Over the past eight years at least 660 million sharks have been slaughtered. That’s enough to fill the entire 103-story Empire State Building with dead shark bodies 18 times, or, one building every 20 days, each year. That means 90 percent of sharks globally were poached in all oceans.
It is infuriating that the Australian federal government is refusing to protect three species of thresher sharks and two species of hammerhead sharks listed last November as protected species by the United Nations.
Sharks are “Doctors of the Sea” (aptly named by my colleague Jeff Hansen, managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia). They keep populations of their prey fit by culling the old, weak and sick. Sharks prevent diseases from becoming epidemics.
The current fossil fuel-promoting Australian federal government has an abysmal ocean conservation record.
Imagine of 90 percent of all medical doctors in Australia or America died. Our respective economies would immediately grind to a halt. And our societies would collapse overnight.
It’s time to protect sharks not promote plundering them!
Please support Sea Shepherd Australia and the No Shark Cull Rally because they are protecting the “Doctors of the Sea” – sharks.
Join Earth Dr Reese Halter in his crusade to protect nature by watching Earth Calling SOS. His latest book is Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.
