The Negative Effects Of Sharks Reputation

In the time it takes a person to read this short sentence, over fifteen sharks have been killed. Because people have negative opinions about sharks, they are being slaughtered in mind boggling amounts, and now need protection. Sharks have a bad reputation which is caused by the media’s Hollywood like portrayals. Even though sharks may look and seem evil, there are key to our oceans and need protection.

Virtually all sharks in the world are feared and hated because of the media’s fiendish portrayals. The media chooses to show only the bad side of sharks, so the general population forms biases about these spectacular marine animals. A study on the reputation of sharks, “Sharks Reputation as Man eaters is Unfair” claims that “S[s]ensational television programming such as Discovery Channel’s ‘Shark Week’ imprints certain images in the public’s mind of sharks as deliberate hunters.” Robert Hueter, the director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, then goes on to say how Jaws turned sharks from “trash fish” into cold blooded killers. Dr. Hueter then talks about about a simple solution. “Stop describing animals that rarely kill humans as ‘man-eaters’.” The study ‘claims that if people stop using “knee-jerk” terms then it will help reverse sharks’ negative image.

An excerpt from “Sharks Endangered” written by Sharks World Website states that “M[m]any types of sharks are at risk for becoming extinct.” If some shark species go extinct then there will never be a chance for those sharks to re-populate and the whole ocean would be changed forever. Sharon Guynup, a writer for Science World, claims that “W[w]ithout sharks the ocean 's delicate ecosystem would be disrupted.” If sharks were to go extinct the whole ocean ecosystem would be wrecked. It is no doubt that sharks are disappearing and something needs to be done about