The Misunderstood Shark By Gregory Skomal

Any little child is able to connect the name Shamu to the massive black and white creatures that dwell in the ocean waters, termed orcas or killer whales. However, the recent release of the film “Blackfish” has aimed to revise the common opinion of killer whales who are known by the title Shamu. As the film strikes marine life parks such as SeaWorld with apparent reasons as to why these orcas should not be in captivity, the question of “Blackfish”’s validity arises. How truthful can a film be that was created to persuade its viewers to ceases visiting attractions such as the killer whale shows? Since the release of “Blackfish,” animal rights activist, writers, and amusement park aficionados have been expressing their speculations on the “Blackfish”

In the article "Great White Sharks," by Peter Benchley, his point of view is biased. Peter Benchley shows his bias when he wrote, "Nowadays more people are coming to respect and appreciate sharks for what they are: beautiful, graceful, efficient. " The words "beautiful" and "graceful" are examples of loaded language that shows sharks in positive ways. "We know that these most wonderful natural-born killers, these exquisite creatures of evolution, are not only villain they are victims in danger of-if not extinction quite yet-serious, perhaps catastrophic, decline." This quote explains that Peter Benchley has a bias opinion about sharks because he thinks that sharks are wonderful and exquisite.

If you had to pick between buses or sharks, which would you think killed 1,082 people in 2013? If you chose sharks, you are wrong. Sharks only killed 2 people in 2013, compared to the 1,082 killed by a bus. (A. Kasprak, 2015) Sharks are portrayed as ruthless and merciless killers. But what if we found out that instead of them being the predators, that they are our prey? Humans have been hunting sharks for as long as we have known they exist. Now, they are becoming rare and some are even extinct. The main reason of this is shark finning. Shark fins are in high demand, so more sharks get killed every year. What we do not realize though is that without sharks, the whole ecosystem will change and maybe even fall apart. Many people are skeptical that this is not really a problem,

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in the documentary, Blackfish (2013), argues that captivity triggers aggression in killer whales. Cowperthwaite supports her argument by demonstrating shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these animals in captivity and for human entertainment. The author’s purpose is to show the problems that are caused by captivity in order to aware the audience that keeping killer whales in captivity affects their behavior mentally and physically. The author writes in resentful tone to Sea World, the people who visited Sea World, and those who were present during the killer whale incident. Gabriela Cowperthwaite argues that keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld affects their mentality due to how they are being treated. She makes this argument by applying pathos, ethos, and logos.

Every Jaws fan knows the shark gets it in the end. What they do not know is that too many sharks have gotten it; and that has caused a rapid decline in the shark population over the past thirty years. Since the 1970's, sharks of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shores have declined eighty-five percent. Sharks are vital animal to our world's ecosystem, and if the decline is not controlled; we could be facing devastating problems in years to come. Information has been obtained from two books: The Shark Almanac by Thomas B. Allen and Sharks, An Introduction for the Amateur Naturalist by Sanford A. Moss. Sources also include a number of online references, among them BBC News, ENS News, The New York Times, and two online scientific

Arising over 350 million years ago, the shark species has been labeled as a human devourer. Now, with the increase in human population, the demand for shark meat, fins, and cartilage are at an all time high; therefore, the existence of the shark is becoming a concern (Budker 1971). Individuals are conditioned to think of sharks as a negative aspect to the environment, which is prolonging the effort to save shark species from becoming extinct. With that in mind, some private as well as national organizations have accepted the challenge of educating and informing people about the existence of the shark specie and its importance to the sea.

Imagine a world without your favorite foods you have ever consumed. Imagine a world where you cannot even enjoy your favorite beach on vacation because of unmanageable algae taking over our coasts. Imagine a world with a huge spike in greenhouse gases, and a dramatic decline of natural oxygen production. This is a world without the most feared and misunderstood creature that rules our oceans, the Shark. In an advertisement published by WWF, it conveys the message of what we should actually be fearing, the fall of our marine ecosystems and what that will do to humanity. The advertisement uses all three appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to push their targeted audience to further their education on our world and to spread the word to everyone

Hyndes has supported his contention by offering suggestions to shark culling at the conclusion of his article. He states that we should be looking at ways to reduce our encounters with these “predators” as us humans are the people who continue to invade their habitat. Tracking systems is also another suggestion that Hyndes has offered in his article, as well as electronic devices and wetsuits. He hopes to convince the audience that we all need to be placing more effort and more funds into such an important issue by testing and develop these devices so that we can either deter sharks from entering our populated beaches or reduce our encounters with them. Hyndes hopes to emphasise that there are other solutions rather than culling these precious species.

