Sharks get a bad rap in the media. Ever since Jaws, they have been characterised as bloodthirsty human-hunters, a portrayal that has sadly stuck.

The truth is that shark attacks are incredibly rare. Sharks also do not hunt humans, but occasionally mistake us for actual prey, such as seals. Comparatively, the number of annual road deaths in South Africa is a much more worrying figure than the number of shark encounters.

You may remember a series of television ads that sought to redress attitudes towards sharks – these were created for the M-Sea Programme, on which the Two Oceans Aquarium collaborated:

The Two Oceans Aquarium is involved with a number of research and conservation programmes. Helping to change the perception of the shark is only of one our goals. We think of sharks as powerful, majestic creatures – the denizens of the deep. We encourage visitors to dive with our resident sharks, and experience their majesty up close … no cage required!

They are also in urgent need of our protection. Overfishing is causing our oceans to be depleted, and approximately 70- to 100-million sharks are killed around the world every year – a number that is simply unsustainable for shark populations.

Unfortunately, sharks endure particularly cruel treatment and are victims of finning, which is the act of cutting off a shark’s tail and fins while it is still alive, and throwing it back into the ocean to die. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in parts of the world, and the high price that some pay for the dish has caused the trade to boom.

Globally, many shark species are overexploited because of their long-lived, slow-growing reproductive strategies. In South Africa, sharks are caught by a number of commercial fisheries, both as a target and as a bycatch species.

Current trends suggest that many shark species are under threat as a result of increasing fishing pressure. Both soupfin (Galeorhinus galeus) and smoothhound (Mustelus spp.) sharks caught in the linefishery are listed as orange (think twice) on WWF’s Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (WWF-SASSI) list, while trawl-caught soupfin are listed as red (avoid).

Although there are regulations put in place to manage some of the impacts of fishing activities on some shark species, they are not sufficient and there is an urgent need to improve the current management of fisheries with relation to sharks, in particular there is a need to improve the collection and analysis of detailed, species-specific information on the number of sharks landed by the different sectors. South Africa has developed a National Plan of Action for Sharks to address this lack of an integrated approach to ensure the conservation and management of sharks and their long-term sustainable use, but many of the measures identified are yet to be implemented.

The sharks in our I&J Predator Exhibit are ambassadors of the sea, and help to create awareness of the situation. The Aquarium has released several sharks back into the wild over the years, and has partnered with the AfriOceans Conservation Alliance (AOCA) to further scientific research, education and awareness about sharks.

You can watch the videos from our latest shark release from earlier this year, when we returned Kay, a female ragged-tooth, to the wild (read Part One and Part Two of her release):

Check our shark conservation page to read more about our projects. Also visit the AOCA and Save Our Seas websites.

For details on how you can make a donation towards the Two Oceans Aquarium’s conservation and education programmes, visit our Donate & sponsor page. To get involved, visit our Volunteer page.

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