I have become quite interested in sharks and I have been investigating sharks and the fear that we have of sharks caused by people experience and also the films like jaws and other shark attack movies, that we have all been exposed to in the past.
I am someone who lived by the sea and have experienced a friend of my daughter's who was attacked and killed by a shark in Gonubie, which is a sea ide town in East London in South Africa.
However, only about a dozen of the more than 300 species of sharks have been involved in attacks on humans. Sharks evolved millions of years before humans existed and therefore humans are not part of their normal diets. Sharks are opportunistic feeders, but most sharks primarily feed on smaller fish and invertebrates. Some of the larger shark species prey on seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals and in fact have learnt that humanshave a higher ratio of bone to fat and that is not something that sharks enjoy in the natural diet.
Sharks have been known to attack humans when they are confused or curious. If a shark sees a human splashing in the water, it may try to investigate, leading to an accidental attack. The very nature of a shark attack means that the human bleeds and it is more likely that they blood loss is the cause of death. Even in the book Jaws the blood that was pouring out of Chrissy's leg was something that excited the shark and the loss of blood was probably the cause of her death as she could feel the warm blood pouring out of her missing leg into the cold water.
Still, sharks have more to fear from humans than we do of them. Humans hunt sharks for their meat, internal organs, skin, and fins in order to make products such as shark fin soup, lubricants, and leather. Thousands of sharks are caught and their fins cut off and they are then thrown back into the sea which means that they cannot swim and they sink to the sea floor and devoured by crabs and other sea creatures which are responsible for cleaning up the sea floor.
As with all animals we have a fine balance to maintain and sharks are a valuable part of marine ecosystems, but overfishing threatens some shark populations. NOAA Fisheries conducts research on shark habitats, migratory patterns, and population change in order to understand how to best protect and maintain a stable shark population. Sharks are in the ocean it maintain the balance and without sharks the larger fish like barracuda would grow in numbers and they eat the smaller fish which would wipe out the population and tip the eco system into an imbalance, so sharks are an important part of the eco system which when we hear about a shark attack we tend to ignore and react with a hate for sharks. We need to remember that we don't hate lions and tigers but they serve a similar purpose by controlling the population of the antelope who would strip the veld of vegetation and prevent the trees and bushes from surviving and that would prevents birds and incests from thriving and prevent the balance of nature to remain in balance.
We have a finely balanced eco system which needs to be protected if we are all to survive and thrive and as fearsome as a shark can look we need to remember that we kill far more of them with our fishing practices than they harm us. After all it is their home we are invading and they only have the sea to live in so we need to respect that right to survive.
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