Thanks to irresponsible fishing practices , play hunt , and the lucrative Asiatic fin marketplace , shark population across the globe are being driven to the point of no return . A recent study reported thatmore than 30 percentof all shark species – and their gristly full cousin , the beam – are now endangered , threatened , or vulnerable . Despite this , humans continue to pour down an estimated273 million shark per year .
Hoping to preserve these iconic creature ( desire to see a shark boop ? ) , many of which are ecosystem - critical apex predators , scientist and preservation groups have successfully lobbied governments across the world to crack down on shark harvesting . Of course , people being people , even sharks in protected areas are not totally safe .
Thus , when the carcass of a sizable and obviously uninjured virile puerile great white shark ( Carcharodon carcharias ) wash up on the beach in Aptos , California , this week , local officials sound the alarm .
agree to a study byKION , the California Department of Fish and Wildlife ( CDFW ) swoop up in to collect the 2.45 - beat ( 8 - understructure ) long , 227 kg ( 500 pounds ) continue . The agency confirmed that researchers at the nearby University of California Santa Cruz ’s Long Marine Lab performed a post-mortem examination to square off cause of death but have remain cagey on the details .
Multiple way out have reported – and TV footage corroborates – that undercut were visible on the shark ’s body . However , experts who saw the carcase do believe these lesion were standardshark wear - and - tear , due to frequent encounter with their prey and occasional confrontation with other sharks or orcas , and not serious enough to be fateful
“ [ I]t could have swallowed some debris or junk . It could have a bait injury , you know essay to slip somebody ’s fish and swallow up a hooking and if it hooks in the wrong billet they ’ll bleed out just like a Salmon River , ” Sean Van Sommeran of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation secernate KION .
“ Or it could be one of the pathogens we ’ve identified through the cogitation since 2007 with a act of dissimilar sharks . ”
Whatever the examination give away , it for certain appear to have raised the CDFW ’s eyebrows .
" Upon receiving the lab ’s necropsy results , the CDFW ’s Law Enforcement Division is now lease up the probe , " a voice from CDFW toldLive Science , then slump to notice further .
Currently heel as vulnerable – and therefore not eligible for safeguard under the USEndangered Species Act , the metal money is protected by severalfederal and state laws and restrictions , including some specific to the San Francisco Bay Area ( Aptos accrue in this part ) .
And because we are living in the age of outrage , one UCSC marine biologist wasinundated with hateful tweetswhen she post a photo of herself laying alongside the carcass . The local scientist was using her body as a mensuration reference in case the shark was washed back to sea before fit CDFW rangers arrived on the view , but many people rede the resulting paradigm as a disgraceful selfie and lashed out without knowing the backstory .
