New York Times: What's a live shark worth? Oh, about $2 million
For the study, researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science considered the expenditures of divers who travel from around the world to the tiny Pacific nation of Palau to dive with the mainly gray reef and reef whitetip sharks that inhabit its waters, which were declared a shark sanctuary in 2009.

Shark fins are culinary luxuries in places like Hong Kong, but live sharks are generally worth more to national economies.
Photo Credit: Andrew Ross
Sharks can be worth far more when they are swimming around the reef than when they are in a bowl of soup — as much as nearly $2 million each, in fact, according to the results of a study released Monday.




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