Lack of data could be the cause for the lack of enforcing of the no "finning'" law in UAE

For this blog post I read the article "Shark finning hitting Persian Gulf hard" by Michael Casey on boston.com, the link for the article is http://www.boston.com/news/world/middle-east/2012/10/21/shark-finning-hitting-persian-gulf-sharks-     hard/RtxR9PwCwmQwSQk5LmovON/story.html

This article was about how in the Persian Gulf while some governments have laws banning the practice of “finning”, they lack the information to enforce these laws.  Finning is the practice of catching a shark, removing its fins and tossing it overboard while it is still alive.  The fin is used in making shark fin soup which is a dish served in some asian countries.  Some people like Rima Jabado are doing research on the effects it has on the population of certain shark species.  “The government will not react until we give them actual data,” said Jabado, but these are very few people who are researching this topic.  The article states that these countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have limited data on the number of each shark population in the Persian Gulf. “Our hands are tied because of insufficient data,” said Mohammed Tabish, a fisheries specialist in the UAE, also he said that the information they receive is general and has no information on any species specific data and this makes it difficult to take action on particular species.

         If the shark hunting continues to go unregulated this could have a detrimental effect on the Persian Gulf community.  One of the affects that the extinction of the shark species would be that the remora population would take a blow because they would have to find a new symbiotic partner because the shark would not be present.  Another effect that this would have would be that because the shark is the top predator the other trophic levels would see a population increase because the top predator would be absent.  This article enforces the fact that knowledge is power because if these countries had access to the information that they need they would be able to enforce their no finning laws
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http://www.thelivingocean.net/2012_04_27_archive.html

I think this article is on an important topic that is over-shadowed by the bigger environmental issues such as global warming and whaling.  Also, what is not realized is that this is a huge issue and that 82 countries export fins mostly to to Hong Kong and other Asian markets.  Also, fishermen kill as many as 70 million sharks a year just for their fins, which in my opinion is a huge waste, just like killing elephants and rhinos just for their ivory tusks and horns.   However some questions should be answered such as (What will these countries do once they get the required information?, How will these countries get the information?, and Will these countries help the shark population of the Persian Gulf?)