Sharks and Conservation

892 Words2 Pages

Everyone knows the famous opening tune to the famous 1975 Spielberg movie Jaws, which portrays the chaos that sharks can cause. From then until now, movies that showcase the ever-violent personalities of sharks have been popular in the media. They are seen as the face of oceanic brutality, whether they bite off people’s arms or cause turbulence in beach parties. Little does the world know about the dangers that we, humans, do to these natural predators of the oceans.
Sharks have been on this earth for nearly 450 billion years. To put that into perspective, the first modern humans date back to about 60,000 years ago ("Our Mission: To save Sharks and Mantas”). Since then, both humans and sharks have evolved into the predatory mammals they are today. However, with the quick development of humans, civilization and technology, humans have not been able to fully understand the ways of sharks, although the motives of other human celebrities have been easy to understand and decipher. Because shark attacks have been becoming more televised, and sharks have been known to be more of a “threat” to humans, shark research foundations, such as the Shark Research Institute and the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, have been created to help give an understanding to these creatures. Over 100 million sharks are being killed each year, and there is a counter on the Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation website. As one spends more time on the home page, the number on the counter is constantly increasing, showing how many sharks are slaughtered in the year to come (“Bite-Back – Shark and Marine Conservation”). Even with research to show that sharks are valuable to the ocean and vulnerable, there are people that think otherwise (“The Pelagic Shark ...

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...onservation." Bite-Back - Shark and Marine Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. .
Dunlop, Fuchsia. Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. Print.
"Home - Shark Research Institute." Shark Research Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. .
"Our Mission: To save Sharks and Mantas." Shark Savers. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. .
"The Pelagic Shark Research Foundation." The Pelagic Shark Research Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. .
"Shark Fin Soup." Shark Fin Soup. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. .
"The Shark Trust - Home." The Shark Trust - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Jan. 2014. .

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