There are many dive sites throughout the world at which you can enjoy encountering sharks - from little juvenile hammerheads in shallow waters around the Galapagos, to massive Great Whites you can view from the safety of a steel cage in places from Africa to California. While the concept of diving with enormous predators might seem like "not" such a good idea, sharks actually pose little risk to divers and they're essential to ocean health. There are lots of reasons we at SDTN love sharks - here are just five of the best.
Sharks Contribute to Reef Health
Sharks are apex predators - that is, they have no natural enemies, other than man. Sharks work hard to keep the ecosystem in balance; if they were to disappear, there would be problems in just a short amount of time. Scientists theorize that low shark populations result in more groupers, which in turn leads to fewer parrotfish. Since parrotfish eat algae, which can kill coral when present in excess, they're essential to reef health. Sharks are an important link in the chain - without them, thousands of marine species would have nowhere to call home.
There are more than 400 known shark species living in all sorts of habitats - even under Arctic Ice. Next time you're diving one of the worlds many beautiful reefs, thank a shark!
Sharks Are Amazingly Well Adapted
Sharks are incredibly well adapted to hunt; their sense of smell is simply amazing, and as they can detect scent direction, they can quickly find prey and other food sources, including carrion, which they clean up. Do you love clean ocean water? Thank sharks! They help keep carcasses from polluting the world's oceans.
Sharks Have Beautiful Smiles
Most sharks have row upon row of replacement teeth - while they look a little scary, they are beautifully functional, and their surfaces are coated in fluoride - which could explain why sharks' teeth look so shiny and white. Even "toothless" sharks have great smiles - just look at the huge grins whale sharks display while gulping zooplankton!
Sharks Never Stop Swimming
We hope you like to swim as much as we do; but even our team can't hold a candle to sharks when it comes to swimming! Sharks are always on the go; that's because they need to keep moving forward to breathe, and as they have no swim bladders, they must keep moving to stay afloat. Can you imagine swimming 24/7? Sharks keep on moving, even when they are asleep.
Sharks are No Threat to Humans
Human beings have just a 1 in 3.8 million chance of being killed in a shark attack; in fact, you're more than 25 times more at risk of being taken out by a rampaging cow. In fact, your chances of being killed in a car accident are higher than your odds of being injured or killed by a shark! Most sharks simply mind their own business, preferring to live peacefully. While it is true that sharks will bite if provoked, and while it's true that they are flexible enough to turn and bite any diver dumb enough to grab them by the tail, these animals are not out to hurt anyone.
Next time someone asks you how you feel about sharks, what will you say? We hope you can appreciate them, if not love them the way we do.