The word alone makes people fearful, immediately things like jaws, beast of war and sea fever crosses the mind and how the media portrays sharks and their behaviour as cold-blooded killers just waiting for their chance when a human slips into the ocean.Â
But that simply isn't true.Â
According to BBC Science & Environment (2021), 71% of shark species are in decline, mainly due to overfishing. This number has decreased over only 40 years in which many species have gone into endangered or critical conditions. Compared to the actual number of unprovoked shark attacks, only 3 shark species have had recorded unprovoked attacks and the same sharks have only had deaths averaging around 10 per year worldwide.
National Geographic (2025) tells that for every one person killed by a shark, humans kill two million of them.
Why sharks are important.
Sharks have been a vital part of the ecosystem and the world for the back of the prehistoric ages. The Greenland shark has its average lifespan of 300 years and has been recorded back to ancient times, and sharks have even survived 5 mass extinctions.
Like any predator, sharks keep down prey populations. The reasons for this are to stop overpopulation, overfeeding/overgrazing and, in relation to the ocean, its seagrass, kelp, seaweed, some types of coral and other plant life. If there are too many fish, there'd be nothing for them to eat, and everything would die out. On top of this, many creatures lay their eggs in the plant life, and without them anchoring the eggs there, the current would take them away and most likely kill whatever species that do that, typically squid, octopus and certain shark species.
As IFAW explains, the ocean absorbs 50% of our CO2 and makes up 80% of Earth’s surface. Without sharks helping to regulate the food web, the entire system weakens. And in all honesty, we’d be affected immediately. This is true for global warming, which is affecting the ocean and its wildlife every day as a result of our actions and pollution.
Why are they hunted accidentally or otherwise
There are many reasons why we as humans hunt animals, mostly to eat and with increasing populations of us, there's a greater need to feed everyone, and fishing is a source of that, but… There are better ways to do it, and somehow it's always humans' fault for the decline of anything, but here are the most critical ones to sharks, my main focus.
Probably the saddest and most famous instance of why sharks are mistreated by humans. Fishermen typically fish up sharks and cut off their fins hence the name, but what is incredibly cruel and still widely done is that the people who cut of the fins will simply put the still alive shark back into the water left to sink (if they don't have a buoyant liver) or left to be eaten alive by other species but its no doubt that instead of humanly killing them and using all the meat as anyone with common sense would do they are left alone and slowly drown because they are unable to swim which is vital for their survival.
an image of just how many fins are taken... 100 million a year. Shark fins are being laid out to dry before being sent to market. Photo Credit: Gary Stokes / Sea Shepherd
Bycatch and trawl fishing
Although a lot more ethical, these types of fishing are slowly and progressively being banned in some areas as the large nets thrown out that catch everything or scrape along the bottom of the seabed, catch anything and everything, trawl fishing in particular is infamous but still a cause to destroying corals and other life this including sharks, whales, turtles, types of crustaceans dolphins.
We are all at least the littlest bit aware of what pollution is and like ive mentioned but plastics dont just affect turtles and lifeforms that eat jellyfish mistaking them for plastic bags but sharks too specifically tiger sharks nicknamed garbage disposal of the ocean and it tracks because they will at least bite everything and often eat what it would be and actually some have died from eating pollution.
My local area (Wales and England)
Now you really wouldn't expect the UK to have sharks, but due to migration patterns and certain temperatures of the water in the summer and winter months.Â
Astonishingly, Cornwall is the shark hotspot, having a massive thrasher shark caught, recorded great hammerheads basking, whale, and Greenland sharks have all been documented in my local waters, and most recently, in Cardigan Bay in west Wales, there's been an incredible sighting of the endangered angel shark.Â
During National Marine Week (2025) by welshwildlife, underwater cameras placed in Cardigan Bay recorded a critically endangered angel shark, one of the most elusive sharks in Europe.
According to the Welsh Wildlife Trust, the last sighting of one on camera was back in 2021,if that doesn't reinforce how rare this is.
Angel sharks live flat on the seabed, which makes them incredibly vulnerable to trawl nets. Every sweep of the ocean floor risks catching and killing more of them, and I mean, just look at them!
They look more ray than shark, but actually, they are the same species. By Dave Parkinson Reporter
This discovery wasn't the original focus, as the cameras were originally trying to find food that dolphins eat and why they come to Wales, with other species like whales passing through. This was in petition to ban trawl nets, and the sighting of this creature wasÂ
How I've been helping and how you can too
I've been helping by looking at the Siarc website (a Welsh shark charity), which is doing an angel shark project, but there 2 ways I've been helping
One is by joining the eggcase hunt. By looking in seaweed and along the coasts, there's a rare chance you can find a shark eggcase (also known as mermaid purses), and if you do find any you take a photo so that the egg can be identified in that area, aiding in research and migration patterns, so we can better help the egg-laying sharks be protected, and this is an easily downloadable app.
They also have a service where you can look at underwater footage and tag any animals you can see with suggestions down the side of what has been spotted, confirming that that thing is in the area where the camera is, which is super helpful for the marine biologists behind it.Â
I've dedicated 15 hours to this, split into 8 and 6 hours in order.
Ways you can help, if you want to help in other ways or in other countries, even there are plenty of charities for sharks and marine life everywhere. But if you prefer raising awareness in other ways, consider making posters for school, interacting with this blog or something completely differentÂ
Here's a list of charities;
Atlantic white shark conservatory
Galapagos whale shark project
This is for my A-level in something called Welsh Bacc, and this work helps me get into universities, so any support this post is given is appreciated for this reason as well, but I mostly chose to do this topic for my love of sharks (autisticly). Thank you so much for reading this in the first place.
