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Sharks: Killers or Just Misunderstood? - Teen Ink

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Sharks: Killers or Just Misunderstood? - Teen Ink

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http://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/environment/article/4528/Sharks--Killers-Or-Just-Misunderstood/

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Terrifying Tiger Sharks On the Attack in Hawaii - Los Angeles Times

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Terrifying Tiger Sharks On the Attack in Hawaii - Los Angeles Times

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https://newsela.com/read/sharks-hawaii/id/2486

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http://www.kidzone.ws/sharks/facts6.htm

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Food Web Woes - What Would Happen if Sharks Disappear? - Science News for Students

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Food Web Woes - What Would Happen if Sharks Disappear? - Science News for Students

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https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/food-web-woes

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Shark Bite Will Not Keep Surfer Out of Water - Newsela

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Shark Bite Will Not Keep Surfer Out of Water - Newsela

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https://newsela.com/read/surfer-shark/id/6397/

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https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/572675/Rise-shark-attacks-scares-tourists-from-Reunion

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Are there Too Many or Too Few Sharks in California? - Los Angeles Times

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Are there Too Many or Too Few Sharks in California? - Los Angeles Times

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https://newsela.com/read/shark-endangered/id/224/

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Sharks - Too Close for Comfort? - Discovery 

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Sharks - Too Close for Comfort? - Discovery 

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https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week/videos/sharks-too-close-for-comfort

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https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week/videos/double-great-white-attack

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http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/shark.html

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http://www.phatrice.com/news/12-reasons-we-love-sharks-and-why-you-should-too/

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Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

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5 Reasons to Revere, Not Fear, the Shark

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Let's face it-sharks have a bad rap. Thanks to sensationalized stories and stereotyping, sharks have become feared rather than revered. They're labeled as dangerous, indiscriminate killers that eat anything in sight. But in fact, sharks are most often the victims. They're killed by the millions annually to supply demand for their fins, which are made into soup and eaten as a status symbol. Such demand for fins has led to overfishing and illegal fishing, depleting shark populations worldwide.

Sharks are a critical part of the marine environment and must be protected. WWF is working to reduce bycatch of vulnerable fish populations, like sharks. We are advocating for better trade protections at international meetings (such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES)), and our efforts have paid off. In 2013, some of the most threatened sharks and rays received the attention they deserved and governments will now take steps to ensure they are sustainably caught and traded legally. In addition, WWF is working through TRAFFIC to address the trade in shark fins and meat, striving for better fishing regulations to protect shark populations and also reduce market demand.

However, our work continues as many other shark species still remain unprotected and heavily exploited. Here we address and dispel some of the most common shark myths and deliver the shark facts. Take a look and learn a bit more about these fascinating fish.

SHARK MYTH #1: ARE ALL SHARKS BIG WITH LOTS OF SHARP TEETH?
Not all sharks are large, bulky and torpedo-shaped like the ones we see in movies. There are actually more than 400 different species of sharks and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the tiny 8-inch-long deepwater dogfish to the massive 40-foot-long whale shark. The basking shark has tiny teeth that it doesn't even use for feeding, and the horn shark also has molar-like teeth that it uses to crush hard-shelled prey.

SHARK MYTH #2: ARE SHARKS ALL MAN-EATERS?
Humans are not food for sharks. The sharks involved in incidents with humans are often hunting for similar-sized prey to humans, such as seals or dolphins. The majority of shark species actually eat fish or invertebrates, such as squid or clams. There's a diversity of feeding behaviors: large filter feeders, such as the whale shark, strain plankton through modified gills, while bottom-dwelling suction feeders, such as the nurse shark, appear to "inhale" food into their mouths.

SHARK MYTH #3: HOW IMPORTANT ARE SHARKS?
Healthy shark populations are linked to thriving marine ecosystems. Losing sharks deprives coastal communities in many countries of livelihoods, food, and tourism opportunities.

SHARK MYTH #4: CAN ANYTHING HURT SHARKS
Shark populations around the world are in rapid decline and are impacted by illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and trapped in ghost nets. Sharks grow relatively slowly, take many years to mature and produce relatively few young. They also suffer from the large and growing demand for shark fins and the general lack of management of shark fishing. Populations simply cannot replenish at the same rate as they are caught and finned to meet market demand. Sharks are also often caught as bycatch in longlines, trawl nets and seine nets, and simply discarded.

SHARK MYTH #5: DO SHARKS ATTACK PEOPLE OFTEN?
There were only five shark-related human deaths in 2018 compared to tens of millions of sharks killed annually by people. Sharks are in all the world's oceans, but shark attacks are extremely rare. In fact, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a shark.
Source for shark attacks statistics: Florida Museum of Natural History Myth #1: Whale Shark; Myth #2: Nurse Sharks; Myth #3 Caribbean Reef Sharks and fish; Myth #4: Thresher Shark; Myth #5: Silvertip Shark

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Let's face it-sharks have a bad rap. Thanks to sensationalized stories and stereotyping, sharks have become feared rather than revered. They're labeled as dangerous, indiscriminate killers that eat anything in sight. But in fact, sharks are most often the victims. They're killed by the millions annually to supply demand for their fins, which are made into soup and eaten as a status symbol.

