So remember I wrote that blog about sharks that made me sound like I’m scared of everything except things that explode out of your chest?

Well, for the record, I am scared of things exploding out of my chest (See, Alien, etc), but the reason I’m not scared of sharks is because they are amazing, apex predators, and they display so beautifully their part in what a balanced ecosystem should look like.

And guess what, humans are apex too. I think it’s time we two predators took a good look at each other, and try to come to some understanding. And seeing as we are the sentient beings, the ones with “theory of mind”, we people are the ones who need to start figuring out a balance.

Every day I see pictures online of slaughtered sharks (you’re probably wondering what i’m looking at, answer: they are EVERYWHERE),  and it breaks my heart.  Sharks don’t reproduce quickly enough to replenish their numbers, and many people are apathetic to the truth of what diminishing shark numbers means.  Well, it’s bad all around. We don’t even know how bad.  Strange things happen, like the explosion of the population of humboldt squid in the Pacific.

But it’s like, I feel so small in this battle of saving the sharks.  I, myself, do not eat shark fin soup, nor do I know anyone who does (although I know someone who has…or at least one person who admitted to it…). I called my representative and told him how I felt about AB376  and then luckily, he agreed, and so did the Governor, and now possession of shark fin in california is ILLEGAL. I try to tell people how cool sharks are.  I named my cat Tiburon (which is spanish for shark).  But this is all standard behavior for scuba divers.  The reach needs to be global.

Sharks don’t do much in their own publicity campaign.  They aren’t cuddly.  You can’t snuggle with them in bed.  You don’t see pictures of them nuzzling their young.  Mostly when you see them, they are the Great Whites on Shark Week, breaching those icy cold waters of South Africa while eating adorable seals.  But they are so cool.  And i’m always on the look out for ways to help, and cool ideas that help spread the word.

So anyway, these guys have a pretty cool idea, and that’s to buy live sharks back from fisherman in Baja California.  I don’t know if this will work. Maybe the fisherman will just keep catching the same sharks, etc.  And most of the sharks killed for their fins never make it to land, they just get dismembered and tossed back to sea to drown.

but ya know, I think anywhere is a start.

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little”-Edmund Burke.

Told ya I’d post depressing blogs eventually, tomorrow’s topic: STOP LITTERING.