The great white shark is one of the most notorious fish in the oceans for being a ‘human killing machine’. Blockbuster shark attack movies like ‘Jaws’ are not helping their reputation because they make humans terrified of sharks, but the reality is that you have better odds of getting killed by a falling coconut, getting struck by lightning, or getting stung by bumblebee. The fact is we need sharks in our oceans. Great white sharks are being hunted to extinction, which will disrupt the natural ecosystem of the ocean, but there are conservation groups trying to help.
Despite its popularity what isn’t so popular is that the great white shark is being hunted to extreme levels and is going to be extinct if people don’t stop hunting it. In fact, according to shark siders.com for every one human killed by a shark one million sharks are killed by humans. Ten million sharks are killed every year by humans. The great white shark is being hunted for their fins, teeth, and as trophies for sport fishing. This is not their main threat however, because they are usually caught as a bycatch by large commercial fisheries. Great White sharks are also killed for no other reason than humans are
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Sharks are an apex predator, which means it is at the top of the food chain. When you remove an apex predator from the food chain, it has an effect on the entire ecosystem. The population of the main prey of the predator begins to grow uncontrolled, causing it to over hunt its own prey until they all starve to death. Great White sharks mainly hunt seals and sea lions. Without the great whites, the seal and sea lion population would increase drastically. Their growing population would hunt the fish in their area until there were no fish such as lampreys, salmon, octopus, or squid. Once those animals were gone, the seals and sea lions themselves would die of starvation. Sharks are needed to keep the ecosystem in