Sharks! Do you love them or hate them?

Sharks

Basking shark Photo courtesy of NOAA NOS

White shark Photo courtesy of NOAA NOS

Hammerhead shark Photo courtesy of NOAA

Sharks have been swimming in the seas for over 380 million years, and until recently our fishing wasn't making much of a dent in their numbers. There are getting on for 400 species. Most are harmless, and only a handful are considered dangerous to us. They are at the top of the food chain, so any change to them (apart from fishing) reflects the state of the seas. The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest fish in the world at over 50 feet in length and several tons in weight. The basking shark is next (Cetorhinus maximus) - it reaches 45 feet in length. Both eat only krill and plankton. The spined pygmy shark is the smallest shark at less than ten inches long.

Depending on your perspective, the most important thing about sharks may be how dangerous to us they are, or how dangerous we are to them. Shark attacks make the news, particularly if somebody is killed. Sometimes details of how we re overfishing sharks makes the news too, but usually with less drama, even though we kill far more of them than they kill of us.

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department, you are about 100 more times more likely to be killed by lightning than by a shark if you are in a coastal U.S. state. Of course, the real odds depend on whether you go in the water or not, but death by shark is rare; just over 2.4 percent of shark attacks on American coasts end in death. Florida had 466 shark attacks and 8 fatalities in the years 1959-2003. The great white shark is the most likely to bite a human, and its bite can kill.

On the other hand, we pollute the sea they live in, destroy some of it, and fish them. We catch them for their skins, fins (for soup), teeth, bones, liver oil, cartilage (for "cancer treatment"), and for sport. They also get caught in driftnets. We kill 100 million of them a year, which affects not only them but the rest of the marine ecosystem. Global warming may be leading them to change their hunting grounds. The great white, lemon, tiger and hammerhead sharks may now be in danger of being wiped out, among many others.

Shark Bites Tourist's Ankle in Florida

In the third shark attack in Florida in a week, a shark bit a tourist on the ankle. The attack took place near the lighthouse at Gasparilla Island Beach, about 280 miles from the last attack and 350 miles from the previous one.

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Sharks! Do you love them or hate them?

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