Sharks - Sustainable Predators

The movie, Sharkwater, is a desperate plea to the world to stop the shark finning industry from destroying the ocean's top predator, not only for the sake of biodiversity, but for the survival of humankind. Sharks have sculpted the marine ecosystems for 400 million years, pressuring evolution in all of its prey. Removing sharks from the ocean (which at the rate they are being killed now, isn't that far away) destroys a very well established food web...if sharks are gone, there will be a marked decrease in predation on smaller fish; the increase in the smaller fish populations will desimate the phytoplankton populations; which will in turn harm us because phytoplankton are responsible for providing the atmosphere with about 70% of its oxygen; less oxygen is not a good thing for humans...let alone everything else.

The ocean's top predator is a keystone species to human survival on Earth

But there are two major factors that keep the shark finning industry alive and strong: 1. culture and; 2. fear.

Most sharks are killed for their valuable fins, used for shark fin soup in much of Asia, particularly China. Although it isn't very flavorful, people pay up to $90 a bowl because it is considered a delicacy. It is a status symbol and is reputed to transfer the good health and long life of sharks to the consumer.

Often flavored with chicken or pork, shark fin soup is the cause of the destruction of 90% of the global shark population

Whether it was Jaws or something else, sharks have such an awful reputation as brutal, mindless killing machines, that the thought of them is enough to keep some people out of the ocean. I remember being terrified of them as a child, even though I had never seen one in the wild (and still haven't!). Changing their reputation is not easy, because in the end, they can sneak up on you and have really big teeth. The fact that they are highly evolved fish with two more senses than us doesn't mean much...they have really big teeth.

This sort of BS photography doesn't help to convince the more gullible that sharks are not mindless killing machines

So the two things that put sharks, and ultimately ourselves, in danger are two things that are really hard to change. One culture is rarely in the position to judge another culture, but looking at biology rationally would help alleviate the myths associated with culture. And education is the only thing that might eventually convince people that our preconceived notions are false. People will still get bit by sharks, but remembering that we are imposing ourselves on their territory might remind us that we don't have the right to go out and kill them all.

I like to think that building community and social capital is not limited to the human sphere. Putting ourselves in our proper place in the webs of life, as one part, not a whole unto ourselves, we may begin to see the benefit of and connectedness of all life.