Why Sharks Matter

[Music]

biodiversity is really

how we define our own existence isn't it

it's us and say tens of millions of

other species that

occupy this planet with us it's like

there's this incredible web where we're

all connected

you know you start to lose these

linchpin species

the environment starts to fail

when we translate human activity into

these forces of extinction

there are several major factors that are

contributing

one of the major drivers of extinction

is that we hunt some species

to oblivion

it's what we're doing with sharks now

with the explosion of demand for shark

fin soup

global estimates for the shark fin trade

put it in the neighborhood of a billion

dollars

it's a huge amount of money so sharks

are targeted by fleets around the world

they may simply cut the fins off and

then release them to a

slow and very unpleasant death

you keep all the sharks or put the

bodies back

done cut them

we don't actually know how many sharks

are in the ocean

what we do know is that the big sharks

the apex predator

in the open ocean food chain their

numbers have declined between 90 and 99

percent

sharks have survived four mass

extinction events they've been around

the planet longer than dinosaurs a lot

longer

sharks have ruled our oceans for over

400 million years

they've been responsible for regulating

and maintaining the entire balance

across our oceans

now we're in a situation where sharks

are being removed from that system

humans

are really the single most impactful

species

this planet has ever seen we have these

prehistoric brains and we have this

god-like technology and when you bring

them together

the result is not necessarily a happy

one

you know species are like a house of

cards

you can't just sort of take one card out

of the deck

and not expect the deck to crumble

you