Shark has been meandering these waters for the past 70 years. Shark has seen the changes. Shark has lived the changes.
As a young pup, she never went hungry. Seals, sea lions, stingrays – all the fishes her stomach could hold. The ocean provided a bounty; there was always enough to go around. And the water was so crisp. So clear. So clean. Her gills expanded and contracted with ease as the current charged by.
But as time passed, everything changed. It was slow at first. Almost undetectable. But now that she has lived so long, the change is obvious. Food is few and far between. The water tastes…different. Metallic. Fake. And although her eyes grow old, they cannot be entirely to blame for the bleak condition of the subsurface view. It is also very quiet. Granted, she enjoys solitude, but it has been quite some time since she had the opportunity to swim past others who look like her. How did it happen?
Although her mind is small, Shark has impeccable memories. She always returns to favorite dining spots when hungry. Of course, word traveled quickly when there was a particularly bountiful spot, and sharks of all kinds would gather to feast before parting on their separate journeys once again.
But one day, one of their favorite spots was ambushed by large metal structures floating on the surface and teeming with two-legged creatures. They cast tremendous nets into the water. So large that it was impossible to see the beginning and the end of them at the same time. These nets removed thousands of prey items right out from under the sharks. Some of the sharks could not retreat quickly enough and they were also plucked from the sea by the nets.Just as swiftly as the strangers arrived, they left, leaving behind some of their nets and other belongings. Where fish had once danced through sunbeams, netting, bottles and other strange items now hung in the water.
This became a regular occurrence. Over and over again the metal structures would come, remove sharks’ food, and leave garbage in their wake. No feeding spot was safe. Sharks became so famished that they resorted to tasting the materials left behind by the intruders. This is ill advised. Many of those who were lucky enough to escape the nets ended up meeting their demise in the weeks that followed.
As their favorite feeding spots began to disappear, Shark and her kin began to seek sustenance closer and closer to the shoreline where the waves meet the land. There, they were met by more of the two-legged strangers, often hundreds of them. Some of them would enter the waves to swim among the sharks even as the sharks tried to stay as far away as they could. Sharks all knew by now how dangerous the two-legged strangers could be.
When the days came to an end and the sun began to set past the horizon, they would slowly start to leave the sand. Then Shark and her kin could creep closer and closer to the shallow waters in search of food.
They were usually greeted by the changing tide washing more of the two-leggeds’ belongings out into the surf. The waters became so murky that identifying food was tricky. But they are always so hungry; they have to take their chances on anything that might provide even a bit of nutrition to their tired bodies.
Shark has heard stories of what happens when one of her kin mistakes one of the two-leggeds for a seal. This always bodes poorly for all. It angers the two-leggeds beyond belief and they hunt down sharks in retribution.
Was this not part of their home as well? Didn’t they need the fish for food just as the sharks did? Did they not enjoy clean water in which to play and explore? Surely, they knew that in order for the ocean to continue to provide for them and their offspring, they needed to care for it.
Conditions only seemed to grow more dire. Shark is old now and her days are numbered, yet she is one of the fortunate few who have survived.
The story of Shark and her kin is not meant to incite fear, but to ignite change. As long as there is still life in the sea, there is hope. Although the distrust between Shark’s kind and the two-leggeds runs deep, all creatures share the same goal: health and security for our offspring. There must be a way to coexist and share the gifts that the ocean has to offer. For whether footed or finned, all of us are kin.
***
Seeing the ocean through a shark’s eyes has much to teach us.
Since the iconic “Jaws” movie of 1975, sharks have existed in the popular imagination as ravenous carnivores. But what may be surprising is that they consume a huge variety of different food items all across the oceanic food web, such as marine mammals, thousands of different kinds of fishes, crustaceans and mollusks, and even large amounts of tiny zooplankton. Sharks are often considered apex predators, top of the food chain, precisely because they consume all levels of the marine food web. That’s why it is vital to learn about sharks; they can teach us so much about the ecosystems that they inhabit and that we depend on.
