Sharks Are Not Scary!

I would like to begin my blog with wishing everyone out there a Happy Halloween! This month so far has started off like a horror story. This story is a scary one but for the shark's only. I believe there has been almost one shark incident a day this month. Now, again not due to the shark's fault, they must live in the water, eat there, and swim in the oceans water. The shark flags had been up and flying to warn people to stay out of the ocean (people didn't). Precautions to stay safe, and coexist are listed (i.e don't swim at dusk, dawn, wear bright colors ... etc.) and have been posted at beaches, as well in many places, including this site. Yet here people and their ignorant egos ignore all these warnings, only then to wonder why there was a shark incident almost everyday.

In the shark's defense, the sharks are coming in feeding on schools of fish up the coast and people wading near the coastal shelf (calf deep water), hanging off their boards, or splashing around, send mixed signals and that is when shark incidents will happen. These are called exploratory bites and when they happen people feel a justification to kill them. That they should die for this.

Now, all this information is very depressing to me: the shark incidents, why people are ignoring the warnings, and the killing of sharks over the incidents happening. We could coexist very well together!

Well... just after reading all the shark incidents, I knew where this was heading. Massive shark killings, bad news, horrible press, all in the wrong direction, HOPE was looking very slim for sharks. Then, out of no where, I was in my bank speaking to the manager about her daughter, she proceeded to tell me how much she loved animals, and what I did for a living was beautiful, and thanked me, but then, she said the most amazing heartfelt thing to me, "My daughter loves sharks, and you must save them for her, please!" Now, this took me back for a minute, because I am use to hearing the opposite, you like and work with sharks? I want to explain to you that this is a five year old little girl, who has watched "Jaws" and hates it, not because it scared her, but because it portrays sharks as monsters. This is one little girl who can correct her 35 year old uncle who will not go in the oceans because of sharks. She has said how we need them, and we kill more of them, then they have accidentally harmed us. Her facts are perfectly correct, she gives them a strong voice. Now, this brings me back to one word hope. If a five year old old has this much faith in sharks and speaks up for them, my question is why as adults is it so hard to understand them and give them the voice they so desperately need to be saved.

After learning about this little girl, which reminded me that I was five when I started saving sharks. She gives the world hope that our future generations will respect sharks, and save them for the beauty and grace all sharks possess. Not kill them for their fins, or call them monsters. With this hope I believe people like her uncle will not be afraid to swim in the oceans. Sharks have a chance just by listening to this one little voice, that is changing the world at the age of five.

I hope you think about this story, and help give sharks the voice they need and save them not fear them or kill them. Always remember hope is the most powerful word to make the change needed.