Good News and Bad News About Sharks
by Larry Smith
“I am the shark among the fishes, and the Ganges among the rivers.” --Bhagavad Gita
Well folks, when it comes to sharks - we have some good news and some bad news.
The bad news is that sharks - like most other big fish in the ocean - are not long for this world if we continue overfishing on an industrial-scale.
The good news is that because driftnet and longline fishing are banned in the Bahamas, our shark populations are relatively stable. In fact, National Geographic described Bahamian waters as a relative "Eden" for sharks compared to the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, sharks have always suffered from an image problem. People tend to regard them as serial killers and fishing competitors. But to Aleksandra Maljković, a doctoral student in marine ecology at Canada's Simon Fraser University, they are a fascinating research subject.