To this day, many of us still see them this way. In fact, coastal states stared to host shark culling events. In these sometime month-long events, a state government will pay any fishermen to bring in a freshly killed shark generous amounts of money. Peter Benchley, the author of "Jaws" doesn't support shark culling, he in fact helped raise awareness about sharks becoming endangered. He wrote articles about how misunderstood sharks are (Benchley, Peter). This is now illegal in the United States, but is still practiced in countries such as Japan and Australia. Even in those countries, shark culling is on its way out. But

The cause of this debate comes with the return of White Sharks to the area. Over the past few years, there has been an increase of this apex predator to our coasts like never before seen, most notably since Labor Day weekend in 2009. Five sharks had been tagged by a marine biologist, Greg Skomal, and have been closely tracked and documented since. Skomal is a key player in this research as project leader

Terry Malloy is a dock worker for the union and in this story, this is the first main point of why he is being controlled by the MOB. In one scene, where Terry is in the office, Terry is being treated as a child towards Johnny and it makes him feel overwhelmed. Also, out on the docks, his bosses treats Terry poorly because they are rude to him and it make him work very hard to earn his pay. For an example, pigeons, on the other hand, is a symbol that represents the life that Terry wants because he wishes he was free from the union, to be like a pigeon, and the reason is that he says, “they got it made, they eat all they want, fly around like crazy, sleep side by side, and raise gobs of squads” (On the Waterfront).

Ever since the release of the movie Jaws, sharks have had an extremely violent reputation. Although statistics prove unprovoked shark attacks on humans are extremely rare, people continue to believe the negative consortiums of sharks, that they are man- eating predators. This became very apparent to me when I told people my summer plans of shark diving in Fiji. The responses varied but all of them had the same message: that if I were to want to dive in the ocean with big sharks, I must be crazy. My friends and family would constantly ask me if I was sure that I wanted to go. Even if I just mention that sharks are my favorite animal people would ask if I was joking or how I could possibly like sharks. I had known that diving with sharks was not the most popular activity, but I realized how negativity people really felt about sharks and diving with them. I ultimately stuck with my gut and pursued my passion because like Emerson says, “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think.” I would have to ignore people’s negative comments and not let them “sink like darts” into my ears and “put me in fear”, like Emerson suggests in “Self- Reliance”. I went against what others told me, and I dove with sharks which although was misunderstood, was the greatest

Thanks to the movie Jaws, many people are scared of sharks. Seeing a fin in the water terrifies all but the most experienced of beach goers. Sadly, this perception means that most do not really care if the sharks are hunted to extinction or not. However, society’s opinion on sharks needs to change if we want any hope of saving the world’s oceans. Sharks, as an apex predator, are an important part of the ocean’s food chain.

But everyone is different and reacts differently to situations. Some people believe that sharks are mindless killing machines and actively hunt humans whereas others believe that sharks are beautiful creatures and should be left to their own devices. The family of Ken Crew gave a statement regarding the question of this essay at Crew’s funeral, which was “Let the shark live. Ken loved the sea and appreciated the creatures that live in it. He would not have wanted the shark killed, and neither do we.” This statement was personally surprising as it could be seen as a rare view, especially coming from the family of a man who was killed by a shark. People who have been attacked by sharks and lived have stated that they feel no ill will towards their attacker. An example of this is Heather Boswell, who went swimming with some friends in 1994 and lost her leg to a shark, although she doesn’t feel that the shark should be killed for taking her

The Western Australian population like many others view sharks with trepidation and fear (Boissonneault, 2011). This is due in part to the media, which portrays sharks as a fierce and deadly adversary to the human race (Boissonneault, 2011). In response to the apparent increase in fatal shark attacks on their population, the Western Australian government has implemented the use of baited drum lines along some popular beaches (McCagh, Sneddon and Blache, 2015). This decision to increase the organised culling of the shark population in Western Australia can be attributed to the government’s fear of losing the faith and vote of confidence from the community whom they serve (Neff, 2012). There are many factors to consider when looking at the main