Everyone has this perception that sharks are really scary.
They've become so villainized in society. I don't think we need to be scared of sharks, but
I think we need to respect sharks.
In the 1970s coincident with the release
of the movie Jaws, I think public perception
of sharks changed dramatically and not
necessarily for the better. By the 1990s
many shark populations in the U.S. were
really at low levels and depleted states.
Larger sharks in particular are apex
predators and generally they're tasked
with regulating the ecosystem from the
top down.
And if you remove your apex predator
your whole system can get
thrown out of balance and it can have
cascading effects through the system
that could start to impact not only the
shark populations, but other populations
that maybe support traditional
fisheries or serve other important
ecosystem functions so it's about
maintaining the balance in the system.
Here at VIMS, scientists were monitoring
shark populations before the crashes,
which gives us a really good kind of
benchmark as to what population
abundances used to be like in the 70s
compared to what they are now.
So we collect the data, we process the samples, we analyze the data and we generate
a number of peer-reviewed manuscripts that give us better information on how these
populations work. That information is then fed to stock-assessment scientists
and to fishery managers who are
ultimately the ones responsible for
making decisions with respect
to harvest levels, gear restrictions,
things like that.
I think that right now
it's very important that we think of
sharks with a conservation mindset
and that's because of the overfishing
that happened to sharks over the past 30
years. I do believe that once sharks do
recover that we will be able to fish
them again and that we can use them as a resource.
We shouldn't fear them; if
anything I think, you know, we have a
responsibility to care for them.
And certainly, I feel lucky to be involved in
a program like this. I think we are
making an impact, I think we are moving
forward, I think we are on the right
track. I think we have to continue to
encourage the public, encourage outreach
to view sharks in a different light.
I think there's been certainly some
progress made but there's more to be made.
These are important animals and they're
important to what we value in the marine environment.
