In an article written via the Fox News network on the recent decline within the larger predatorial sharks, it states that "there are some shark populations that have decreased by over 99%". Let's look at this for a moment, shall we? When something is 'over 99%', does this not mean (to the average person at least) that it is 100% declined?
While a great amount of concern should be risen within the global community, something else boggled my mind while reading this particular article. It states that the study, that bore the results this article was based upon, was conducted from 1970 through 2005. What's more, the scientists and researchers who conducted the study, noticed a dramatic decline in the population during the study period. Ok, so the question that now comes to my mind would be; If they KNEW this was a problem back in the 1970's...why did they wait for 20 YEARS to begin THINKING about doing something to help correct this decline?!
Can't the Asian people of this world NOT eat Shark Fin soup? How about we NOT hunt these animals? Perhaps maybe we should have been asking these questions 20 years ago, instead of worrying our heads off about the movie Jaws being 'real to life' (which, it is not. So close, but not real). I've swam in the Atlantic Ocean, with sharks of various sizes. The smaller sharks were plentiful, but I only encountered 2 larger sharks in 4 years of swimming off the Florida coastline. This was in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Currently, I live in 'great white' territory. Not too many of those have ever been spotted in the outer regions of the northern pacific coastline, but we see the remnants of their hunts on a weekly basis. While Dog Sharks can grow relatively large, they do not posess the thrashing power of a great white, and cannot take a single lethal chomp off of an elephant seal. While they can kill these huge seals, one bite will not do, and the results are often a gnarled mangled mess of flesh and bone that wash up on the shore line. Instead, the tell tale sign of the great white shark... one bite. Head off. That's it. The rest? Scraps for smaller scavangers of the deep.
Sharks are animals to be understood before approached. Unfortunately for those who have to study these predators, up close and personal is about the only way to go about doing said studies. One shark that completely amazes me, and is the largest of the shark family, is the Whale Shark. Non-intimidating to humans, unless one happens to get in the way of a 5 foot gaping mouth while the shark is feeding, and the most docile of the shark family. Little is known about this particular shark. Oddly, so it seems, thanks to humankind, little is also known about the rest of the shark 'genre'. Why is that?
Did the movie Jaws scare us so much that all we want to do is rid the globe of these animals? Has no one stopped to think that they do in fact have a tremendous ecological importance? Are't we, as humans, the ones to blame for invading their territory in the first place? We have to keep ourselves in perspective here really. For the movie Jaws, and the shark portrayed in that movie, were not real. As I stated above, the shark was CLOSE...but no cigar. Shark experts and scientists were on hand to view the preview of the movie before it hit the theatres, and were utterly jumping out of their seats at the intense detail and accuracy of this animal. Yet, as all of them later admitted, for entertainment purposes, the shark was fantastic, but you'd never find one like that in the real depths of the ocean.
The mighty creatures of the ocean are all but disappearing on us, and, it's thanks to us for their disappearing act. It has taken centuries for the giant squid to make its come back into the ocean as a 'permanent resident'. What made that animal go nearly extinct? Stories of the old "Kraken". That's all the Kraken was. An ultra-giant squid. And, there are plenty of them out there. Just as your friendly neighborhood Sperm Whale, who dives deep into the ocean's depths to feed on these creatures.
So, what other major species of animal, other than humans that is, could possibly cause such a tremendous decline in the predatorial poplation of sharks? Um... nothing. Sharks have no real natural enemies. In fact, the only animal a great white shark really has to worry about in the ocean, is the orca whale, and considering that orca's generally travel in packs, it's not likely that a great white will stick around long enough to say hello.
I guess that leaves just us. Thanks to humanity, the large shark population is dwindling. It might now be time for us to lend out the hand that slapped them down, to help them get back up again. What's the matter? Are you afraid of the big bad shark that needs your help?
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