From the article:

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will consider greater protection of vulnerable sharks, including porbeagles, oceanic whitetip and three types of hammerhead to preserve their populations.

Sharks are caught for their fins for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia. The fins are cut off with the dead carcass being thrown back into the sea. Sharks grow slowly and take years to reproduce, which makes them vulnerable to overfishing.

The researchers estimated that global reported catches, unreported landings, discards and sharks caught and thrown back after their fins were cut off – a process known as finning – added up to 97 million fish caught in 2010.

The figure is only slightly less than the estimated 100 million caught in 2000, and could be anywhere between 63 million sharks and 273 million a year, according to research by North American scientists published in the journal Marine Policy.

It is estimated that between 6.4% and 7.9% of all sharks are killed each year, leading to decline in the number of some species.

Boris Worm, one of the report's authors, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, said: "Biologically, sharks simply can't keep up with the current rate of exploitation and demand. Protective measures must be scaled up significantly in order to avoid further depletion and the possible extinction of many shark species in our lifetime."

Although some regions, including the European Union, have banned shark finning, commercial fisheries for fins, meat, liver oil, cartilage and other body parts are largely unregulated in much of the world.

"I'd like to see now these scientists came up with the 100 mil number."

You'd need to read the article in the peer-reviewed journal Marine Policy.

How many fish in the sea?

Don't know. But a 10-year Census of Marinne Life study estimates more than 230,000 species of critters down there in the briny deep.

The scientists have come up with some dispiriting findings:

"Is that a Great White?"

It is. I believe she was free-diving, as well. Looks like an incredibly stupid thing to do, but... (I'll say that even the most experienced scuba divers I know, the ones I trust with my life, draw a line with Great Whites. They'll swim with tigers, hammerheads, you name it; but never with Great Whites.)