One Third Of Sharks Being Threatened With Extinction: Stop Shark Finning!

Byline by Ryan Naquin

Swimmers fear sharks, but are they really the predators we should be worrying about?
If you were keeping score last year, it was 6 to 73 million. The International Shark Attack File says in 2010 six people were killed by sharks.
Now compare that to the estimated 73 million sharks conservation groups say are killed by fishermen each year.
"Shark populations have been declining for 2 decades," says Coastal Carolina University Marine Biologist Rob Young.
He says sharks are killed for their meat, but the majority are being killed in a process called finning.
In parts of China the shark fin is worth a hundred times more than the shark meat itself, which is the driving force why fishermen keep only the fins. "They just catch them, remove the fins and just throw them back in the water. It's illegal in this country."
Though the majority of shark killings happen in other countries, it's still effecting our coastal ecosystems.
"A lot of sharks are what they call highly migratory species," says Young. "Which makes them harder to manage because they cross state or national boundaries."
While it may seem like our population would be better off without sharks, Young says not having sharks would have a negative effect on our lives.
"Sharks are top predators and top predators help keep the balance and help keep in check the top competitors in the level below them. So if you remove those predators you lose a lot of diversity in the ecosystem and your whole community starts to look and act very different."

Wally:What Ryan failed to mention is the staggering statistics against ever being touched by a shark, let alone eat'n by one. In fact read below.

"Vending machines kill, sharks don't, according to a July 4, 2003 Reuters headline. The article quotes an L.A. lifeguard who asserts that in spite of the ubiquitous fear of shark attacks in this country, "more people are killed in the United States each year by vending machines," which smacks of an urban legend, but isn't!

...statistics pertaining to vending machine deaths aren't as easy to come by as data on shark attack fatalities, so it's difficult to draw a direct comparison. But if we look at 1995, for example — the most recent year for which I was able to find an accounting of deaths due to vending machine tipovers — two people died as a result of being crushed by falling soda machines in the U.S., as compared to zero shark-related deaths in the same twelve-month period.
Moreover, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission there were 37 known vending machine fatalities between 1978 and 1995, for an average of 2.18 deaths per year. Over the past decade there were a total of six recorded shark attack fatalities in the U.S., for an average of .6 deaths per year. Ergo, barring a drastic reduction in the frequency of vending machine accidents since 1995, vending machines are indeed more deadly than sharks by a factor of almost four."
By David Emery 2005.

Here are some additional facts from the guru of sharks, Dr. Samuel Gruber, interviewed on PBS’s NOVA:

"The chance of being killed by a shark is one in 300 million. The chance of being killed by airplane parts falling from the sky is one in 10 million."

"Most sharks are far too small to be vicious killers of men and women, and many sharks live in the deep sea where no humans swim. The fact remains that around 100 shark attacks do occur each year, but elephants are bigger killers; they do in 200-plus mahoots and trainers each year. Talk about vicious—dogs kill thousands. And get this: Soda machines killed more people last year than sharks did. People get angry at the machines when they steal the $0.75 the person honestly inserts for a cool, refreshing soda. But if no soda comes out, people often viciously attack the machine, trying to make it cough up the soda or the cash. The machines viciously retaliate by falling on and crushing their tormentors."

Wally: Of the over 375 different species of sharks found in the oceans, only about 30 have been reported to ever attack a human. The shark species responsible for most unprovoked attacks on humans are the Great White Shark, Tiger Shark and Bull Shark. These animals do not attack humans for sport. They misake them for seals. They have no interest in eating humans.


 We Must In The Coming Year End Shark Finnig Forever! Wally