Why Vanishing Sharks Deserve Attention, and Even Affection
Sharks are the stars in shows such as “Shark Week” and movies such as “Jaws” and Into the Blue.” Difference between the shark “stars” and the stars of our human world – the treating of them is just a little different. While our stars are pampered and put on high pedestals, shark stars are tagged, caught, and put in large dinner soups. While sharks are animals that are well recognized and highly heard of, they are not acknowledged as animals in danger. Instead, we see the reverse and consider ourselves in danger when compared with the animal. According to the article, “Why Vanishing Sharks Deserve Attention, and Even Affection,” we as humans may just be in the wrong.
In this article, Sandra Blakeslee distributes her fear for the lowering number, as high as 90 percent, of sharks. This fear held by Blakeslee is followed him a fear of an emotion that rarely comes to mind to most with thought of sharks – affection. She argues that the negative connotation held by many people of sharks is instead a fear that they hold due to images of sharks given off in movies such as “Jaws.” Blakeslee once again sides with the sharks with the fact that only very few species of sharks are actually a threat to humans and that shark attacks are actually very rare. Sharks are given the credit of being the leader of the food chain for the ocean. Because of this, worries arise that with their disappearing, other fish will either multiply to unwanted numbers, such as jellyfish, and others will die off due to an organized food chain and increase of disease. Blakeslee challenges all to understand that the possible endangering of the sharks is an effect that has cumulated from people all over the world. She uses the act of fishing as an example. While as an individual we may only go fishing once every few weeks, several other individuals around the world are doing the same. It is urged for everyone to understand that it all adds up and that the people of the world are hurting themselves by doing this.
I found this article very interesting. I personally do not fish, however, I know countless friends of mine that do. I had never thought about the point that Blakeslee makes about everything adding up. Although she does make a good point about the connotation of sharks really being only an outlet of peoples’ fears, I have to slightly disagree with her about them really not being that dangerous. I am a dedicated watcher of Shark Week. I know that this does kind of go back to her insisting that movies and shows are what causes such fears of sharks, however, it is really the only way people are taught about them. I know I have personally never heard anything with sharks in a good connotation. You do not hear of them doing anything, even within the waters, except for eating. This is a situation however, that somewhat puts me on the line. In the real world, we really do need sharks in order to keep the food chain in line. Without sharks, many fish will get to numbers that are excessively high and can ruin the beautiful beaches of our world and make the oceans only the fish’s territory. This could also always create a domino effect and cause other things in the ecosystem to become out of order. As I said before, although I am not big into the fishing and such, I would highly recommend this article to anyone I know that does and really anyone. It is so true in our world that people do not realize the collective effect that we have as humans. Whether it is recycling, hunting, etc., it all will eventually add up and end up only hurting us later on.
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