Sharks are amazing creatures that have been alive for over 400 million years! They were alive even before dinosaurs. Scientists know that they lived during the Mesozoic Era which began 245 million years ago. They lived on planet Earth 200 years before dinosaurs. There are 470 different species of sharks. They are the oldest creature this planet has ever known. Did you know that people are treating sharks very harshly?
Seventy three million sharks are killed each year just from people cutting their fins off for soup. When people kill sharks they throw them back into the water for a slow death. Some people cut of sharks heads and take out their jaws. Others kill sharks for sports, oil meat, and just for fun. People are afraid of sharks mostly because of their bad reputation of gruesome, scary, and fearsome predators. The only reason that sharks kill people are because they mistake people for prey or a person is trying to attack them. More people die from wasps then sharks. Sharks aren’t getting higher in numbers because they are killed before they can reproduce. They are getting so rare that when a program was sent for four years with nets to capture sharks they only caught two!
Sharks are very important. Without them the balance of nature would be totally unbalanced. Also, sharks eat some of the fish that carry diseases. In 2007 there was only one shark attack in the world. Those numbers do not match up with their man-eating reputation. Here are some ways we can save sharks: (1.) we can donate to charities that support sharks. (2.) we can volunteer at our local aquariums. (3.) we can learn all about them and teach other people too.