An exploration into the threats to sharks

An Ocean Full of Problems 

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Don't worry about it, Elasmo! You should always talk to someone if you've got something on your mind - you never know if they'll be able to help if you don't ask!

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When coral dies it becomes white. This is called "coral bleaching". Scientists are working hard to restore coral by growing new, healthy coral and putting it into the sea in the place of the dead, bleached coral. There are many videos online about coral re-growing in Florida and Australia where coral reefs have been affected by disease or climate change.

Get a grown-up to help you look on Youtube for "growing coral" videos.

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All over the planet, overfishing is a problem. But many countries are making efforts to stop overfishing and protect the fish. Countries are making Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and setting limits to catches to give the fish a chance to grow in numbers. Some species of sharks and rays are banned from being fished at all! This is giving them a chance to recover from when they were fished.

Many groups of people around the world are working to find answers to this. Do you know what aquaculture is? It's like fish farming. It's a difficult topic, but some organisations do it right, using sustainable food sources, while others do still don't have it quite right, so be careful which you support!

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I heard that lots of sharks had their fins taken to make soup - is that really true?

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Why is my home so bare? Why is the coral white and not alive? Where have all the things I saw as a pup gone?

Good morning, Elasmo! I heard you have some problems going on... Do you want to talk through them with me?

Gosh, I guess I do have a lot of things going on... Maybe I should tell Dr. Sue Octopus.

We can make the seas cleaner for the future by using new technology to protect our ocean and all of its creatures. Our scientists have even invented cleaning machines to remove floating plastic from the seas!

What can you do to help? - Reduce your use of plastic - Refuse unnecessary plastic - Reuse everything as much as you can - Recycle what you can when you're finished with it

Many years ago Chinese Emperors were the only people rich enough to afford shark fin soup, but nowadays lots of people can afford to buy it, which has made the demand go up. This has been recognized by many governments and lots of countries are trying to reduce the demand for the soup and end the shark fin trade.

Some people see shark fin soup as delicacy, but people around the world are trying to change that so there's less of a demand.

People are also working on making laws to ban the removal of only the fins of the shark when fishing. This is wasteful and cruel!

Where should I start?

Why don't you tell me a little something about your home?

Phew! Thank you, Doc! I know we still have a long way to go, but knowing that there are people out there trying to help makes me feel a lot better.

I'd love to hear more about my heroes on land one of these days!

Another problem is that my home is so dirty! There's plastic in my food and sometimes I get tangled. Where is this all coming from? When will it stop?

That's called "pollution". It's coming from humans on land. Now that people know it's a problem, they're trying to change their behavior and clean the oceans.