VERY IMPORTANT PREDATORS

Shark Awareness

By Billy Timms

Since 2011 shark awareness day which takes place on July 14th ,has been a global effort created in hopes of teaching people the importance of sharks in the ocean ecosystem as well as helping conservation efforts.

Sharks play a key role in keeping a great number of species populations down, not down so far as to be detrimental, but enough that over population is not too much of a problem.

Sharks also play a role in keeping the oceanic environment healthy, by hunting a great variety of animals, from small fish to other sharks and even whales sometimes.

Sharks are usually seen as dangerous due to their size and many rows of sharp teeth, but in reality sharks are not very hostile creatures at all.

Due to the evolution of sharks dating back around 450 million years, sharks have always had a specific diet which does not include humans, as humans only date back around 300,000 years ago.

While there are some accidents that happen, humans actually pose significantly more of a threat to sharks than they do us due to large scale fishing.

Photograph by Brent Barnes