Sharks have been getting a bad rap for years thanks to the media and movies like Jaws. People fear them because they do not know them. And I don´t blame people for not wanting to get to know them, oh but we must! Let´s just consider some facts, shall we?
They´ve been around long enough to watch the dinosaurs evolve AND go extinct, so it´s to say that they´re around for a reason....They´re the top predators of the oceans (well, until us humans came along) and thanklessly maintain lower oceanic populations within the food chain, which, in turn, maintain other populations all connected to each other in a beautiful web of life. Sharks keep the food chain in order which allows us humans to enjoy tasty seafood like various kinds of sushi, lobster, tuna, and shrimp to name a few.
So, what happens if we fish out the sharks? Believe it or not (and you best believe it!) we´ve already depleated 90-99% of EVERY SINGLE shark species! But how can this be so, you ask? Shark fin soup. When I say ¨we¨ have depleted shark species to near extinction, what I really mean is that Asia is the direct culprit. Hong Kong is responsible for 50% + of the consumption of shark fins. It is a billion dollar industry based on the false assumption that the shark fin is an aphrodesiac as well as it´s image as a swanky social status symbol. And don´t for a second think that they go about finning sharks in a humane way. More often than not the sharks (and other sea creatures) get ¨accidently¨ snagged on a fishing line, they get yanked out of the water to have their fins sliced off and then dumped back into the ocean to drown. Or they get brought to fish markets and thrown into piles to be butchered and sold. Mmm mercury! For that´s what they´re full of! Plankton absorb toxins that we humans keep pumping into our air and oceans, plankton gets eaten by macroinvertebrates which get eaten by tiny fish, which get eaten by bigger fish and so on. And all throughout this chain of consumers and predators the toxins continue to build up. So, as the top predator, sharks have a massive build up of toxins, such as mercury, which has been proven to cause damage to the brain, kidneys, and nervous system, heart disease, and is terribly dangerous to developing fetuses. (That´s why they say no sushi when you´re preggers!)
However, we are all indirect culprits for we learn about it and do nothing.
Yada yada what´s with the rant on sharks?? Well my goal with this post is simply to share information. Get the word out. Help people to become aware of this horror and to encourage people to take part in putting an end to it. How? By becoming informed, talking about the issue, doing what you can, when you can, become proactive. Pretty simple. Eventually the right people will get the facts straight and hopefully make the necessary changes. After all, 7 out of every 10 people depend on the ocean for their main source of protein. So what happens if we fish the sharks to extinction? Well, I´m not even sure I want to think about that. All I know is I LOVE seafood and would like to be able to enjoy it with my children someday, so for now I´m 95% vegetarian. I´ll only eat it if it´s caught or hunted locally and sustainably. None of that industrial ¨meat.¨ Enough with the packaged in plastic, shipped to the supermarket, pumped with preservatives crap. No wonder America has health problems! And I won´t even get started on the high fructose corn syrup and monosodium glutamate found on every ingredientes label....All I have to say is I eliminated them along with a list of other things from my diet and lost 25 lbs. And it just keeps melting off. As for exercise, well, I´m a dancin´ fool and I do a little of this and a little of that. Things that trick you into exercising. Yoga, kung fu, pilates, capoeiera etc. Lately surfing and slacklining.
A Few Fun Facts
More people die every year from vending machine acciendts and lightening strikes than from shark attacks. True statement. And as far as the increasing number of shark attacks, well what do you expect with a world population so out of control? More people swimming in the oceans = More shark attacks (and rightfully so). However, sharks don´t actually eat people. When they ¨attack,¨ they´re just trying to figure out what we are. They´re not the vicious, blood-thirst predators films have made them out to be. Most deaths associated with shark attacks are due to blood loss and insufficient or unavailable medical care. Not because someone got eaten by a shark. That´s just absurd.
I want to thank those of you who read this in it´s entierty for sticking it out. While some of it may seem irrelevant it is all connected and important in it´s own regard. These topics have come to mean a lot to me, for it was my experience at a fish market in Ecuador and seeing first hand the carnage and waste made me decide to pursue a career in Marine Ecology thus leading me to where I am now. In addition, as I continue my journey in learning to take better care of myself, I pass along this information to you, my friends and loves, in hopes that maybe you learned something new and are therefore more enabled to take better care of yourself. Gotta have each other´s backs!
Sending my love, always.
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