Brian J. Skerry / National Geographic Stock / WWF

Overfishing

The overfishing of sharks happens because of the huge demand—mainly for shark fins—and a lack of management to ensure shark fisheries are sustainable. Some species, such as spiny dogfish and porbeagle, are targeted primarily for their meat.

Bycatch

Sharks are often caught incidentally by fishing gear set for other types of fish—such as tuna longlines, trawls and seine nets—and many will simply be discarded. This contributes to the decline of many species of sharks.

What You Can Do To Protect Sharks

Learn As Much As You Can About Sharks

The most important thing you can do to help sharks is learn about the different sharks of the world, their habitats, and behaviors. Then learn how different human activities put them in jeopardy and which species of sharks are most threatened. By educating yourself on the issues, you can find effective ways to help. You can also help teach others about sharks and inspire them to get involved as well.

Do Not Use Shark Products

Obviously a great place to start is by not consuming any shark meat. However, there are more products than just shark meat on the market. Shark cartilage and oils are found in a range of products from beauty items to health nutrition. So before consuming any product, make sure it does not use any shark materials. By boycotting shark products, you will reduce market demand, causing companies to stop killing sharks to make these products.

Reduce Your Seafood Consumption

Commercial fishing negatively impacts sharks in two ways. First, it reduces the populations of their food sources, especially sharks that rely on bony fish as their primary food source. Secondly, sharks are often killed as a byproduct of commercial fishing. Sharks are attracted to the movement of the trapped animals, and may try to feed on them, getting caught and strangling in the net. They may also be accidentally caught by fisherman looking for other seafood. So by simply reducing your consumption of seafood, you can reduce the number of sharks killed each year.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

One of the biggest threats to shark species is trash. With the massive plastic gyres and dumping, sharks often mistake garbage for food. Plastic is also consumed by the marine species that sharks eat. So sharks will eventually consume non-food products, leading to illness and death. So think about your impact on marine species when using products, so that they don’t end up causing irreparable damage to sharks species.