Sharks: Predators with a Purpose

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Shark! For many, their size, power, and great, mouthwatering jaws fill us with fear and fascination. Not for me, I’m bewitched by them. Sharks kill only a few people each year, but media coverage and movie representation of attacks have marked sharks as voracious killing machines. Our fears—and appetites—fuel an industry that hunts more than 100 million sharks each year and threatens to purge these vital predators from the oceans.
The shark is an enchanting creature, over 400 different swim in the ocean today. Too many, sharks symbolize the terrible essence of ruthlessness, representing the ultimate savages of the seas. Although many folks would rather not deliberately socialize with these fearsome predators of the depths, I appreciate swimming among sharks. Sharks in addition to their direct predecessors are swimming within the world's oceans for well over three hundred million years, and were going about their business long before dinosaurs walked the world. The fact that sharks have survived thus far without changing very much is a long real tribute to the effectiveness of their anatomy.
Sharks are fishes, confined within the taxonomic class called Chondrichthyes (meaning "cartilage-fish"). Sharks besides other cartilaginous fishes (rays, skates, and rat fishes) differ from the skeletal fishes because sharks have a cartilaginous skeleton, and lack a swim bladder. Worldwide there are over six hundred different types of fish, not to mention three hundred species of sharks.
From time to time sharks are referred to as primitive creatures. They are a prehistoric group of animals, so assuming sharks are primitive is correct. Unfortunately, this assumption is wrong. Recent offshore studies have shown that sharks are, in fact, extrem...

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...ba diving, I read countless articles about sharks, monitor shark tracking’s and even watch shark films.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about sharks; some people have been mistaken as a source of food while others simply don’t like sharks. For the sharks sense of not knowing these marvelous creatures have been and continue to be brutally punished for trying to live. Sharks have been on this earth longer than any human has and still to this day they remain helpful in cleaning up our ecosystem.
I hope that the information contained in this essay inspires curiosity about sharks and awakens respect and care for one of the magnificent, most ancient creatures of an ever-evolving sea.

Works Cited

"About Shark Savers." Shark Savers. WildAid, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
"Oceanic Research Group." Oceanic Research Group. Blue World, 7 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.

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