Sharks directly control the biodiversity of many of the species that people depend on for food and economic resources. To put this into perspective, the fishing industry accounts for more than 1.74 million jobs in the U.S. and contributes more than $110 billion annually to our nation’s economy, according to a 2017 NOAA fisheries analysis. And wild fish stocks are the primary protein source for more than 4 billion people worldwide, so says a 2014 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Experts have found that the global abundance of oceanic sharks and rays has declined by 71% since 1970. This massive and rapid decline has been linked to an 18-fold increase in relative fishing pressure. This dwindling of shark abundance has continued to increase the global extinction risk to the point where more than three-quarters of the species that make up this incredibly important marine ecosystem are threatened with extinction.
What’s more, the same unsustainable fishing practices and discarded fishing materials that kill sharks are a major contributor to microplastic pollution, those plastic particles and fibers that are less than 5mm in diameter. Research is still ongoing to determine how pervasive they are in the Southern California Bight, a stretch of coastline that runs from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to Baja. But our neighbors to the north have found an abundance of more than 700,000 particles/km2 in San Francisco Bay surface waters.
Why it matters: Since microplastics are so miniscule and so ubiquitous throughout marine waters, organisms as small as zooplankton are able to ingest them. Imagine that a single zooplankton consumes 10 microplastics. Then a small fish like a sardine comes along and eats 100 zooplankton. And then a tuna fish eats 10 sardines. This would mean that the tuna has indirectly consumed 10,000 microplastic pieces. Do these microplastics make their way into the tissues that a human might eat? Scientists are still working on it, but there is evidence to support that microplastics do indeed find their way into the muscle tissues of fish.While the issue of conserving our precious ocean resources seems increasingly daunting, all is not lost – yet.
Human activities have slowed during the past year due to the COVID-19 crisis, which has given researchers a glimpse into what the natural world might look like if humans decreased their interactions with wildlife. Dolphins were seen playing in a previously heavily trafficked shipping port in Istanbul, Turkey, after sea traffic came to a near halt last spring early in the pandemic. In Venice, Italy, jellyfish and octopus explored the clearer, historically murky, waters. Bears, deer and coyotes were observed venturing into areas of Yosemite National Park that are usually packed with tourists. While undoubtedly very few people would wish to relive the events of the past year, nature took the opportunity to teach us a powerful lesson, one that we should acknowledge and heed.
So, what is the solution? How can we save our ocean and the organisms that call it home, like the sharks, without whom the ecosystem will collapse?
There are, in fact, many solutions. Instituting more sustainable fishing practices, spending our hard-earned money only at corporations that are working to decrease their waste production, encouraging our local elected officials to support healthy environmental solutions, preventing microplastic pollution and plastic pollution in general from making its way into our waterways, decreasing our own individual carbon footprints…the list goes on.Every day, our choices have an impact on the world around us. When you are at the grocery store, ask where that filet of fish came from and how it was caught. By showing that you, as a consumer, care about these topics, it will pressure the seller to care as well. Instead of purchasing that gift for your loved one from a company on the other side of the world, see if you can find something made locally in your own neighborhood to reduce the amount of fuel needed to transport that gift. Make a visit to your local farmers market to purchase in-season fruits and veggies. Take your trash with you when you leave the beach, and even pick up the trash others left behind.
While these may seem like small acts, when done collectively across the globe, they have the ability to provoke monumental positive changes for the environment on which we all depend. This is not new information. We’ve heard this before. But year after year we see the consequences of our inaction.
The next time you take a stroll along the beautiful California shoreline, remember what it feels like. Remember the cool, salty breeze energizing your hair. Remember the soft sand wriggling between your toes. Remember the sound of children laughing as they watch a crab scuttle back into the waves. Remember the excitement you feel when you see a dolphin ride a wave, when you feel the strong tug of a fish on the other end of your line, or when you find that absolutely perfect seashell. We all want our children to have these memories too. And our grandchildren. And our great-grandchildren. Perhaps, all it takes is a little reminder – even from an unlikely ally like a shark – to inspire us to leave this world better than we found it.
