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The ingredient in corona vaccine is naturally found in sharks.
Now researchers fear that up to half a million sharks will have to die for the world’s population to become immune.
– Fishing deep-sea sharks can have a big effect, says Charlott Stenberg, a marine biologist and shark expert.
Several of the vaccine candidates being developed against Covid-19 use the substance squalene. Squalene is basically a natural substance that is found in various plants and animals. In the livers of sharks, squalene is particularly large.
The oil is used today in various products, such as cosmetics and machine oil. But it is also used in various vaccines as a so-called adjuvant, which means something that enhances the effect of the immune system response.
– It is the deep-sea sharks that have most of the squalene. They grow slowly, reach sexual maturity late, and have few young. It can have a great effect if they are fished. But most fishing is banned, at least in EU waters, says Charlott Stenberg, a marine biologist and shark expert at Aftonbladet.
Fear of shark massacres
A British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, uses shark liver oil to create a corona vaccine. The company is expected to produce 1 billion doses for potential use in the covid-19 vaccine.
Therefore, the animal protection group Shark Allies now fears a true shark slaughter if the vaccine candidates are approved and then mass-produced, Sky News reports.
Photo: Steve Marcus / TT NEWS AGENCY
About 3,000 sharks are needed to extract a ton of squalene. Shark Allies believes that if the entire world’s population were to receive a dose of a covid-19 vaccine with shark liver oil, around 250,000 sharks would need to be killed. In addition, the world’s population is likely to need two doses of the vaccine, which means that half a million sharks will be killed.
– Where sharks are fished, large ecological changes in species composition are observed with, for example, disease and algae growing on coral reefs. It is dangerous to disturb the ecosystem and eliminate an entire group of animals, says Charlotte Stenberg.
Researchers are now testing an alternative to shark liver oil to avoid a threat to shark populations: a synthetic version made from fermented sugar cane, writes the International Business Times. But there is great fear among researchers that a sudden spike in shark liver oil threatens already vulnerable shark species, as shark liver oil is much cheaper and more efficient than from other sources.
Photo: David Royal / SCANPIX
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