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Shark species is close to extinction says WWF
Image source, Elke Bojanowski / WWF-HK
A species of shark is close to extinction because of industrial fishing, the wildlife charity WWF is warning.
Oceanic whitetip sharks used to be quite common in tropical oceans.
But numbers of the species are now going down, with the population in the Western and Central Pacific Oceans the worst affected.
The WWF says the sharks are targeted because there is a big demand for their fins in some communities, where shark fin soup is a speciality.
Another reason is that they get caught accidentally by people fishing for tuna.
The latest scientific study shows that numbers of the fish have gone down by 95% in recent decades.
The WWF wants countries attending the 16th meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), from 5 - 11 December in Papua New Guinea, to follow a plan to prevent the extinction of the oceanic whitetip shark.
The charity is also calling for fishing gear made of metal to be banned because sharks can't bite through them.