Maui Ocean Center: On Sharks

There is no question that most people in the world are afraid of sharks, and they've got a good reason for that! If you see what a shark can do with its teeth, then you should be scared. Unfortunately that fear is unbalanced considering how media attention portrays sharks as killing machines, and according to the Maui Ocean Center, "You are more likely to be killed by a falling coconut then bit by a shark,"

What's even crazier is that out of 350+ species of shark, only three are associated with nearly 2/3 of all shark attacks. Those three are the Tiger shark, the Great White, and the Bull shark. According to the ICUN Red List, 31.2% of all shark species are threatened with extinction. Sharks have been living on planet earth for over 400 million years, if they were to go extinct lots of terrible things would happen.

There are lots of different things that are harmful to sharks and we need to be aware of them, some threats are overfishing, shark finning, overconsumption, bycatch, recreational fishing, marine debris, and souvenir trade.

There are also lots of things we can do to help.

Sharks aren't as bad as people think they are, people just need to be educated on better swiming safety practices. Sharks are better in the world than not.