{"id":832,"date":"2022-10-03T02:33:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T02:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/?p=832"},"modified":"2023-05-02T13:04:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T13:04:26","slug":"without-sharks-we-will-all-die-the-true-nature-of-the-jaws-monstrous-villain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/without-sharks-we-will-all-die-the-true-nature-of-the-jaws-monstrous-villain\/","title":{"rendered":"Without sharks WE will all die!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The true nature of the \u201cJaws\u201d monstrous villain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jaws, an iconic movie series spanning 4 individual theatre releases. The\u00a0original, at the time of its release debuted as the highest grossing film of all\u00a0time making a whooping 472 million in the box office internationally cementing\u00a0its self in pop culture history as one of the greatest thrillers of all time. So\u00a0thrilling it actually some pretty real world cultural repercussions. Beach\u00a0 attendance across America plummeted a few weeks after the release of the\u00a0film, many developing a deep seeded fear of what lurks beneath the oceans\u00a0waters after watching the film. Perpetuating negative stereotypes about sharks\u00a0and their behaviours. So much so that prior to the films release it allegedly\u00a0inspired legions of fishermen to pile into boats and cull thousands of the ocean\u00a0predators in shark-fishing tournaments.<\/p>\n

The \u201cJaws Effect\u201d. The Great White\u00a0Shark has since been perceived as a cold blooded killer of the oceans, which is\u00a0understandable I mean look at them they\u2019re bloody terrifying to look at. But\u00a0what if I were to tell you that that if we continue to mistreat our misunderstood
\nprotectors of the ocean our worlds oceans and subsequently our eco system\u00a0will fall into disarray?<\/p>\n

Every year around 100 million sharks are culled at the hands of humans, either\u00a0from by-catch which means that marine animals have been caught accidentally\u00a0with either nets or hooks, or from the shark fin soup trade, a dish that is\u00a0commonly served at special occasions such as weddings or simply as a luxury\u00a0meal in the South East Asia region. Sharks have swum our oceans more than\u00a0400 years, surviving many existential level events, yet through human\u00a0intervention since the 1970s the shark population has dwindled by a staggering\u00a070 percent with 25 percent of all shark species are currently threatened with\u00a0extinction. Sharks make their homes in many ecosystems around the world,
\nfrom shallow mangroves to chilling arctic waters and everything in between.\u00a0Many fish-eating sharks weed out the sick weak individuals, ensuring that fish\u00a0population remain at a health and manageable size in which their ecosystem\u00a0where they reside can manage. They also play a part in our oceans role of\u00a0regulating oxygen by feeding on fish that devour oxygen producing plankton. A\u00a0little known fact being that phytoplankton produce unto 80 percent of the\u00a0worlds oxygen. Without sharks to keep them in check certain fish populations\u00a0will skyrocket.<\/p>\n

I have been lucky enough to have SCUBA dived around a few species, my\u00a0favourite being the thresher shark encounter off the coast of a very secluded\u00a0island in the Philippines. We set off at 4.30am an hour long boat journey ahead\u00a0of us to get to a popular Thresher shark feeding ground witch seemingly felt\u00a0like it was in the middle of nowhere, a spot that local fisherman had discovered\u00a0many years ago now. As we set up our gear, the sun just starting to peek over\u00a0the horizon, a little bit of anxiety sets over my dive partner. She asks our bubbly\u00a0dive instructor what were to happen if these creatures ever became aggressive\u00a0towards us? A thought that had never crossed my mind, but one that stuck with\u00a0me for the first half of our dive.<\/p>\n

We start our descent using the mooring line, roughly to around a 15 metre\u00a0depth. We head towards the shark feeding site, my dive partner sheepishly\u00a0swimming behind me as we agreed upon in our pre dive safety checks so that if\u00a0a shark were to come \u201cI\u2019d get eaten first\u201d. We find a nice flat open spot to set\u00a0ourselves overlooking the sheer drop-off where the sharks are known to come\u00a0up from the depths to feed on the reef fish whom inhabit the shallow reef and\u00a0we wait for what seemed like an eternity. My buddy gripping my arm I hear her\u00a0let out an audible scream through her reg, eyes wide she points towards the\u00a0depths. Our first Shark, swimming roughly 20 metres away from us and coming
\ncloser. My heart starts to race. We do as our instructor advised and plant one\u00a0fin in the sand and simply observe. My buddies grip on my arm tightens, her\u00a0previous statement ringing through my mind. It beckons closer, 10 metres away\u00a0at this point. I prepare for my Jaws moment\u2026 and nothing. I lock eyes with the\u00a0creature as it elegantly glides through the water like a figure skater on ice. At\u00a0awe with its sheer size yet gentle demeanor it passively observes us as we to\u00a0it, only to disappear into the depths a few seconds later. Throughout the dive I\u00a0encountered 6-7 more sharks.<\/p>\n

My Jaws moment never happened.\u00a0Although the thresher shark is just one of many shark species and isn\u2019t in any\u00a0way related to the Jaws series, my perceptions on sharks had been altered due\u00a0to the cultural misconceptions behind them. I couldn\u2019t have been any further\u00a0from the truth. Sharks are a vital part of our big blue planet and if we don\u2019t start\u00a0doing right by these misunderstood beauties we have a very finite time left on\u00a0it. It is important to understand at as much as our oceans need sharks, so do\u00a0we.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The true nature of the \u201cJaws\u201d monstrous villain Jaws, an iconic movie series spanning 4 individual theatre releases. The\u00a0original, at the time of its release debuted as the highest grossing film of all\u00a0time making a whooping 472 million in the box office internationally cementing\u00a0its self in pop culture history as one of the greatest thrillers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":896,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}