The article under consideration focuses on the disaster that shark populations have faced: the present collapse of great shark populations is worse than any in the known history of the ancient predators. The article does not simply suggest the factual data from investigating the shark populations along the U.S. East Coast but makes the reader reconsider one’s views on sharks.
The thing is that it is in human nature to see sharks as enemies, as these are ones among a few creatures in the world which a man is powerless to handle. Still, instead of seeking ways of rational dealing with sharks humans are reluctant to stop caring for their mercenary interests and start caring for those who urgently need this care.
Despite the alarm about shark fisheries for a decade that the scientists have been sounding neither governments nor ordinary people have reacted accordingly. As the article states, just
A few countries, including the United States, have banned finning and placed severe restrictions on other kinds of shark fishing. But in most countries, and international waters, few limits exist. And strict rules in U.S. waters—notoriously difficult to enforce—do little to protect many large sharks that migrate thousands of miles a year (Dupree).
The author argues that humans’ fear of sharks should not prevent people from taking care of these species that are more and more often called functionally extinct. The author sounds very persuasively when he quotes the words of George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida, who tracks shark attacks worldwide:
“is not shark bites man, but rather man bites shark.” When people kill sharks, he says, they are destroying not an enemy, but a pillar in an ocean ecosystem that helps sustain life on land. And one doesn’t have to like sharks to appreciate that simple truth. “If we wipe out sharks,” Burgess says, “we’re going to wipe out everything else.” (Dupree)
We cannot but admit one more strong point of the article – it is well structured that helps the reader to understand the message better. The article contains such parts as Ravenous Rays, Perfect Eating Machine, Epic Slaughter. Each of them presents Dupree’s overview of the existing knowledge on the problem under analysis and contributes to the reader’s realization of the drastic situation with the most important fish in the sea as the author calls it. Bright pictures that the article is supplied with cannot leave one indifferent to the problem discussed. After reading the article the reader gets a new attitude to the dangerous predator.
Although the problem of obliteration of the world’s great shark species is not a newly emerged and rarely discussed one, Dupree’s article suggests a balanced and objective view on it that evokes the reader’s interest in further investigation of the problem.
One cannot underestimate the role of sharks in sustaining the balance of entire ocean ecosystems:
Sharks clean up aquatic neighborhoods by eating carcasses of dead whales. They keep a lid on the population growth of species such as tuna and seals, which have few other predators. And they contribute to the long-term health of countless species by culling the ailing, deformed, and unfit (Dupree).
If it is so evident, why not start appreciating it right now, as further postponing to solve the problem may one day lead to the extinction of the object all efforts are directed to?
Works Cited
Dupree, Joe. “The Most Important Fish in the Sea.” National Wildlife 2008. National Wildlife Federation. Web.