This Massive Number of Shark Deaths Is Really Changing Our Oceans Ecosystems

Their numbers have dropped dramatically in just 50 years.

Transcript

00:00Sharks may be scary, but they're also an integral part of our ocean's ecosystems.

00:08But now, according to a new study published in the journal Nature, overfishing of sharks

00:12has left a pretty big gap in ocean life.

00:14According to the research, some species of sharks and rays have dropped by 70% in the

00:19last 50 years alone.

00:20But the worst hit shark species was the white tip.

00:23It's now labeled critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of

00:27Nature, with researchers finding the species lost 98% of their populations worldwide in

00:32the last 60 years.

00:33Sharks are often fished for their fins, or accidentally caught by careless fishermen, and they grow

00:38relatively slowly and reproduce less often than other fish.

00:41And the researchers found that three-quarters of all the shark species in the study are

00:45now facing extinction.

00:46One of the study's authors and founder of the Marine Megafauna Foundation, Andrea Marshall,

00:50had this to say about the findings.

00:52It happened quicker than we could have ever imagined, and it demonstrated to us that we

00:56need to take immediate action.