectiveness in protecting certain species.
III. some practices of Chinese chefs have angered environmentalists.

(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) I and II only
(D) II and III only
(E) I, II, and III



6. An irony resulting from the announcement that sharks will be placed on the managed list is

(A) we will now find out less about cancer, so in effect by saving the sharks, we are hurting ourselves.
(B) sharks are far more dangerous to other fish than we are to them.
(C) more chefs are now using the cartilaginous tissues found in shark fins.
(D) more sharks are being killed now than before the announcement.
(E) man will now protect a creature that he has been the victim of.