Mac Barnes
4-24-98
Science-5

You are swimming in the ocean at your favorite beach resort.  You feel a sharp pain in your leg, you are pulled under water and devoured alive.  You were just attacked by a mindless killing machine of a shark.

Most people think that sharks are like the shark in the movie Jaws, but statistics show that sharks really are not that dangerous.  Even the great white shark, which is the most dangerous to people, only attack people when they mistake them for other animals and, after the first bite, will not eat them.  More people are killed by bees, tigers or lions and struck by lightning than attacked by sharks.  In a bad year, there would be no more than 100 shark attacks in the world.  At the most, 15 percent of them would be fatal.

People are much more dangerous to sharks, than sharks are to people.  About  100 million sharks are killed by people every year.  This is very bad if you compare it to the 15 people or less that are killed by sharks.  For every person killed by a shark, roughly seven million sharks have been killed.  They are being killed for their fins, cartilage, meat, hides, jaws and internal organs.

Shark fin soup is an expensive delicacy in Asia.  Most of the shark fins are exported to Taiwan and are sold whole or in shreds.  Shark fin soup can sell for up to $150 a bowl.  The way people catch sharks for their fins is very cruel.  The dorsal, pectoral and caudal fins of the live shark are cut off and the mortally wounded shark is thrown into the ocean to bleed to death.

Sharks are unique because, unlike other fish, they do not have bones.  Instead of having bones, sharks have cartilage.  Shark cartilage is sold as a treatment for cancer and is thought to stop blood vessels from growing and feeding tumors.  Although shark cartilage has not been medically proven to cure cancer, it has been proven to be effective in making artificial skin for burn victims.

When swordfish and tuna fisheries decreased in the 1980's, people started fishing for sharks instead.  Shark meat is boneless and mild tasting making it a good substitute for tuna and swordfish.

Shark hide is a source of exotic, high quality leather.  It is used for boots and other leather goods.

The jaws of sharks are collected as trophies and are sold at high prices to collectors.  They are also often bought by tourists.

Sharks' internal organs are used for many things from medicine to cosmetics.  For example, shark oil is used for wrinkle creams.  Shark liver oil, which contains the chemical squalamine, has been medically proven by Johns Hopkins Medical Institute to effectively reduce the size of brain tumors. 

Sharks are very vulnerable to being over fished because they reproduce slowly.  It takes sharks two decades to reach sexual maturity.  When they do, they have a long gestation period.  When they give birth, they only have a few babies.  Sharks only mate about every two years.  At the rate sharks are being caught, within 10 years, some species will be extinct.

The extinction of sharks would affect people greatly.  Sharks are being used to make medicine and someday these medicines may save your life if sharks are not already extinct.  Sharks are also important in balancing the ecological system.  If sharks are over fished, the fish that the sharks hunt will overpopulate and unbalance the ecological system.  For example, in Australia, when the tiger sharks were over fished the octopus overpopulated, ate the lobsters and decreased the lobster fisheries. 

Laws need to be passed to protect sharks.  Some laws are being passed in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Canada.  The U.S. has set quotas to limit the number of sharks caught in one season.  A law has also been passed in the Philippines to protect whale sharks.  Whale sharks are the largest of all sharks.  They are not meat-eaters and do not even have teeth.  This law prevents people from catching the endangered whale sharks for any reason.

The extinction of sharks would affect people greatly.  Sharks are being used to make medicine and someday these medicines may save your life if sharks are not already extinct.  Sharks are also important in balancing the ecological system.  If sharks are over fished, the fish that the sharks hunt will overpopulate and unbalance the ecological system.  For example, in Australia, when the tiger sharks were over fished the octopus overpopulated, ate the lobsters and decreased the lobster fisheries. 

When you think of sharks, do not think them as mindless killing machines like the shark in Jaws.  Think of them as an important source for making medicine and an important factor in balancing the ecological system.  We should all try to contribute to saving the sharks.