Silly season is upon us and sharks are dominating the headlines again. As a marine conservationist, if I see another headline along the lines of “Menacing man-eating shark lurking off the coast of Britain” accompanied by a photo of a basking shark – a species that exclusively consumes plankton – I think I might scream.
It seems all a shark needs to do these days is push its dorsal fin above the ocean waves and panic immediately ensues. Just this week, that’s exactly what happened off the French coast. A blue shark – a species typically found in the open ocean with an extremely low record of unprovoked attacks on humans – was spotted close to the shoreline. Instant drama ensued, with lifeguards closing the beach and swimmers watching on from the water’s edge. What is it about sharks that makes us lose our minds?
There are over 500 species, yet you’ve probably only heard of a handful. Most sharks pose no threat to humans and, frankly, they’re largely uninterested in us. Still, we’ve been conditioned by Hollywood and the media to believe that sharks actively hunt humans, that all human-shark interactions end fatally and, in some parts of the world, that sharks should be culled to reduce this risk.
Largely driven by the “Jaws effect” – a term coined by Dr Christopher Neff after the 1975 film – a spiral of clickbait and media frenzy has surrounded sharks ever since the movie’s success. Fear sells. After all, the only time we tend to hear about sharks is when an interaction with a human hasn’t ended well – the BBC report Why Sharks Attack, shown at primetime this month, is evidence of that.
When shark attacks do occur, they are often gory. There is no sugar coating that. They are tragic, unfortunate events that are shocking, but they are also rare. Statistically speaking, you’re now more likely to meet your end taking a selfie than in the jaws of a shark. But don’t just take my word for it – the International Shark Attack File reported a 10-year low of unprovoked shark incidents for 2022.
In Britain, we have more than 40 shark species that call our waters home. They hit the headlines on the rare occasions when there’s an unprovoked bite – last summer, Britain saw its first in almost two centuries – but these creatures are swimming around our coastline day in, day out, 365 days a year.
Sharks being in the sea should not be newsworthy; the ocean is their home. Sharks not being in the sea, however, should be dominating front pages. Globally, sharks are in trouble. Research has demonstrated that overfishing is the leading cause of decline of these long-lived and slow-growing animals and is pushing them rapidly toward extinction. Sharks and their cousins – skates, rays, and chimaeras – are the second most threatened vertebrate group after amphibians.
Those of you who fear sharks may think this isn’t a problem, but sharks and their crucial ecological role are largely misunderstood. They are the doctors of the ocean – a keystone species, meaning that their presence ensures the health and diversity of the ecosystem they call home. After 400 million years of evolution, without sharks, life in the ocean would look very different.
If sharks are heading toward extinction, why then does it feel as though we’re seeing more of them and that shark attacks are on the rise? Drone technology now gives us regular eyes in the sky and the rise of social media allows people to instantly share their encounters with a global audience. Shark tourism is growing in popularity, too. With global temperatures soaring, more of us are heading to the coast to cool off – and with more people enjoying the water, the risk of a shark-human interaction increases. So, while it may feel as if there are more sharks around, it’s often that they’ve always been there, previously unnoticed.
Sharks generally prefer cooler water and, as the ocean warms, it is likely new species will enter our waters as they move toward the cooler poles. Other impacts of climate change, such as a reduction in the oxygen content of oceanic waters and changing PH levels, along with changes to prey distribution, will probably play a role in shark movements too. But as far as your annual beachside holiday is concerned, this is nothing to be alarmed about. We shouldn’t fear swimming at the seaside. Instead, we should learn to coexist with these elusive animals. If you witness a shark in these circumstances, you’re extremely lucky – and it’ll most likely be an adorable small spotted catshark.
It’s time for a rebrand on sharks. How we think about these creatures can have real-world implications for how serious we are about conserving their future. We need to look beyond Jaws to change the narrative before it is too late, to encourage coexistence with sharks in our waters, and to celebrate the conservation efforts that are bringing these majestic animals back from the brink. This rebrand happened for whales from the era of Moby-Dick. I firmly believe sharks can recover from Jaws-era misconceptions. In years to come we will no doubt look back on the way we view sharks today as an archaic period in humanity’s history.
Hannah Rudd is the author of Britain’s Living Seas: Our Coastal Wildlife and How We Save It, a marine scientist at Shark Hub UK, and policy and advocacy manager at the Angling Trust
