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Sharks have evolved for over 400 million years, even surviving some of the earth’s greatest mass extinctions. They are superbly adapted to their environment: apex predators, intelligent with unique immune systems, and yet for all this perfection they are vulnerable.
But how? Sharks are at the top of the marine food web; in the wild the only animal to successfully prey on sharks are other sharks. The answer is of course, humans. Our lineage, even when traced back to when our ancestors first stepped down from the trees, only totals a mere 7.6 million years, and yet it is by our hands that tens of millions of sharks are being killed each year.
No 1 Predator - Shark or Human?
The commercial practice of finning, the incidental capture by fisheries targeting other species (sharks as by catch), the recreational fishery (shark trophy hunters), the recent demand for sharks products such as shark liver oil (added to cosmetics and healthcare products) and shark cartilage (touted as a cure for cancer) and the destruction of the sharks habitat. All of these factors are contributing to the rapid decline of shark populations. As most shark species grow slowly, mature late and only give birth to relatively few pups, when numbers are depleted they recover very slowly if at all.
Many of these practices are derived from a fundamental misunderstanding of sharks combined with a lack of knowledge.
Education is the Answer
The only way to save these animals from ourselves is education. By understanding something, fears can disappear and are often replaced with appreciation, respect and compassion.
When I see a shark in the wild I am captivated - the way they move through the water, their size, their colour, and underneath all of this, 400 million years of ancestry allowing the shark to evolve into a perfectly adapted ocean predator. It’s a feeling that grips hold of me, and an energy that races through me, a voice inside my head shouting “Yes! A Shark!” and I feel alive.