A Little Shark Love
Sharks have been in the news lately. Or perhaps the lack of sharks has been in the news. It is estimated that up to 90% of the total shark population has disappeared from our oceans worldwide. That means that only 10%, or there about, of all sharks are left in our oceans.
Last October was the first time I had seen a shark while scuba diving in years. I was on a reef off the coast of Turks and Caicos and it was just a small reef shark but I was thrilled. It swam along beside me like a friendly puppy. So much for the demon, man-eater.
When I first started diving, many years ago, I remember being told divers can go years without seeing sharks. My first year brought some close encounters with these sleek, gorgeous beauties. One experience in particular was unnerving but only because I was on a reef where sharks were hand-fed regularly. They had lost their fear of humans and exhaust bubbles and were so overly-friendly that they thought every human in the water had a hand-out for them. (Read more about that adventure in my book, Sharks On My Fin Tips. Chapter 3, page 29). I am against feeding any wild animal. Ultimately it hurts them.
But that same summer I had a huge hammerhead shark…ten feet would not be an exaggeration….casually swim past and was so close I saw his eyes moving on his enormous hammers, watching me. The little mouth was underneath his head so I didn’t feel any fear. I was simply in awe of this beautiful animal.
About a decade ago my partner and I went to California and joined a charter leaving from San Diego for the Coronodos Islands. I didn’t like the cold, Pacific water but I hardly noticed, so lost was my mind in looking around every kelp strand for the denizen of the deep….the Great White! Which brings me to unjustified fear, induced by media. In this case, Jaws.
I grew up on the Gulf Coast and loved swimming in the Gulf until the movie came out. That so warped my understanding of sharks that I never recovered any decent appreciation for these massive creatures until a few years ago when I educated myself on them. I still have no desire to meet a twenty foot shark face-to-face but I want them to survive and thrive…for their own experience of life and for the health of the Ocean.
A large bull shark has been within arms-reach but I tucked my hands and shooed it away with my internal scolding. Have you ever felt like a shark was peeling you out of your wetsuit with his eyes? I did but nothing ever came of it. I remained calm and that was that. No blood, no carnage. Just a good memory.
It is time the media stops sensationalizing the dangerous sharks they want us to gasp and fret over and start informing the public about the amazing creatures these apex predators are…we owe it to sharks. We need to right the wrongs done to them.
Wolves, snakes, mountain lions, bobcats….all of these animals deserve their place in the world. They all have a valuable part to play in keeping ecosystems healthy. Let’s show a little shark love and protect these darlings of the deep. Can’t you just see them smiling their toothy grin when more humans gain understanding and wisdom about living a life of balance.
4 Replies to “A Little Shark Love”
Reblogged this on My Words My Journey.
great to hear about your experiences with sharks and I totally agree with your last paragraph, was just discussing that while watching River Monsters (in an episode where Jeremy Wade chases bull sharks in a South African river). Uninformed people so often think we should just kill sharks to prevent them being a danger but this can potentially unsettle the balance in an ecosystem, just as overfishing or coral bleaching changes an environment.
Just a point though on your 90% quote in the intro: it’s not actually correct to say only 10% are left. This post on SFS mentions that and other myths about sharks that we should avoid stating as fact: http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=14034
Dr Sylvia Earle makes the quote that all big fish are down by 90% in her TED Talk. I have seen other information published by shark organizations that say in general there is a 90% decrease of shark populations. This is of course an estimate done from scientific sampling and best guess scenarios.
I wouldn’t want to argue with Dr Earle! The post I linked to doesn’t explain why 100 minus 90 doesn’t equal 10 but the writer makes good cases against a lot of shark myths.
His reasoning is that academic papers are often misquoted by the media and by conservation groups and that creates the wrong public perception of where fish stocks are at. Those countries who want to keep on shark finning or whaling can then point to the incorrect figures being thrown about to say that scientists are making up numbers… similar to the way climate change deniers can seize on wild claims to “prove” their case.
In the end, we have to show the scientific evidence as is, without twisting the numbers – even if, say, 30 million sharks are being killed per year (not 100 million), that’s still too many to be sustainable!