What If All Sharks Disappeared?

You're more likely to be killed by a toaster than a shark, comments Cullen Brown, a biologist at Macquarie University, who was worried by shark attacks that have become more frequent in recent years. Statistics confirm his words. Sharks kill less than one person a year on average, while people in one way or another... Kill 3.17 sharks per second, or 100 million annually, which is several times more than what's published in official UN data. While you watch this video, about 2,000 sharks will die. At such a pace, in just a couple hundred years, humans could completely destroy a creature that appeared on Earth 400 million years ago. That is, even before the dinosaurs. What will our planet be like if this really happens, and is it worth worrying about? For most people, these predators are associated primarily with the image of the great white shark from the movie Jaws. But what do we really know about them? Surely not everything. Sharks to this day remain mysterious, semi-mythical creatures, particularly because it's expensive to research them, and it's only possible to study a few individuals at a time. According to Dr. Daniel Butcher, a marine ecologist at the University of the Southern Cross, even after studying a sample of the same species of sharks, for example leopard sharks, we can conclude that each of them behaves a little differently. Because of this, it's difficult to distinguish between behavioral patterns and random behaviors with respect to these sharks. In fact, sharks are huge fish. They grow up to 30,000 teeth in their lifetime and can only swim forward. It's still unknown how they navigate the ocean. There's evidence that some sharks use geomagnetic navigation. That is, they sense the Earth's magnetic field and are guided by it, in addition to using scent, water temperature, sound, and vision. But what, for example, do the white sharks see in the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 900 meters, or about 3,000 feet, where they spend time every day? Perhaps they sleep there. However, scientists still don't know whether sharks even sleep at all. And why do they migrate seasonally? In search of food? Mating partners? Because of temperature? Or maybe for all three of these reasons? It's also unclear whether sharks stick to groups because they're attached to each other or do they simply choose a suitable place with a good temperature and an abundance of food that is to what extent are they social perhaps the sharks themselves would answer these questions if they could speak because they have one of the highest brain mass to body weight ratios among fish almost like birds and lower mammals however first you need to be able to identify that it is a shark in front of you Since there are more than 400 different kinds of them of very different sizes, from the school bus-sized plankton-loving whale sharks to the palm-sized pocket sharks, the largest shark in history was the extinct megalodon, reaching a length of up to 18 meters or 59 feet and capable of swallowing a person whole. And researchers are still discovering new species. For example, the ninja shark was announced to the scientific world in 2015. And a new type of walking shark hit the newspapers in 2013. Such finds happen all over. Because sharks have evolved over time to inhabit rivers and lakes and are now found in ecosystems around the world, including the shallow waters of mangroves, tropical coral reefs, cold Arctic waters, and of course, the open ocean. But in fact, half of them, 201 species, today are threatened with extinction, which is a worldwide problem, as they grow slowly, mature late, and have relatively low breeding rates. Some die due to the destruction of their habitats by humans. Others are hunted for their meat, skin, fat from the liver, and cartilage, because shark fishing is one of the oldest trades in the world. But 70% of shark fishing is for its most valuable part, the fins. During this barbaric procedure, the fins are cut off from the still-living shark, and they're thrown back into the water, where the shark... Now incapable of swimming, dies of blood loss or suffocates due to damage to its gills or it becomes the prey of other predators. The fins, which make up only between 1 to 5% of the shark's weight, fit in a boat much easier than the whole carcass and become part of the black market, a multi-billion dollar business, which is also one of the most closed and little-known businesses. Fins. Can cost up to $1,100 per kilogram. That's about $500 per pound. The harvesters, on the other hand, get just too... $4.2 per kilogram, or about $1 per pound. In other words, less than 1% of the final cost. Individual whale shark fins cost about $15,000 a piece. A popular soup is cooked using these fins, which, according to popular belief, has medicinal properties. As a result, over the past decades, the number of reef sharks alone has decreased. From an average of 6.68 sharks per 500 cubic meters on the reef in 1997, to just 0.03 sharks in 2016, it's impossible to accurately calculate the consequences of the disappearance of all the sharks in the world. But the forecasts are not comforting. The first of them is chaos, which will bring into its ranks sick and wounded fish, which are usually eaten by the orderlies of the ocean. But the matter is not only what sharks eat. Sometimes their very presence affects the feeding habits and behavior of other marine animals. For example, tiger sharks living among seaweed Scare away turtles and prevent them from over-consuming vegetation. When they're gone, the initial links of food chains will disappear first, as happened off the coast of North Carolina, where there are no more scallops for stingrays to feed on, which in turn served as food for hammerhead sharks. Next, it will be the skates who disappear. Coral reefs will suffer in the absence of sharks, where the so-called liberation of the mesopredators will occur. That is, the number of smaller predator fish, such as snappers and emperors, will increase by many times. But the populations of herbivorous fish that feed on algae will decrease, and the overgrowth of algae will suppress young corals and deprive them of the ability to photosynthesize. ...and recover from the damage of cyclones and discoloration. Ultimately, the reef will die and eventually turn into simple limestone. Oxygen production will be disrupted, more than half of which sharks are responsible for because they control the number of fish that feed on oxygen-producing plankton. Reduction or disappearance of these plankton will lead to an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and, consequently, to Global warming and climate change. Sharks are also food for other marine predators. Dead great white sharks that had been found missing their livers on South African beaches were thought to be the victims of killer whale attacks. But then a video appeared of a catfish shark at the bottom of the Atlantic, swallowing whole sea bass. According to National Geographic, even octopuses feed on sharks, another source of nutrition for other organisms. is the excretions of sharks. Thus, schools of gray reef sharks between coastal waters and the deep waters of the Palmyra Coral Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean bring the reef more than 95 kilograms or 200 pounds of nitrogen per day. That is, according to marine biologist Melissa Marquez. Therefore, without sharks, food chains will collapse and cause a decline of the commercial fishing industry. As a result, millions of people will lose their main source of income. Along with sharks, the $90 billion fishing industry will disappear. This will also have a negative effect on medicine, as scientists use information learned about sharks to help diagnose, understand, and treat many human diseases and solve problems including the possibility of corneal transplantation from sharks to humans. The source of inspiration for bionics. Which imitates designs from nature to solve human problems will be lost. For example, the scales of large white sharks swimming at speeds of up to 39 kilometers or 24 miles per hour encourage scientists to create swimwear with improved hydrodynamic properties. A device resembling a shark's tail was designed to capture the energy of waves from the ocean and convert it into electricity. To summarize, sharks are incredibly important to the ecosystem and for all of humanity. As this is becoming clearer, officials are beginning to protect them at different levels. For example, all sharks caught in the waters of the USA must be brought ashore whole with fins. And in China, shark fin soup is now prohibited. One of the most promising areas is ecotourism, which according to forecasts could generate more profits. ...than global shark fishing. It's been estimated that a live shark brings about $1.6 million, while a dead one brings only $200. President Palau has declared his island nation a shark paradise, and killing a shark can now bring a fine of up to two million dollars. Thus, a variety of approaches could be the key to solving the problem. What do you think about this? Is shark fin soup worth the balance of life? If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, click on the bell to enable notifications for new videos, and don't forget to recommend us to friends. Until next time, this is Riddle, signing off.