Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
Shark populations may be in danger as countries race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Conservationists fear that the demand for a cheap and accessible source of squalene, a common vaccine ingredient produced by shark livers, could lead to the killing of 500,000 sharks. As sharks are already threatened by overfishing often killed only for their fins, conservationists believe that a mass killing of sharks will further harm suffering shark populations and ecosystems. Activists criticize vaccine companies for choosing the cheapest, and potentially most ecologically destructive, method of obtaining squalene, citing the many other sources available.
Squalene is used in vaccines as an adjuvant to aid in the immune response necessary for the vaccine to be effective. The World Health Organization reported that of the 176 global vaccines in development and trial, 17 are reliant on squalene, and according to the non-profit organization Shark Allies, 5 of those rely specifically on shark liver oil. It takes the livers of about 3,000 sharks to produce one ton of squalene. One vaccine in development would include 9.75 milligrams per dose, an amount that experts estimate would require 249,351 sharks to provide one dose to every person on Earth. If two doses are required to achieve immunity, as some experts predict, that number rises to half a million. Conservationists also worry that, without a more sustainable source of squalene, vaccine production could face obstacles in the future.
Sharks are not the only source of squalene. Shark Allies says that squalene is “not a unique or ‘magical’ ingredient,” citing non-animal alternatives like “yeast, olive oil, bacteria, and possible algae” as viable sources. Some companies have even extracted squalene from sugarcane. In 2015, a team of researchers was able to synthesize squalene in a lab using genetically engineered bacteria. Conservationists say that corporations have been reluctant to adopt these sustainable sources because they are about 30% more expensive than the harvesting of squalene from sharks. They also take more time; Shark Allies reports that it takes about 70 hours to extract squalene from olive oil, compared to just 10 hours from shark livers.
Stefanie Brendl, founder of Shark Allies, emphasizes that conservationists aren’t against the development of a COVID-19 vaccine; they simply want companies to use sustainable sources of squalene to avoid damaging ecosystems and hindering vaccine progress in the future. Brendl emphasizes, “A reliance on shark oil for a global vaccine—it’s truly insane. A wild animal is not a reliable source and cannot sustain ongoing commercial pressure. [And] the overfishing of sharks globally is already at critical levels.”
by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer As the world warms, it’s not just people who are feeling the heat. Bats are also susceptible to extreme heat, and overheated bat boxes can be “a death trap,” the Guardian reports. In the wild, bats move between rock and tree crevices in search of a perfectly moderated temperature. […]
by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer A new report entitled The World’s Forgotten Fishes from the World Wildlife Fund has found that there has been a “catastrophic” decline in freshwater fish, with nearly a third of all freshwater fish species coming perilously close to extinction. The statistics paint a sobering picture: 26% of all critically […]
by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer Move over Dolly, there’s a new clone in town and her name is Elizabeth Ann the Black-Footed ferret. You read that right; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced on Thursday that it had successfully cloned the first U.S. endangered species. Elizabeth Ann was born on December 10, […]
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.