Sharks By Dryden Quigley
One hundred million sharks are being killed per year due to the increase in demand for shark fin soup. Most of these sharks are only being used for their fins and the rest of their bodies being dumped overboard. Many different types are being killed including hammerheads, basking sharks, whale sharks, and blue sharks. Scientists such as Simon Thorrold are attempting to save the sharks by creating a tagging project. Although there are five hundred species of sharks dwelling in our oceans many of them are in danger for a variety of reasons and a new tagging project is aiming to conserve them and other types of marine animals.
The new tagging project is giving scientists a new view on how marine animals behave in their natural habitat. Each individual tag can give information on where they go but scientists want to tag a lot of sharks in order to be able to understand that at the level of a population. The tags are very expensive at 4,000 dollars or each and it takes a while to fin the sharks to tag them. The tagging project will give information in order to create strategies to sustain the animals. The role of the sharks in the ecosystem they are part of is very important and that is why it would be devastating if different species were to go extinct. The sharks are some of the tops predators and control the populations of animals below them. If the sharks don’t control the population levels the it will increase the populations and reduce biodiversity. The biodiversity helps the animals adapt to change in the ocean which is important today because of the climate change. The difficulties of tagging are that it is hard to find an animal to tag. Then placing the tag on the animal is difficult because you do not want to hurt it or influence its behavior. The tag would measure temperature, depth, light levels, and other factors in a shark’s life. Now it is hard for scientists to study sharks and other large fish because they do not know even the most basic information about their habits. The tagging project is important because today we have intact ocean systems but we are close to getting to the point where it will be almost impossible to maintain them.
This article is important for everyone because if large fish go extinct out ecosystem would change completely. The ocean would have lowered resilience to climate change impacts and populations of different animals would change. The article says to “Imagine the U.S. West, without grizzly bears, without wolves.” This would change life in the ocean as we know it. The tagging program would benefit you because the information can help prevent shark attacks from happening. In the past three or four years there have been increased sightings of white sharks. The tagging process could lead to answers about how many there are, what they do, and when do they return. This could save lives and many people would benefit from this.
The article “An Ocean That’s No Longer Wild” by Lonny Lippsett taught me about the process and importance of tagging large fish. The article was split into different sections based on questions which made it very easy to read. Each section would completely answer the question asked based on an interview with Simon Thorrold. The article got my attention because of how it related the topic to me and the amazing photo on the front. The article was a bit long and covered many topics. I would improve the article by only focusing on sharks and not on rays and other large fish. Overall the article relayed well important information to the reader about marine biology.
Lippsett, Lonny. "An Ocean That's No Longer Wild." : Oceanus Magazine. N.p., 18 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
I really liked the way you wrote the current event. It all flowed really nicely, and it almost sounded like a story, which made me more interested in the article. I also liked how you stayed on the topics of sharks, even though the article apparently had some stuff about rays and other large fish. I thought that taking the idea of the west without grizzly bears from the article was a great idea, and it made me understand more about the importance of sharks and why we need to tag them. I had no idea of how little we knew about sharks, so I was surprised that we need to tag the sharks to even learn about the basics. Also, I can't believe that sharks are being killed only for their fins and the rest are being dumped overboard. My one question is how they were able to tag the sharks in the first place if they don't want to hurt them or change their environment. Other else than that, I thought this was a great article and it kept me interested the entire way through.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, your title really grabbed my attention. I really enjoyed this current event, because the topic was very interesting. I did a speech on overfishing in speech and debate last year, so all of this information was very relevant to what I learned. I thought you did a great job at explaining the information and keeping it interesting. Like Amy, I was also shocked that we do not know a lot about the habitats of sharks. I was very interested to learn about the tagging of sharks. I think your review was very well done, and I have no substantial suggestions.
ReplyDeleteThe review was well written. It had many interesting facts and details. I had no idea that one hundred million sharks are being killed a year. I was shocked that sharks are used for their fins and then they are thrown overboard. Like Amy, I thought that taking the grizzly bear example from the article was a good idea because it made me understand that we have to save sharks and the other big fish in the sea that are in trouble. I was shocked of how little I knew about sharks after reading the review. After reading this it made me want to find more information on this topic. I wished that the review had said how they will be able to tag the fish without changing their enviornment. Other than that, I thought the review was very interesting.
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