Sharks have been usually seen as ugly scary creatures because of their naturally sharp teeth, hunting habits, and behaviors that hurt their reputation. This makes humans believe they are very dangerous creatures that shouldn’t be cared for and should be hunted down.
Death caused by sharks
Sharks don’t kill a lot of humans, they kill 10 or less a YEAR. Sharks do attack unprovoked or provoked, but it ends in bites and rarely kills. Half the attacks are minor injuries and mostly depend on where they bite since sharks aren’t targeting vital spots on the human body, unless you’re in an unlucky position. Sharks are indeed dangerous and you should handle them carefully, but don’t judge the sharks based on their attacks since they usually just swim around and are naturally curious about stuff they encounter. An example of such unprovoked attacks are by a fellow named Chance Swanson who was working as a lifeguard at the Kauaʻi Ocean Safety Bureau in Hawaii and suffered a major artery in his leg being punctured by a suspected tiger shark… but he survived! He was lucky to be found by two lifeguards and his brother before losing lots of blood. The shark bit Swanson once in his leg and then left. Since Swanson was using a surfboard at the time, the shark could have mistaken him for prey. Sharks usually hunt sea turtles and sea lions which look a lot like humans on surfboards from underneath. Tiger sharks are intelligent, bold, and naturally curious creatures which leads to accidents happening. Sharks are just trying to hunt for their food and seeing us in the way may make them curious about us, this weird new species in the water, because we are in the sharks’ home.
Bad Reputation
Sharks have also gained a bad reputation because of movies. The sharks are seen to be blood thirsty and hungry for human flesh and people are already scared enough as it is of sharks. The movie Jaws doesn’t help prove that sharks aren’t as viscous as they seem. Jaws inspired over 50 films examples such as Piranha, Deep Blue Sea, The Meg, Orca, and The Shallows, which are a lot of films showing sharks killing people and acting vicious and includes other animals as well. In reality they’re just silly little guys who get in trouble because of their curiosity, depending which one you encounter. The movies aren’t entirely wrong about sharks attacking unprovoked, but they exaggerate it to a degree which makes it more dangerous than it is. Great Whites are the most used in the films and movies because of their more aggressive nature towards anything other than other sharks. It makes sense that they’d use the Great White instead of any other shark because of their big size and more solitary acts in hunting. They also often take ‘test bites’ out of humans when they encounter them. At the end of the day sharks are just in their own world living by their own rules and when something strange like a human appears they get curious of the new stranger. You are in its home after all.
Shark Finning
Shark finning is deemed a cultural practice, which originated in Chinese culture, as it was believed to have medicinal benefits. It has not faded with time since it’s still considered a delicacy and shows off status, and as result fishermen catch sharks and ‘fin’ them, cutting off their fins to sell the fins, and toss the body back in the sea, which causes sharks to die a slow agonizing death. Killing sharks affects ocean ecosystems as sharks are keystone species. With the disappearance of sharks in the water the ecosystem may break and fall apart since the sharks are apex predators that allow balance and prevent overconsumption of resources. Without sharks the predators that sharks usually eat will overconsume prey which will make algae grow from the lack of herbivores. Shark finning isn’t a good thing to do since the soup they mainly use their fins for doesn’t give any health benefits. Shark fin soup actually has risks that can hurt your health. For example, shark fin soup has a lot of mercury that can be seen as a health risk since it can lead to heavy metal consumption. Shark fins are also tasteless and it’s the broth that gives shark fin soup its flavor.
