ISSUE: The slaughter of sharks

OUR VIEW: People have more to fear in loss of sharks than from attacks by them

The Discovery Channel annually features a popular series of shows titled “Shark Week.” The programming includes dozens of documentaries on sharks of all kinds. The research it illustrates is impressive.

The shows come at a time when many people are in saltwater at the beach and elsewhere, giving almost everyone pause to consider the danger posed by sharks. The images of great whites, tiger sharks and big bulls tearing away at their prey, and the shots of injuries sustained by humans when attacked by sharks, are frightening.

A lot like the craze that followed the movie “Jaws,” Shark Week begs the question: “Are you afraid to go back in the water?”

You shouldn’t be.

Some facts:

The chances of being attacked by a shark are very small compared to attacks by other animal attacks, natural disasters and ocean-side dangers. Many more people drown in the ocean every year than are bitten by sharks. The few attacks that occur every year are an excellent indication that sharks do not feed on humans.

Worldwide there is an average of 50-70 shark attacks every year. The number of attacks has been increasing over the decades as a result of increased human populations and the use of the oceans for recreational activity. As long as humans continue to enter the shark’s environment, there will be shark attacks.

The statistics don’t remove the fear factor. Yet stereotypical characterizations of sharks as man-eating predators roaming the beach in search of human prey are simply inaccurate. Most attacks are simply due to mistaken identity.

What is fact is that humans are putting sharks at great risk, and if the ocean’s chief predator is allowed to become extinct or near extinct, the environmental impact could be devastating. Sharks eliminate diseased and genetically defective animals and help stabilize the populations of fish and marine life.

Shark populations have been reduced by 70 percent in some species and up to 95 percent in others. Much of the reason why is the demand in China and elsewhere for shark fin soup. The dish has no nutritional value. It is served for prestige purposes.

Killing sharks by catching them wholesale and cutting off their fins before returning the mortally wounded creatures to the water is senseless slaughter. More than 8,000 tons of shark fins are processed annually. Since the fins are only about 4 percent of a shark’s body weight, that means 200,000 tons of sharks are thrown back into the sea and discarded each year.

In South Carolina, there are tight regulations on shark fishing. Catch limits are enforced by the Department of Natural Resources. They are needed to protect one of the ocean’s most important predators.

Repeating a quote from The Bellingham (Wash.) Herald: “Allowing man-made hysteria to overrule regulations set into place to conserve these valuable members of the ecosystem would be a horrible mistake. Too often, our first response is to eradicate anything that causes use fear or trouble. ... Leave regulations in place and help conserve what is left of our wild world.”

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