• Rapid explosion of demand for shark fins for soup in Asia

• Bycatch: fishing practices that unintentionally capture large amounts of sharks when other fish are being targeted

• Unsustainable fishing practices that are targeting sharks or their prey

• Degradation of ocean habitat

• General lack of awareness of the state of the species

We know that there are a lot of environmental problems worthy of our attention and there are many species in trouble. Why do we care about sharks? No other group of animals are being singled out and slaughtered the way sharks for their fins. It's as if they are swimming around with gold ore on their back, and the shark fin industry is unrelenting in hunting down sharks for their fins. 

But beyond that, sharks surviving in meaningful numbers is actually important for the health of our oceans and ultimately for man. 

The oceans are the most important ecosystem on the planet. This ocean ecosystem has been regulated and kept healthy by sharks for about 450 million years because they are the top of the ocean food chain. Reports indicate that shark populations have already dropped 90%, largely because of sharply increased predation of sharks by man in the past 20 years. Sharks won't recover anytime soon as they are slow to reach sexual maturity and raise relatively few offspring.

In that depleted state, an additional 100 million sharks are being killed per year. There is no global protection of sharks. There are no safe havens where we can ensure sharks can escape the slaughter because the shark fin industry even poach in the preserves.

We're told by scientists that phytoplankton in the oceans absorb at least half of the carbon dioxide that we put into the atmosphere and causes global warming. The phytoplankton then converts it into at least 50% of the oxygen we breathe. And as we all know, the world's human population is highly dependent on the oceans for our food. What will happen when when the shark fin industry completes the task of eliminating the apex predator of the oceans? Will the former prey of sharks increase in numbers and destroy more phytoplankton? Will other former prey eliminate other species of fish or crustaceans that we are dependent on for food? Nobody knows the answers to this extreme experiment, but we doubt shark fin soup is important enough to risk finding out. 

This situation is complicated by the fact that most people don't know about the plight of sharks. Many others don't care about sharks because they have been influenced by media-borne mythology that sharks are dangerous man-eaters and therefore don't deserve protection. This results in a lack of sympathy for what we believe to be an important and grand animal.

The largest threat to the oceans and sharks may well be a lack of awareness. We are optimistic that if the public knew what was going on in the seas in general and to the sharks, in particlur, then this is a problem that could be solved more quickly. Shall we create that awareness, together?

Become a Shark Saver .