Aquarium Says Sharks Are Misunderstood
By JAY NEWTON-SMALL
BALTIMORE (AP) - Visitors to a shark exhibit at the National Aquarium can leave any thoughts of ``Jaws'' at the door.
Curators hope to dispel myths about the misunderstood and threatened creatures by allowing visitors to touch young sharks, watch shark eggs develop and gaze at a dozen species gracefully prowling a 260,000 gallon tank.
A national survey sponsored by the museum ahead of the exhibit found that people had some serious misconceptions about sharks. More than 80 percent of the 1,010 adults polled said shark populations are ``just right'' or ``too high.'' The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.
``The message we want you to leave with is that of conservation of sharks,'' said Nancy Hotchkiss, developer for the Shark Quest exhibit which runs through December.
``If people considered them about the same way they do dolphins and whales that would be phenomenal,'' Hotchkiss added.
The message underlined in the exhibit is that many species are threatened - more than 11,400 sharks are killed every hour every day. Although sharks are not considered endangered by the U.S. government, some regions have put in place protections for dwindling species.
The show comes on the heels of an important study on the subject entitled ``Collapse and Conservation of Shark Populations in the Northwest Atlantic,'' released in January.
The Dalhousie University study, published Jan. 17 in the journal Science, found that almost all recorded shark species have declined by half in the past eight to 15 years.
Researchers looking at fishing fleet logbooks from 1986 to 2000 found that hammerhead shark populations were down 89 percent in the Atlantic, tiger sharks were reduced by 65 percent, blue sharks 60 percent, threshers 80 percent and great white sharks - made infamous by the movie ``Jaws'' - have declined by 79 percent.
``It has been difficult to judge as a global trend as some species that may be OK in one part of the world, the same species could be in decline in another region,'' said Jenny Fiegl, an animal educator at the aquarium.
Although sharks in Asia are sought after for such delicacies as shark fin soup, in the Atlantic, shark populations fall prey to bycatching, where fishermen hunting tuna and swordfish inadvertently catch sharks.
``Some fishing processes are actually strip mining the ocean,'' said Dave Schofield, the manager of the aquarium's ocean health program. ``They throw them away like trash. If they aren't already dead from exposure, the ones that swim away are severely stressed and die soon after.''
The aquarium survey also found a number of other misconceptions.
More than 70 percent of those polled said they believed sharks are dangerous, when in reality 94 percent of the 400 species of sharks are harmless to humans.
Shark attacks are extremely rare. People are more likely to be injured by a hamster or killed by lightning than by a shark.
To emphasize this the museum set up a touching pool where children can watch Whitespotted Bamboo sharks develop inside their egg sacks and pet the sharks' older brothers and sisters in an adjoining tank.
Fiegl said the hardy sharks, which have been prepped for months to be touched, will not be harmed by the attention.
``People fear what they don't know,'' said Hotchkiss. ``Sharks have been around for 400 million years and play a critical role in ocean health. We want people to discover that sharks are amazing animals that deserve our respect and need our protection.''