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| Humans have done far more damage to great white shark populations than they have done to us. (Credit: Tobey Curtis) |
Sharks and their relatives, the skates and rays, have become poster children for the ‘global overfishing crisis’. Largely due to increasing demand for high-priced shark fin soup in Asia, shark populations worldwide have suffered from excessive exploitation in recent decades. Tens of millions of sharks are harvested each year, resulting in population declines in excess of 80% in some cases. Numerous publications over the last decade have lamented these declines, and attempted to describe the ecological consequences of removing these important apex predators from marine ecosystems.
