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The demand for squa­lene — a lipid used in cos­met­ics and vac­cines — has grown in recent years, and olives are increas­ingly being touted as a more sus­tain­able source than shark liv­ers, but cost remains a con­cern.

Olive-derived squa­lene is 30 per­cent more expen­sive than the alter­na­tive from shark liv­ers. Even with olives steadily becom­ing more pop­u­lar as a source of squa­lene in cos­met­ics, 90 per­cent of the indus­try relies on shark liver oil and is respon­si­ble for 2.7 mil­lion shark deaths annu­ally.

Squalene and its hydro­genated coun­ter­part, squalane, are used in cos­met­ics as emol­lients; and in vac­cines as adju­vants, which boost the immune sys­tem response.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), approx­i­mately 2,500 to 3,000 sharks are needed to har­vest one ton of squa­lene.

By con­trast, the Olive Wellness Institute esti­mates that between 77 and 1,250 tons of olive oil (depend­ing on the olive vari­ety, extrac­tion method and level of refin­ing) pos­sess the same amount of squa­lene. Extra vir­gin olive oil has the high­est lev­els of lipid of any veg­etable oil.

Although a large pro­por­tion of the shark-derived ver­sion of this lipid comes from bycatch, when sharks are unin­ten­tion­ally caught in fish­ing nets, the con­cern is that the sharks are cap­tured instead of set free due to the demand for squa­lene.

This goes unde­tected and makes it vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble to estab­lish how many sharks are caught exclu­sively for squa­lene.

Late last year, with sci­en­tists rac­ing to develop a range of Covid-19 vac­cines, con­ser­va­tion­ists started express­ing con­cern about the impact on shark pop­u­la­tions as the demand for squa­lene increased.

While none of the approved Covid-19 vac­cines use shark squa­lene, five of the 300 vac­cines in devel­op­ment do.

However, envi­ron­men­tal­ists are con­cerned that if Covid-19 vac­cines con­tain­ing squa­lene are widely approved and the coro­n­avirus vac­cine becomes an annual require­ment, as some health experts pre­dict, demand for the lipid will increase.

• NPR
• Olive Wellness Institute
• Pharmaceutical Technology