I took a recent vacation to Guadalupe Island to go cage diving with the great white sharks.
With the recent surge in shark attacks, this is an opportune moment for a blog post about sharks. The media has been capitalizing on the shark attacks. To put everything in perspective, for every human killed by a shark, humans kill approximately two million sharks. According to National Geographic, in 1996, toilets injured 43,000 Americans a year,while sharks only injured 13. (1)
Unfortunately, aggressive overfishing threatens to push some shark species to extinction. Scientists say that the number of annual shark deaths is around 100 million. Sharks are fished for their meat, liver oil, cartilage and fins, which are used for shark fin soup. Since sharks have slow growth and reproductive rates, it can be tough for their populations to bounce back.(2)
In the practice of shark finning, the fins are kept and the shark’s body is usually thrown off the boat, often while the shark is still alive. The shark is unable to swim or pass water across its gills and dies from suffocation, blood loss or predation by other species. Only the fins are kept because shark fins are among the most expensive seafood items in the world. The value of the shark fin is many times the value of the meat by weight, so economically, it makes sense to use the limited space on a vessel to store the high-priced fins rather than the low-priced meat of the sharks’ body. Therefore, 95% of the carcass is wasted. (3)
Sharks are important apex predators and play an important role in the ecosystem by maintaining the species below them in the food chain. Sharks remove the weak and the sick and keep the balance with competitors helping to ensure species diversity. When sharks are taken out of the coral reef ecosystem, larger predatory fish, such as groupers, increase in abundance and feed on the herbivores. With less herbivores, macroalgae expands and coral can no longer compete, shifting the ecosystem to one of algae dominance, affecting the survival of the reef system.(4)
So how can you avoid a shark attack? Here is some advice from the Florida Natural Museum of Ichthyology(5):
1. Swim in a group, since sharks most often attack people who are alone.
2. Do not wander too far offshore, since you may isolate yourself from people who can assist you.
3. Avoid the water at night, dawn, or dusk.
4. Don’t enter the water if bleeding.
5. Don’t wear shiny jewelry, since the reflected light looks like shining fish scales.
6. Don’t go into waters containing sewage which attracts bait fishes, which attract sharks.
7. Avoid waters being fished. Diving seabirds are good indicators of such activities.
8. Don’t enter the water if sharks are present, and leave if sharks are seen.
9. Avoid an uneven tan and brightly colored clothing.
10. Don’t splash a lot. Also, keep pets out of the water. Erratic movements can attract sharks.
11. Use care near sandbars or steep drop-offs, which are favorite hangouts for sharks.
12. Don’t try to touch a shark!
If you are attacked by a shark, how can you survive? Here are recommendations in the order they should be tried: (6)
- Experts advise that you arm yourself with a weapon if one is available to you. Any blunt object is a better option than smacking a shark with your edible body parts!
- Try to get away from the shark at the first opportunity. However, do not lose sight of the shark during an attack. Do not play dead because you will present yourself as an easy meal.
- If possible, move yourself into a position where your back is against a solid structure. This way you can decrease the angles at which the shark can strike.
- Punch the shark in its face; directly on its nose will deter it. Try to make the best of the first jab and escape as subsequent jabs won’t be as effective.
- Scratch and claw at the shark’s two most vulnerable features: the gills and the eyes.
- If all else fails, thrash and splash and pound the creature in any way you can.
Have fun out there in the ocean and be safe ! You will likely never have to use these techniques since the chances of being attacked by a shark are just one in 11.5 million, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File.(7) We are much more of a danger to sharks than sharks are to us! I love the coral reef and do not want to see it overrun by algae, so I hope that we can take steps to conserve sharks by improving commercial fishing practices and banning shark finning.
(1)”Shark attack facts.” National Geographic Channel. National Geographic Channel. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015. < http://natgeotv.com/ca/human-shark-bait/facts>.
(2) Gannon, Megan. ” 100 million sharks killed each year, study finds.” Live Science. Purch. 1 March 2013. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/27575-100-million-sharks-killed-annually.html>.
(3) “Finning and the Fin Trade.” Shark Savers. Wild Aid. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015 . <http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/sharks-are-in-trouble/finning-and-the-fin-trade/>.
(4) “The Importance of Sharks.” Oceana: Protecting the World’s Oceans. Oceana. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015. <http://eu.oceana.org/en/importance-sharks>.
(5) Burgess, George. “Just for Kids: How to Avoid a Shark Attack.” Ichthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015. <https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/kids/avoid/avoid.htm>.
(6) Wells, Jonathan. “How to survive a Shark Attack.” The Telegraph. The Telegraph. 20 July 2015. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11750497/How-to-survive-a-shark-attack.html>.
(7) Reilly, Michael. “Shark Attacks: What are the Odds?” Discovery News. Discovery Communications, LLC. 20 August 2010. Web. Accessed 1 November 2015. <http://news.discovery.com/animals/sharks/shark-attacks-what-are-the-odds-20100802.htm>