Penn State Hazleton Collegian
by Anthony Hahn
A beautiful blonde teenager decides to leave a
party and go down to the water. She rids herself of
clothing and runs naked into the ocean for a swim
moonlight. The first hint of terror is represented
music, which begins to pound faster and harder
frightened heart. The beast strikes, and the teenager
reaches down for a leg that no longer exists. A second
strike, then the jerk - and the scream.
A gruesome image, isn't it? The
first scene from Jaws is remembered
by all who have seen the movie or
read the novel, which has sold almost
ten million copies around the world.
This opening scene still shapes the
popular image of sharks as savage
eating machines that constantly prowl
oceans, never sleeping, eager to bite
into human flesh. Unfortunately, the
image that haunts people’s minds is
on the opposite end of the spectrum
from what sharks are like and how
they survive. This image has led to the
unnecessary slaughtering of sharks
and their possible extinction. The
hunting of sharks must stop, not only
because of the fact that they are
going extinct, but also because of the
gruesome, inhuman way in which
they are slaughtered.
The image that shark attacks on
humans are frequent is false. In the
United States, about three people are
killed by sharks each year. Statistics
show that sharks rarely attack
humans. They state that the odds of
being killed by a tornado are 1 in
450,000; lightning -1 in 1.9 million; a
bee sting -1 in 5.5 million; and finally,
the odds of being killed by a shark
attack - 1 in 300 million I Obviously,
sharks are not nearly as threatening
as people believe. Even the chances
of being attacked by a shark are
extremely low at 1 in 100 million. So
much for the misconception that
sharks are waiting to eat us.
Even the Great White is not the
hideous predator that it is believed to
be. The Great White does not search
for humans. Its attacks on surface
occur by accident, since the shark
mistakes the smooth surfboards for
seals. Once it takes a bite, the Great
White will spit it out and swim away.
Jacques Cousteau’s experience tells
of his encounter with a Great White:
“Then the shark saw us. His reaction
was the least conceivable one. In pure
fright, the monster voided a cloud of
excrement and departed at an incred
ible speed.”
The fact is, man is now slaughter
ing sharks at a rate of 100 million a
year. They are killed for sport, .hunted
for the grifl in American restaurants,
and drown in drift nets that are
primarily set for tuna and squid. Every
year, over seven million pounds of
shark fins are sold to merchants in
Hong Kong, where shark fin soup is
sold for fifty dollars a bowl.
Basically, the fisherman’s greed for
money continues the mass slaughter.
The killing has now reached such
alarming numbers that when scientists
discuss sharks, the terms “marked
decline” or “possibility of extinction”
are used for many species. Makes
and threshers, hunted for their meat,
have depleted greatly. Lemon sharks,
hunted only to be used as crab bait,
and hammerheads, which have been
annihilated only for their fins, are
extremely rare in areas where they
used to flourish.
How is it possible that our nation,
which is concerned over pollution and
the rain forests, along with other
international problems, can turn their
heads away from one of the greatest
problems of all: the extinction of one
of the most fascinating and important
creatures on the planet?
Although the National Marine Fish
eries Service is currently developing
quotas on thirty-nine species, many
believe it is already too late. Frank
Mundus, a renowned shark hunter,
believes that we are already twenty
years too late. He states, "The sharks
have already been over-fished. Sharks
will never be as abundant as they
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