12 to 100 Million

Somewhere between 63 and 273 million sharks are killed every year, according to a July 2013 report Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks by Boris Worm, Brendal Davis, Lisa Kettemer, Christine A. Ward-Paige, Demian Chapman, Michael R. Heithaus, Steven T. Kessel, and Samuel H. Gruber published in Marine Policy. That has been averaged out to about 100 million versus the average 12 human beings killed every year in shark attacks. Pretty crappy ratio!

The above report notes: “Adequate conservation and management of shark populations is becoming increasingly important on a global scale, especially because many species are exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing. Yet, reported catch statistics for sharks are incomplete, and mortality estimates have not been available for sharks as a group. Here, the global catch and mortality of sharks from reported and unreported landings, discards, and shark finning are being estimated at 1.44 million metric tons for the year 2000, and at only slightly less in 2010 (1.41 million tons).”

What, pray tell, is “shark finning”? “As the website for Pew Charitable Trusts’ global shark conservation initiative points out, many sharks are killed for shark fin soup, a delicacy still consumed in many Asian countries. Often, to get the sought-after part of the shark, the fin of the animal is sliced off and the shark is left to die at sea.” Huffington Post, March 6^th. Ewwwwwww!

“A report released in 2009 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature stated that more than 30 percent of the 64 species of sharks and rays assessed by the group were found to be threatened or near-threatened with extinction. The cause? Overfishing… Great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead and smooth hammerhead sharks, as well as great whites, were all considered either endangered or vulnerable animals, according to IUCN experts.” Huffington Post.

But let’s face, Jaws fans, sharks can be really big and really scary. They have these “teeth big and they show them pearly white.” Big slippery subsurface shapes that make great footage on the evening news. Or surf boards with giant bite marks. So what are sharks good for other than attracting divers to cool ecotourism sites? “Sharks have evolved in a tight inter-dependency with their ecosystem. They tend to eat very efficiently, going after the old, sick, or slower fish in a population that they prey upon, keeping that population healthier. Sharks groom many populations of marine life to the right size so that those prey species don’t cause harm to the ecosystem by becoming too populous.

“The ocean ecosystem is made up of very intricate food webs. Sharks are at the top of these webs and are considered by scientists to be ‘keystone’ species, meaning that removing them causes the whole structure to collapse. For this reason, the prospect of a food chain minus its apex predators may mean the end of the line for many more species. A number of scientific studies demonstrate that depletion of sharks results in the loss of commercially important fish and shellfish species down the food chain, including key fisheries such as tuna, that maintain the health of coral reefs.” SharkSavers.org. Oh. So the real sharks in the ocean are… people?

I’m Peter Dekom, and sharks won’t bite me as a professional courtesy.