At the end of Shark Week, it’s time for some good news on
sharks. Despite all the earlier blogs this week, this is not me trying to
convince you sharks are huggable and loveable (though, they are, obviously), rather
a round-up of some good conservation news for the world’s
often-underappreciated shark species.
Leading polar bear expert Dr. Ian Stirling said this bear, found in Svalbard, died of starvation due to a lack of sea ice from which to hunt. In the last 30 years, 75% of Arctic sea ice has disappeared.
It's pretty safe to say that the Arctic is under pressure like never
before. Climate change is warming it faster than any other part of our
planet. Sea ice is shrinking. The way of life of Indigenous Peoples is
seriously threatened and animal habitats are vanishing. Oil companies
eye a polar bonanza while hulking fishing fleets are edging ever
northwards.
Sharks have a never-ending supply of teeth. They regenerate
replacement dentition on an inexhaustible toothy conveyor belt ... which
explains why you see so few shark dentists.
But sharks are not all about teeth, despite the bad press.
Filter feeders like the megamouth
shark, are mostly big (but harmless) mouths; the winghead
shark has a head half the length of its body, and; the thresher
sharks have a huge tai (ideal for stunning fish before eating them) that can be
the same length as its body.
Balcombe is surrounded by woodland which could be affected by drilling and fracking
I’m just back from the local anti-fracking camp outside Balcombe in Sussex, where Cuadrilla workers are noisily drilling their oil well despite not having the necessary permits and huge local opposition. Many hugs from the campers and villagers down there, and frankly too many Balcombe courgettes: I’ve brought mine back home due to lack of demand.
Lots of people are frightened of sharks. That makes some
sense if you think all sharks are relentless man-eating teeth-machines, but in
reality the vast majority of them are much more scared of us, or they should
be. There are over 350 species of sharks around the world, but they don’t all get
to grab the headlines or star in feature film franchises. So in honour of Shark Week, and to show you
how daft it is to be irrationally fearful of some of these critters, here’s a quick
guide to the silliest-named sharks in our oceans.
It’s Shark Week! This collection of photos from our archive supports
Discovery Channel’s celebration of these amazing species and the television
programme’s aim to raise awareness and respect for sharks.
Giving a hungry shark something else to chew on might be a good tactic.
It’s Shark Week. Despite us trying to tell you otherwise,
some of you still worry about getting chomped by a shark. So, to allay your
fears and help give you some practical ways to avoid being shark sushi, here is
the handy Greenpeace guide to avoiding shark attacks.
It’s Shark
Week. You’re allowed to be excited. If
you already like sharks you will doubtless be enjoying that the internet is
awash with sharp-finned fun. But if you don’t know much about sharks, or are a
bit wary because they’re scary, you might be wondering what all the fuss is
about.
Posted by Angela Glienicke -
31 July 2013 at 4:12pm
Normally you associate
Thailand’s beaches and holiday resorts with emerald water and white sands, but
on Saturday morning 50,000 litres of crude oil spilled from a leak in a
pipeline into the Gulf of Thailand, off Rayong province.
