This one turned out alright.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Shark
Size 1280 x 827px
File Size 297.9 kB
Listed in Folders
Hammerheads are harmless water puppies! And like many different species of sharks, their numbers are decimated by shark finners (catch shark -> cut fins off shark ->toss shark back in water to die) and long-line fishing trollers (they are bycatch). In the case of pelagic sharks, over-fishing can reduce their food supply, as well. Sharks are also caught in nets set outside of oceanic beaches. They cannot free themselves and die of hypoxia. These nets started popping up because of public fear of sharks. It is estimated that 150,000,000+ sharks across all species die from human activities, such as those listed above, each year. And because most sharks don't produce a lot of offspring, their numbers will struggle to recover, if at all. Scalloped hammerheads, leopard sharks, and nurse sharks produce tens of offprings at a time (as oppsed to, for example, the common thresher shark, which only births two pups at a time), though most don't survive. Specifically with scalloped hammerheads, the high number of offspring at birth is likely an adaption, as it increases the number of sharks that survive to adulthood.
As for the coastal nets, I'm sure the intent was for sharks to turn around. But in reality, they just get caught in the nets. SOme alternatives have been enacted that are safer for the sharks, but the coastal nets still exist in many areas around South Africa, as an example.
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