[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE IMPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY

  (Mr. GILCHREST asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk to my 
colleagues about sharks.
  Sharks produce few offspring, grow slowly, and take years to mature. 
Many species of sharks are being severely depleted due to overfishing.
  Ironically, just as we are exterminating these ancient fish, medical 
science is discovering that the highly evolved immune systems of sharks 
make them almost invulnerable to cancers and infections. Squalamine is 
a compound recently isolated from the tissues on the dogfish shark. It 
has demonstrated potent activity in laboratory tests against a variety 
of bacteria, fungi, and parasites. Squalamine may lead to new 
antibiotics for infectious organisms that have become resistant to 
standard drugs.
  With a medical breakthrough of this kind this fishery will gain 
tremendous economic value. This in turn will benefit coastal 
communities as well as medical science. This is possible only if we 
remain vigilant against irresponsible management of our natural 
resources. Economic value is only a small fraction of the value of 
biodiversity. We need to keep this first in our minds as we work to 
reauthorize the Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson Act.

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