Protect Sharks and Preserve Shark Week 20 Years in the Future

Shark Week's 20th anniversary brings to mind a sobering thought. What might this annual Discovery tradition be like in another two decades? The reality is that shark populations worldwide are in grave danger. The most conservative estimates report that one-fifth of all sharks and rays are critically close to extinction. Some, like hammerheads and thresher sharks, have declined by over 80 percent in the past 15 years. Hundreds of other species are so poorly known that scientists fear they will die out before we even get to learn about them.

Sharks listed on The World Conservation Union's Red List read like a who's who of Shark Week favorites: the great white, the bull shark, basking sharks, whale sharks, tiger sharks …The list goes on and on. It is almost a case of what species are not mentioned, as opposed to the hundreds that are. A study published last year in the journal PLoS Biology found that the world's oceans are 70 percent shark free. Although many bony fishes, including sharks, evolved to withstand tremendous water depths, the researchers from the University of Aberdeen discovered numerous deep-water regions where sharks were absent. A possible reason is lack of food, since countless shark-prey species are also on the decline.

What's happening to the sharks? It is as though humans have united with the goal of exterminating them from the planet. The goal may be unintended, but the predicted outcome remains the same. Pollution, fear-fueled killings, habitat destruction and human-induced global warming have contributed to the decline, but perhaps the greatest threat is commercial exploitation of sharks.

Two fishing methods stand out as shark killers: longlining and trawling. Longline fisheries place hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of hooks on continuous lines up to around 65 miles in length. The lines may be set near the water's surface, or at incredible depths, depending on what the fishery hopes to catch. The problem is that such methods are largely indiscriminate. Above the water, birds dive for the perceived smorgasbord, many losing their lives or becoming impaled with the hooks. Under the water, sharks also may go for catches, getting injured in the process or becoming trapped victims.

Trawling is a method where one or more boats drag nets, often enormous in size, through the water. Like an ocean vacuum cleaner, the process can wipe out entire colonies of species within regions in mere minutes. Since the 1600s, reports about the non-selective technique have been issued, but the relative ease of the method and the frequent lucrative yields that it produces have outweighed the environmental concerns.

Steve Branstetter, program director for the Gulf and South Atlantic Fishery Development Foundation, developed a Commercial Shark Fishery Observer Program to monitor the situation. “It is obvious that shark mortality from both commercial and recreational fishing has exceeded the stock's reproductive capability,” he said. “Sharks do not reproduce as frequently or as prolifically as other marine species do. Over the past twenty years, shark landings have declined by 60 to 70 percent for both the recreational and commercial fisherman.”

Some of the world's leading shark experts, such as Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, are working to improve shark conservation measures at local, national and global levels. Sometimes it can be a simple matter of refining existing laws, according to Pikitch.

Shark Week's audience represents a potentially large and powerful force in the fight to save sharks from widespread decimation. Individuals like you can make a big difference.