Shark week

Every summer, people go crazy over sharks. It seems like the news suddenly gets saturated with news about shark sightings or shark attacks and then, of course, there is the start of “Shark Week,” that draws the attention of millions of viewers. Through all of this hype, sharks are portrayed as man-eating vicious animals that exist for the sole purpose of instilling an overwhelming sense of fear in humans. While getting to watch retellings of real-life shark attacks might seem exciting and invigorating during Shark Week … the other 51 weeks of the year, this media-driven fear of sharks causes an enormous amount of damage to this marine animal’s population.
Every year, an estimated 100 million sharks are pulled from the oceans, either as the unfortunate victims of bycatch from the commercial fishing industry or for the sake of the shark fin soup trade. Now, 100 million might seem like an inordinately high number for an animal that is known as the ocean’s top predator … but all it takes is one look at this image to understand the gravity and true to this situation.
The fact is, we need sharks to maintain our ocean ecosystems. Without this top predator, smaller prey species increase in number and wipe out the aquatic vegetation that produces oxygen into the marine environment. The oceans provide us with around 70 percent of our oxygen, so it is vital that we keep this ecosystem in balance and do all we can to maintain it. We do not need shark fin soup, we do, however, need oxygen.

- Kate Good