The overharvesting of the world's great sharks has sent a shockwave down the marine food web, even effecting our shellfish consumption.
The oceans are a delicate thing, and they're unhappy when they lose a ferocious hunter. It rearranges an already delicate pecking order, one that's not accustomed to evolving on the go...
Bull sharks, tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, they've all been almost eradicated from the waters, according to this study, because of both intentional and accidental reasons. It's led to a sudden rise in their prey, such as the cownose ray (shown above).
Test the fragility of the web here:
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/330/3
1 comment:
HEY! I wrote about this kind of in that pregnant shark story I did!!
Woah. We have come full circle.
I remember this scientist said to me "well, it's good for sting rays. Do you like sting rays more than sharks?" or something like that. It was a good point.
You'd be surprised how many people emailed me and said they were glad the prego shark got killed, though, b/c sharks are ferocious and all that.
Mostly, however, the animal lovers were pissed.
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