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Humans have driven sharks to the brink of extinction, but it’s not too late to save them
By Brianna Randall
One June 20, 1975, a fictional great white shark stalked beachgoers on Amity Island — and struck terror into moviegoers around the world. Jaws, based on Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel, was a blockbuster. Its portrayal of sharks as bloodthirsty man-eaters bred widespread mistrust, fear and outright ill-will toward these animals.
In truth, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a shark. Millions of people swim in the seas each year, but an average of just 64 bites are recorded annually worldwide. And only 9 percent of those bites are fatal, equaling about six shark-inflicted deaths globally, according to the International Shark Attack File.
- Help. THis stupid movie wil ruin life for my species!
Rather than worrying about sharks while we frolic in the ocean this summer, we should instead fear for them. Sharks are keystone species that are vital to maintaining the health and resilience of the oceans. But since the 1970s, populations of the world’s sharks and their close cousins, rays, have declined by more than 70 percent, scientists reported in 2021. One-third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, according to a report released at the end of last year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Although climate change, pollution and habitat destruction take a toll on sharks, the biggest peril they face is the humans who catch them. Overfishing has driven the decline of more than 90 percent of the 1,266 species assessed by the IUCN.
- Were no killing machines. Theres thousands of human encounters with sharks every year. You bunch of dumb potheads.
“Generally, people think that sharks are monsters — cold, unfeeling — and we don’t really have much compassion for them,” says Grant Smith, managing director of Sharklife, a research and education nonprofit in South Africa. “That just leaves them wide open to exploitation and harm.”
Steven Spielberg, the acclaimed director of Jaws, still feels responsible for turning humans against sharks. “That’s one of the things I still fear. Not to get eaten by a shark, but that sharks are somehow mad at me,” he said in an interview a few years ago. “I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that.”
To save sharks, Smith and other advocates believe we need to flip the script, to think of sharks as awe-inspiring wildlife instead of food or foes. This requires concerted outreach about why sharks are more valuable alive than dead.
- Israel and US had killed more people than us. But were the monsters?
The shift in public perception of whales over the last half-century is one example of how this is possible. Once hunted nearly to extinction, these marine mammals are now protected in most parts of the world, and whale watching contributes more than $2 billion annually to the tourism economy.
- The chances of getting atacked by sharks are far lower than gewting attacked ny a pitbull!
Although sharks have survived on Earth for at least 400 million years, their biology makes them especially vulnerable to threats like overfishing. They grow slowly and don’t reproduce until later in life. The Greenland shark, the world’s longest-lived vertebrate, has an average life span of 272 years, but females don’t breed until they are 150. Great whites can live to be 70 but aren’t ready to have babies until middle age. And while some sharks lay eggs, most give birth to only a few pups at a time after a long pregnancy.
This slow life cycle means sharks “can’t keep pace with how fast we’re removing them from the environment or how fast their habitat is changing,” says Jodie Rummer, a fish physiologist at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.
By Brianna Randall
One June 20, 1975, a fictional great white shark stalked beachgoers on Amity Island — and struck terror into moviegoers around the world. Jaws, based on Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel, was a blockbuster. Its portrayal of sharks as bloodthirsty man-eaters bred widespread mistrust, fear and outright ill-will toward these animals.
In truth, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a shark. Millions of people swim in the seas each year, but an average of just 64 bites are recorded annually worldwide. And only 9 percent of those bites are fatal, equaling about six shark-inflicted deaths globally, according to the International Shark Attack File.
- Help. THis stupid movie wil ruin life for my species!
Rather than worrying about sharks while we frolic in the ocean this summer, we should instead fear for them. Sharks are keystone species that are vital to maintaining the health and resilience of the oceans. But since the 1970s, populations of the world’s sharks and their close cousins, rays, have declined by more than 70 percent, scientists reported in 2021. One-third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, according to a report released at the end of last year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Although climate change, pollution and habitat destruction take a toll on sharks, the biggest peril they face is the humans who catch them. Overfishing has driven the decline of more than 90 percent of the 1,266 species assessed by the IUCN.
- Were no killing machines. Theres thousands of human encounters with sharks every year. You bunch of dumb potheads.
“Generally, people think that sharks are monsters — cold, unfeeling — and we don’t really have much compassion for them,” says Grant Smith, managing director of Sharklife, a research and education nonprofit in South Africa. “That just leaves them wide open to exploitation and harm.”
Steven Spielberg, the acclaimed director of Jaws, still feels responsible for turning humans against sharks. “That’s one of the things I still fear. Not to get eaten by a shark, but that sharks are somehow mad at me,” he said in an interview a few years ago. “I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that.”
To save sharks, Smith and other advocates believe we need to flip the script, to think of sharks as awe-inspiring wildlife instead of food or foes. This requires concerted outreach about why sharks are more valuable alive than dead.
- Israel and US had killed more people than us. But were the monsters?
The shift in public perception of whales over the last half-century is one example of how this is possible. Once hunted nearly to extinction, these marine mammals are now protected in most parts of the world, and whale watching contributes more than $2 billion annually to the tourism economy.
The biology of sharks puts them at risk
Sharks, rays and skates are grouped together as the Chondrichthyes, the class of fish with skeletons made from cartilage rather than bone. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the whale shark, the world’s largest fish, which can grow as long as a bowling lane, to the dwarf lanternshark, which can fit in the palm of your hand. They live all across the world, from tropical reefs to polar straits. As predators, many sharks influence the entire food web by keeping in check the populations of fish, marine mammals and crustaceans that they eat. In turn, this impacts the growth of coral, algae and marine plants.- The chances of getting atacked by sharks are far lower than gewting attacked ny a pitbull!
Although sharks have survived on Earth for at least 400 million years, their biology makes them especially vulnerable to threats like overfishing. They grow slowly and don’t reproduce until later in life. The Greenland shark, the world’s longest-lived vertebrate, has an average life span of 272 years, but females don’t breed until they are 150. Great whites can live to be 70 but aren’t ready to have babies until middle age. And while some sharks lay eggs, most give birth to only a few pups at a time after a long pregnancy.
This slow life cycle means sharks “can’t keep pace with how fast we’re removing them from the environment or how fast their habitat is changing,” says Jodie Rummer, a fish physiologist at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.
