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Embrace the Sharks, Before It’s Too Late

A new study reveals alarming declines in endangered species, highlighting dire consequences for shark populations worldwide.

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It's not all about the cute fuzzy critters -- we've got to save the toothy, menacing, bloodthirsty endangered species, too. That's the message from a new study, which examined shark populations in the Mediterranean and found a lot to be alarmed about. Numbers of some species have fallen 97 percent over the last two hundred years due largely to overfishing, and researchers say that because sharks have been "much maligned," no one seems to care.[Lead author Francesco]

Ferretti, a researcher at the Biology Department of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, said that Steven Spielberg's 1975 film Jaws had given a misleading impression of sharks. "Spielberg has a lot to answer for," he said. "In reality you have about as much chance of being eaten by a shark as you have of winning the lottery twice" [Times Online].

Researchers from the Lenfest Ocean Program used records of shark sightings, fishermen's logbooks, ...

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