Shark Awareness Day July 14 is the perfect time to bring awareness to the importance of Sharks in our eco-system. With movies such as Jaws, Sharkanado, Reef and The Shallows, beach-goers become terrified of shark attacks and being scared has led to shark killing. The reality of shark attacks is you are more likely to be killed by a jellyfish than a shark.
Wonderful video on what would happen if there were no sharks: It talks about how sharks were overfished in North Carolina and now there are no Scallops, how our oceans would be alga if there were no sharks.
Our sharks are being killed. There are 465 types of sharks and 75 are critically threatened and 11 are endangered.
There are several reasons that sharks are threatened:
Global Warming: As the top of the food chain, Sharks have to move to find food. Their food source is shrinking in general due to global warming and overfishing. Warm oceans due not bode well for many sharks and the acidic content of the oceans has lead to offspring dying
Fishing ByCatch: an estimated 50 Million shark are caught in bycatches. Before shark finning became so profitable, the sharks used to be thrown back. Now the fins are harvested and then the live shark is thrown back into the coean .
Shark Finning:which it is estimated that 73 Million Sharks are killed each year due to this barbaric practice, which takes the fin off the shark who is then thrown into the water to sink and die.
Saving Sharks Organizations
- Save Our Sharks
- Save Sharks Indonesia
- Saving Sharks
- Sea Shepards
- Shark Angels
- Shark Defenders
- Shark Guardian
- Shark Rescue
- Shark Savers
- Stop Shark Finning
- Support Our Sharks
Resources
10 Amazing Little Known Facts For Shark Awareness Day
Is Climate Change To Blame For Increased Number of Shark Attacks?