Tragedy of the Commons – Source: SDSU
Let’s look at the direct cause of this issue – shark finning or shark fishing. Each individual fisher is assumed to be self-interested and he behaves in a way which enhances his own interests. Hence, he consume the natural resources available from the Common Pool Resource (CPR) which would be the sharks in the sea in order to gain monetary rewards. When individual fisher is being educated with the harm that he could bring to the shark population and environment, he understood. However, he felt that it is impossible for him alone to improve the situation, felt that other fishermen would gain what used to “belong” to him and he needs to have his source of income. Therefore, this fisher managed to reason things out within himself and does not see the harm that he is bringing to the shark population as well as the environment. He also deem that the resources present in the CPR is too large that his impact alone is considered to be small and harmless. As such, he continues to consume as much resources as fast as possible. Coupled with the growing numbers of demand for shark fins as well as fishermen who would meet the demand, the natural resources could be destroyed rapidly at a rate that the resources could not replenish itself. This could eventually lead to total destruction which means the extinction of all sharks.
Laws and Education – Source: Supr10
Some of the solutions that could be found implemented would be the use of governmental laws and program of education. Governments have implemented regulations and laws on shark finning as well as shark fishing which have made improvement on the issue of decreasing shark population to a certain extent. Education, in this case, has also garnered positive responses from the public. The public is given information on the issues regarding sharks and also roles that they could play to help elevate the problems. Many corporations, hotels and individuals have shown support and hence improvement could be seen. For more detailed information on what have been done, you can navigate over to Implementations in Place.