Protecting Sharks

By Cecily G.

Some people think that sharks are scary but a quarter of the shark species are on thin ice of going extinct, and that's a big problem.

About 50 of the world's shark species are going extinct. This is because they are hunted for their fins that can be used for a soup in parts of Asia called shark fin soup. The fins that they use for this soup are mostly blue, bull, and tiger sharks. Also sharks are at the top of the food chain. This means that nothing else can eat sharks so if they go extinct the food chain would be affected. Another reason why sharks are dying is because when people fish a the hook could hook a shark instead of a fish, according to The Week Junior.

SharkGuard is a new device to solve sharks getting hooked. The fishing hook emits an electrical pulse that the sharks are sensitive to so they stay away. Now about 200 countries have made a new rule to protect more than 50 of the world's shark species. This agreement was made at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Half of the world's countries are members of CITES. This puts 60 shark species under protection. 

But some biologists do not like the new rule. They think that by making it harder to fish for sharks, their fins could get more expensive. However, Shawn Heinrichs from Only One, which is a group that protects the sharks, said it was “the biggest win in the history of marine species.”