Why are sharks needed?

[Anonymous]

Why are those ocean predators (esp Great White sharks) needed?

Would something bad happen if more orcas aka killer whales were bought and did us a favor in eliminating those sea monster with razor sharp teeth? Sharks have already caused several deaths of divers and surfers.

[NamerOfStars]

Orcas are wonderfully adaptive creatures, but they're 1. almost twice the size of a great white, 2. pack hunters, and 3. mammals. They're not going to be able to fill the same niche. Nor would you want them to; most shark attacks occur when the shark makes a probing bite and the human panics and overreacts, like a prey animal would. Or they attack in, and it defends itself. An orca has a sophisticated mammal brain, and a cetacean one at that- this is a creature smart enough to create big waves to swamp your boat before it tries to knock you off it. They almost never attack humans, but they are much, MUCH scarier.

Shark attacks in general DO kill some people each year. But less than a tenth of those who're killed by the great fanged menace, a creature far closer to humanity, that can even pursue us on to land:

Puppies.

No, not dogs in general, puppies. Dogs as a whole kill 5 or 6 THOUSAND times as many people as sharks do each year. This is just puppies.

[TheSpaceGnome]

Without apex predators, the ecosystem collapses, prey species overpopulate, over consume, and die from famine and severe habitat changes.

The ocean is a very complex ecosystem and it would be very hard to predict the exact consequences, especially since sharks were one of the first vertebrate animals to evolve and we haven't explored the entire ocean or tracked the habits of everything in it.

Your problem is solved by simply not swimming or surfing in the ocean, there is no reason to, and if a diver or surfer dies to a wild animal, that is their own fault for being an idiot and putting themselves in the ocean in the first place. Being genocidal over that toward any ocean predator would be insane.

As it stands, humans are already killing way too many sharks from overfishing.
https://thehigherlearning.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/shark-finning2.jpeg?w=782&h=510&crop=1

Meanwhile:

[Kori1236]

Sure they sometimes mistake humans for food and their bites can be fatal even if it’s just a testing bite; but look at how many we kill every year. Sharks are apex predators they fill a specific niche in the ecosystem: remember if sharks are gone sooner or later they will be replaced with something potentially worse. They are very much needed they help control populations of schooling fish and seal colonies, help keep plankton levels within range of normal.


I personally think sharks are incredible and beautiful creatures. I’m working to a scuba diving certification and my goal is to swim with whale sharks. Super gentle and calm. Out of all the animals in the ocean I’m honestly I’m more afraid of Goliath groupers or specific species of catfish like the wels.

[Asker]

Whale sharks Iike those. They are friendly. It's the Great White, Hammerhead or Tiger sharks that I don't like.

[Asker]

Those 3 are aggressive ones.

[Kori1236]

Sharks aren’t interested in humans. Great whites are one of my favourites they’re gorgeous. Tiger sharks I’m a little more wary of but I would love to dive with them, same with whites.

[Kori1236]

Actually the top 3 are bull sharks, whites and tigers. They’re the ones that can do the most amount of damage. Tigers eat anything, bulls can swim upstream that’s generally where they’ll pup and whites predominantly prey on seals and animals with a blubber layer. When they’re juveniles they eat small fish until they reach maturity.

[purplepoppy]

No wild animal is needed as that implies they were created for a purpose. But if you remove them you can cause havoc in the ecosystem. For example orcas have recently developed a taste for shark livers. If they eat too many sharks it will cause an explosion in fur seal numbers who will eat too many penguins.

Sharks are also useful for clearing up carcases, and exporting energy long distances. Yes they do eat people but if you swim in their feeding zones at feeding time what do you expect

[lightbulb27]

Watch oceanramsey educate and see what you think.

She swims with them every day and does tours and has not been bitten yet. She explains they are essential to keep the fish population in good balance removing the unhealthy ones.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/od-YT-Bu-KY

In the time she's been swimming with sharks, hundreds of millions of sharks have been killed. Sharks are way below fresh water snails in human fatalities. It's just a lot more dramatic with a great white.

Eventhough I say all this, you won't see me splashing around in my waters... where there are great whites... not smart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_animals_to_humans

[Asker]

Interesting. She's very brave though. I would never swim with sharks.

[OddBeMe]

Ecology seems quite chaotic but one small unnatural change could be devastating.

In Mao’s China, they had a nationwide sparrow killing campaign thinking that would save their crops. Then suddenly insects were devouring their food and millions of commies died of starvation.

[Danny_dan92]

Part of the marine ecosystem.




They consume dead whale carcasses and regulate seal population along with other marine wildlife.




Seals eat a lot of fish. Fish that humans eat. So without sharks there is less fish for humans… personally I don’t eat fish but I get it

[DarkLegacy]

Sharks are helping to keep the oxygen levels sustainable, by what they eat. I saw documentary about it. I can't quite remember what it is they eat that reduces CO2 emissions but global warming would worsen if the sharks went extinct. Plus we would have less oxygen

[HelpfulWoman]

😂😂 why are humans "needed"?
Who are you to decide the worth of a whole selection of animals?
What do you do that proves you have any worth?

[spartan55]

Do you realize how rare shark attacks are? Much less ones resulting in a fatality.

[Anonymous]

well they help keep all the people who are scared of them out of the ocean. So they reduce ocean pollution that would be caused by all the dirty feet and unwashed asses of those people who would then mindlessly jump into the ocean without fear. :D

[gorydetails]

They cull the weak in the ocean. They clean up dead animals, they keep prey populations in check. Sharks are critical to the ecosystem.

[DagonbroughtMehere]

I'm reading a post made by being far more dangerous than Sharks will ever be.

63 Fatal Shark attack incidents annually.
464,000 Homicides between 2000 and 2017 alone.

You want a real threat to Humanity's future? there You go.

[Twalli]

Shark attacks on humans are actually quite rare. As for what they provide is population control of their prey.

[andreasderjuengere]

For the same reason as humans are regarded as "needed"?

[SotiCoto]

They need themselves, presumably. I don't think sharks would like being told they're redundant.

[NathanDavis]

they asked themselves the same about us...

[Asker]

They don't even have highly developed skills nor intelligence.

[NathanDavis]

and yet... survived for millions of years

while we're closer to perish rather than prosper... lol

[slatyb]

If more orcas were bought? Where?

[Asker]

I'm just saying if that scenario were to happen and orcas kill tons of sharks then would there be a devastating negative impact in the ecosystem? Why are sharks needed?

[virtualwasp]

to make dumplings...