sharks in danger!
Most sharks are completely harmless, or never encounter mankind.
Humans gravely threaten the future of sharks, with commercial catches increasing world-wide and an estimated 100 million sharks killed each year.

Sharks first swam in the Earth’s oceans over 380 million years ago, long before mankind evolved.

shark facts

• Sharks and rays are fish, but they can be distinguished from bony fish by their cartilaginous skeletons.
• There are three main types: the sharks and rays (the "elasmobranchs") and the rarely encountered chimaeras (Holocephalii, a more distantly related group found only in deep water).
• Most sharks and rays are carnivorous, however the largest species - megamouth, basking and whale sharks, and manta rays, are planktivorous.
• Sharks and rays have evolved a range of extraordinary senses to detect their prey, including:
  1. Acute hearing
  2. Acute sense of touch
  3. A lateral-line system to detect vibrations.
  4. Some sharks have acute eyesight and can almost certainly see in colour.
  5. A sensitive sense of smell.
  6. Sharks can taste their food to determine its palatability.
  7. A unique bio-electrical sensory system used to detect and home in on the weak electric fields produced by live animals.

threats

• overfishing
  Elasmobranchs have few natural predators, evolving to maintain populations through the production of few well-developed young. Unable to reproduce in large numbers, populations are vulnerable to over-exploitation. Many sharks and rays are caught before they reach maturity, further reducing recruitment and triggering a spiralling decline in numbers once a fishery starts.
• finning
  Finning is perhaps the most damaging and distasteful of all shark fisheries. The process is cruel and wasteful. involving the removal and retention of fins, while the rest of the shark may be wasted - thrown overboard and left to drown or be eaten.
• bycatch
  Bycatch is a term used for animals caught by fisheries targeting other species. Shark bycatch catch is often discarded dead at sea, or only the fins taken.
• shark products
  Liver-oil, meat, skin and cartilage are valued by a number of industries. Shark liver oil is still used for cosmetics and as a lubricant in the aviation industry. The medicinal properties of shark tissues have been investigated as an antibiotic. for burn treatment and cancer therapy.