The Horror Of Shark Finning

     We call sharks monsters, represented best by the movie Jaws for their serial predation of innocent people. There is a slight error in this logic in that it is not only completely false, but that the opposite is true. Sharks kill, on average between five and 10 people a year: you are more likely to be struck by lightning playing golf or hit by a soda machine walking down the street than killed by being bitten by a shark. I say "bitten" because sharks do not eat people: their teeth are more like needles than knives, and all shark-related deaths are caused by blood loss and lack of available medical treatment, usually from a single bite.

     Compare that to how humans treat sharks. Shark finning is the most common threat we pose to the animals. Sharks are caught on lines and dragged onto the deck of a fishing boat, where they have their fins sliced off while they are still alive. The shark, still suffering from the removal of its fins, is thrown overboard, where the 98 percent of the animal's mass the fishermen are not interested in either drowns or is eaten by a bigger predator. Between 73 and 200 million sharks are killed this way every year, and it is all for a tasteless status symbol used in a chicken- or fish-flavored soup served around the world in banquets and high-end restaurants.

     That's not all. Some sharks are killed for their meat, served illegally and legally in some countries as "flake." Shark liver oil is extracted from countries like Liberia, where the vessel Labiko 2 alone killed 500,000 sharks per year for the oil, which is used in cosmetics. Had it not been arrested by Sea Shepherd, it would have wiped out the nation's entire deep sea shark population.

     Sharks are also killed in other forms of fishing, including tuna seining and gillnetting, as bycatch. If they are not thrown overboard, they are taken as a valuable (if unexpected) reward for fishermen to profit off of. 

     Sharks have molded evolution in the oceans and help fight climate change by regulating populations of smaller fish that eat cyanobacteria, phytoplankton, and other oceanic creatures. However, half of all shark populations are near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered because of the threats aforementioned. If we do not act, the extinction of sharks will kill the oceans, and the death of the oceans will eliminate any chance for humanity to survive.

     Our future is being cruelly and callously stolen by vested interests intent on short-term gain, and we are either part of the solution or part of the problem. You can take action to stop shark finning and other cruel practices here, here, and here.