Save the Shark

The shark is a wonderful creature. Feared, but beloved by many - I repeat, many - countries, the shark is, sadly enough, being deliberately killed by humans in seeming "need" for sharkfin soup, shark leather, shark teeth jewelry, and other shark "necessities".

Many times, the sharks are simply caught on fishing rods, stripped of their dorsal, pectoral, and tail fins, and thrown back into the sea to sink back to the bottom and drown. This practice, known as finning, is portrayed as revenge on the sharks. However, for every human killed by shark "attack", 2 million sharks are killed on purpose. This sad, sad statistic will soon lead to the extinction of this beautiful and amazing creature.

Will our children have to grow up, not believing that such a creature as a great white shark is, or was ever, true? Only learning about sharks from movies and books and the Internet, many of which sources are made up stories?

Sharks never attack humans on purpose. As said in Peter Benchley's nonfiction book, Shark Life, sharks often just bite because they are testing whether or not the human is a good source of prey. Oftentimes, it looks as if a seal or a turtle was swimming above them, when in reality, it is a human on a surfboard.

Sharks are poor, misunderstood creatures that need desperate action to be saved. Please sign the petition and stop shark finning and other types of cruel behavior towards sharks, rays, and skates.

(Note: Rays are subject to finning, also.)