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You know the scene: A woman's legs kicking underwater. A black mass rising slowly from the depths. A triangular fin slicing through the water. For many, it's that time of year when Jaws is on the mind.

But according to Oceana , of the nearly 500 species of sharks, only about a dozen are potentially dangerous to humans. Even for those species that are, humans aren't preferred prey. Furthermore, they don't attack people that often-certainly not enough to warrant their stereotype. In fact, sharks can be a greater danger to other sharks than to humans. Unborn sand tiger sharks, for example, have been known to devour their own siblings inside the womb. Not only are the sharks eating their fellow brothers' and sisters' bodies, but also the unfertilized eggs in a fit of "embryonic cannibalism."

Juliet Eilperin, reporting for The Guardian , dove into the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File and found that of the 80 unprovoked shark attacks on humans in 2012 worldwide, just seven resulted in death.

In other words, the odds are pretty slim. Eilperin elaborates:

More Americans were killed by collapsing sinkholes (16) than sharks (11) between 1990 and 2006, and more by tornadoes (125) than sharks (6) in Florida between 1985 and 2010.

You can minimize those chances even further by staying aware when in the water. Christopher Neff, a shark attack expert at the University of Sydney, explained to National Geographic that people should consider the following three questions:

First, I ask, "What's the weather?" because swimming while it's overcast or stormy isn't a good idea. Incoming storms can cause the tide to stir up baitfish, and we want to avoid getting in the way of sharks and their prey. It's recommended that bathers stay out of the water for 24 hours after a storm, not just [until] the next morning.

Second, "What's the time of day and the environmental conditions?" We all know to avoid swimming at dawn and dusk and when the water is cloudy. But we also want to be conscious of other marine life and the seasons...

And third, "What am I doing?" Tips that can help reduce risk include not swimming alone or far away from shore. Simply put, swim in a group and stay close in.

Should you spot a shark swimming menacingly toward you, there are a few things you shouldn't do. David Shiffman, a Ph.D. student at the University of Miami's Abess Center for Ecosystem Science, debunks a few shark fighting myths over at Smithsonian Magazine. For one, punching a shark in the nose is not necessarily the best option. Neither is playing dead, especially since some sharks like defenseless prey. Instead, you should go for the eyes-striking a shark's eyelid-like protective barrier can surprise them.

Regardless, you can at least be sure you won't be bitten by a Megalodon any time soon. (No matter how much respondents to a recent Discovery Channel poll want the ancient giant to be alive, the species is still very much extinct.)

For more shark facts, visit Ed Yong's Not Exactly Rocket Science or follow marine conservation biologist David Shiffman on Twitter.

Photo by sharkbait/Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND)

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You know the scene: A woman's legs kicking underwater. A black mass rising slowly from the depths. A triangular fin slicing through the water. For many, it's that time of year when Jaws is on the mind. But according to Oceana , of the nearly 500 species of sharks, only about a dozen are potentially dangerous to humans.

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People have all kinds of weird fears that aren't really rational. Most famously perhaps, is how absolutely terrifying we find sharks. We're way more scared of them than cars, though they rarely kill anyone- just five people worldwide in 2017-while cars are fatally dangerous and take 1.3 million lives internationally annually. Yet there are few blockbuster films about vicious vehicles, while terrifying shark movies are a common summer phenomenon, from 1975's Jaws to this summer's , starring Jason Statham battling a 75-foot-long nightmarish "prehistoric" shark.

If you're smart, you'll start appreciating sharks, no matter what Hollywood says. We need them for many reasons, not least because these apex predators police the ocean, maintaining an important balance in marine ecosystems. Not only do they eat strategically, keeping prey populations healthy by choosing to dine on the easiest catch-the sick and weak-they also intimidate other creatures, which maintains ocean habitats.

For example, scientists in Hawaii contend that when tiger shark populations dwindled, turtles took to eating all the most nutritious sea grass, which led to the destruction of seabed ecosystems. Between 1959 and 1976, that state culled nearly 5,000 sharks in an effort to make the waters safer for humans, but this seemed to make little difference in the rate of annual shark attacks, according to University of Hawaii marine biologists who now track and research the creatures' activities. On the other hand, the shark culling did affect the health and balance of marine ecosystems.

Sandbar shark ("Carcharhinus plumbeu") in the shark tank of the Tropicarium in Budapest, Hungary.

Humans also rely on sharks to survive, albeit indirectly. We depend on the oceans to produce oxygen and to keep the air we need to breathe clean. Oceans remove half of the world's greenhouse gases-more than rainforests-and they control the planet's weather and temperature. Sharks maintain the natural balance in the ocean, which in turn protects us.

