Saving the Sharks

Saving+the+Sharks

With summer around the corner, many people are heading to the beach! Many tourists and locals look to soak in the sun rays and enjoy the ocean. While many people love swimming in the ocean, some others are afraid of the danger of the currents and even shark attacks. Educating people on how low the chances are of actually being bitten by a shark (one in 11.5 million among beach-goers) can help change a narrative of how actually beneficial sharks are to the environment.

With a wide variety of shark species that are endangered, many activists have encouraged us to stop fishing and killing sharks at the rate we are now. Many countries have been placing regulations and banning the hunting of sharks. The Bahamas has even established a sanctuary for sharks, providing a safe place for sharks to breed and live safely from being killed in the open ocean. 

Bahamian people use fishing as a source of income, so as they understand that it is an issue to continue the killing of sharks it is not always financially viable. This protects the sharks and allows them to regenerate their populations. Many Bahamians are also benefiting from this because instead of killing the sharks they are using them for shark swimming and tourist tours. While both the Bahamian people and the sharks can mutually coexist without hurting one another, it seems as though they have found a solution to help the sharks and still have a source of income!

According to National Geographic, more than 100 million sharks are killed per year for consumer use, such as meats that can be sold and high demand for the shark fin soup commodity. While sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years and have survived multiple extinction periods, many are at risk of extinction and are currently endangered.

There are hundreds of organizations that work tirelessly on shark conservation efforts.  They fight to educate people and to stop the slaughter of sharks.  Some of the top organizations are Project AWARE Foundation, Oceana Headquarters, Shark Angels, and The Shark Research Institute.

While many people have such a negative outlook towards sharks, they actually benefit both the environment and humans more than you think!