Sharks maintain the natural balance in the ocean, which in turn protects us.

A 2016 theoretical study, published in Ecological Informatics, posits that marine ecosystems that are overfished and have few sharks contribute to increased carbon dioxide production in the ocean, hastening climate change, in addition to leading to the collapse of natural balance and a cascade of negative effects.

The oceans also provide about a third of the world's food supply. Every year 200 billion pounds of fish and shellfish-and yes, sharks-are captured for human consumption. When we're not eating them, however, sharks help keep the seas healthy, and their disappearance leads to the collapse of fisheries that we rely on for our own food supply.

Sharks aren't out to get us-we're just increasingly showing up in their spaces and coming face-to-jaw with the ocean's police.

Sharks are not as interested in meeting or eating us as we are in them and their territory. Last year, there were 155 human-shark interactions world-wide, according to the International Shark Attack File. Of these, 88 were confirmed as unprovoked shark attacks, 30 were provoked, 18 involved boats, 12 may not even have been sharks at all, and the rest can't be confirmed. These figures include divers, fishermen, surfers, and all the bathers who take to the world's waters.

"The number of human-shark interactions is directly correlated with time spent by humans in the sea," the ISAF website explains. As human populations grow and aquatic recreation becomes more popular, these interactions increase. Still, the sharks aren't out to get us-we're just increasingly showing up in their spaces and coming face-to-jaw with the ocean's police.

EPA-EFE/Hotli Simanjuntak

The makings of a shark fin soup at market.

Sharks are our evolutionary elders, which is another reason to respect them. They have been around for a very long time, about 400 million years. They swam the oceans before before dinosaurs roamed the Earth and managed to survive the formidable landlubbers. In contrast, humans have only existed for about 300,000 years, or at most 500,000 years.

The reason for the apex predator's longevity is that it's incredibly well designed, internally and externally. Understanding the shark can help solve human problems. Sharks heal exceptionally quickly from wounds and are resistant to infections and to diseases. Scientists are sequencing their genome to try to isolate why this is and how it might be replicated in human medicine.

One burn treatment, called Omnigraft Dermal Regeneration Matrix, uses shark cartilage, for example. Shark genes could also provide clues for cancer cures-a 2017 study found that sharks have evolved cancer-resistant genes; the human counterparts of these genes, when over-expressed, make people susceptible to cancer.

Meanwhile, the company Sharklet Technologies is experimenting with shark skin-inspired surfaces to reduce infections and contamination at hospitals, inspired by the way the rough texture of the sea creature's epidermis deters organisms. Copying shark skin micropatterns and using them to treat surfaces in a hospital setting contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus reduced transmission of this infectious bacteria by 97% compared to copper, a common antimicrobial surface, Pharmacy Times reports.

GM's 1961 shark-inspired Corvette concept car.

Although we love to hate sharks, people also like to bite their style. In 1961, sharks inspired the design for General Motor's 1961 Chevrolet Corvette Mako Shark concept car. This car came to be after the company's head of styling and design, Bill Mitchell, returned with a mako shark from a fishing trip and was so smitten with his catch he had it mounted in his office and ordered a car designed in its image. The car never went to market but it gained "iconic status," General Motors Heritage Center manager Greg Wallace told CNN in 2013.

Shark skins also surface in athletic design, inspiring Speedo's Fastskin II swimsuits which were said to reduce the drag on swimmers, an innovation that made waves during the 2008 Olympics. This claim was debunked by George Lauder, a Harvard ichthyologist-that is a specialist in marine zoology- in 2012. He said that sharks might have inspired the suits but they didn't really reduce drag as efficiently as the magical epidermis of the magnificent shark.

Try though we may to copy sharks, it's hard for humans to replicate the nuances of the design that's withstood the very long test of time-and maybe that's sufficient evidence we shouldn't mess with them and should respect these mysterious creatures. Who even knows what they're up to, really? Their strange ways confuse researchers, too-great white sharks have in the past decade taken to congregating annually in the Pacific, for example, and no one knows why.

Still, if all that's not enough to convince you sharks don't deserve their bad reputation, here's another reason you may not want to be on the side of the haters. According to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who alleges she had an affair with US president Donald Trump in the past, he can't stand these apex predators and wants them all dead. Perhaps it's tough for some of us to admit when another creature is superior-don't be that guy.
This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.

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People have all kinds of weird fears that aren't really rational. Most famously perhaps, is how absolutely terrifying we find sharks. We're way more scared of them than cars, though they rarely kill anyone- just five people worldwide in 2017-while cars are fatally dangerous and take 1.3 million lives internationally annually.

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Expert on Shark Behavior Says they Should Be Respected not Feared

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Expert on Shark Behavior Says they Should Be Respected not Feared

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.