This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

And I’m Shirley

Griffith.
This week, we tell about sharks. They are among the world's most feared animals. But studies
show that sharks are in far more danger from people than people are from sharks.
An Austrian man was diving in the Bahamas Islands two months ago when he was bitten by a
shark. Markus Groh was taking part in a sport known as shark diving. He died in a hospital a
day after the attack.
Many people fear sharks. But others put on underwater diving equipment and swim in search of
the big fish. They want to observe the shark in its own environment.
You may have seen shark diving on television. If so, you know that some divers observe the
animals from the safety of a steel cage or container. Or they wear special equipment made of
metal.
But some divers have no extra protection when they watch sharks. A few swim in waters
containing food. People drop it in the water to bring fish close to them.
Reports say Markus Groh was in the water with food when he was bitten. His death is the first
deadly attack during shark feeding recorded by the International Shark Attack File. But the group
has reported many injuries in the sport.
Many shark divers say it is exciting to swim near the animals. They are likely to dismiss any
danger. Those who like shark diving say it increases people’s interest in sharks.
Such persons say it helps the public understand how important the animals are to the
environment. They say it makes people want to protect sharks at a time when some kinds of
shark are dying out.
Some ocean experts criticize shark diving that involves feeding the animals. They say the fish
can become aggressive after having contact with the people feeding them. They say feeding
sharks is bad for both animals and human beings. The American state of Florida seemingly
agrees. Florida banned the feeding of all sea life, including sharks, in two thousand one.
Several companies offer diving trips near the Bahamas Islands. That is where Markus Groh
died. Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures organized the diving trip taken by the Austrian
man. The company has provided passenger boat trips for divers in the Bahamas for several
years.
Last year, the Bahamas Diving Association criticized such trips. The group wrote to Mr.
Abernethy’s company and others like it. The Association asked that they stop taking people to
shark dives without protective cages. It also proposed an end to cageless dives in open waters
with possibly dangerous sharks.
Markus Groh’s death brought criticism of this kind of shark diving. But a group called Shark
Savers has praised Jim Abernethy and his company.
The group says Mr. Abernethy is an ambassador of protection of sharks in the Bahamas. Shark
Savers says he brings public attention to sharks’ importance in the environment. It says Mr.
Abernethy’s work helps warn people of the danger that some sharks could disappear from Earth.
Shark Savers operates a Web site called Sharksavers.org. It has asked people to add their
names in support of cageless shark diving in the Bahamas. The Web site also contains a list of
supporters of shark diving in general.
But an activist organization opposes the feeding of sharks. The Marine Safety Group led the
movement for the Florida ban on feeding sharks and other water creatures.
The head of the group, Bob Dimond, says sharks normally do not want to be with people. But
their excellent sense of smell leads them to food. The smell also causes more sharks than
normal to enter the same waters. Mr. Dimond says the presence of many sharks increases risk
to humans.
He adds that shark feeders do not face the most danger from the animals. Instead, people who
come near a shark later face the greater threat. By then, he says the fish has linked people with
food.
George Burgess heads the International Shark Attack File and the Florida Museum of Natural
History at the University of Florida. He also opposes the feeding of sharks. He supports
watching them doing normal activities in their natural surroundings.
Professor Burgess notes that hundreds of millions of people use the world’s oceans. He says
this has caused shark attacks to increase during the past century. Still, the Shark Attack File
reported only one deadly shark attack last year. The victim was skin-diving off Tonga.
Professor Burgess says the total number of shark attack deaths through two thousand seven
was the lowest in twenty years. He says people have more to fear from some snakes, insects
and lightning than from sharks. Taken together, shark attacks are far from the most dangerous
threats to humans.

The International Shark Attack File describes shark attacks as either provoked or
unprovoked. An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten. The person is in the
shark's environment. Also, the person must not have interfered with the shark. Professor
Burgess says the death of Markus Groh will surely be recorded as provoked.
Surprisingly, the International Shark Attack File has records of attacks back to the sixteenth
century. How does the group know about attacks hundreds of years ago? With some difficulty,
says the professor. His volunteer team of researchers investigates reports. They study old
newspapers, books and historic documents. He also says the media provide stories about shark
bites. And people who have observed attacks communicate with his team.

Many people think of sharks as a deadly enemy. But these fish help the environment. They
perform activities that help people. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting means that
the many other fish in ocean waters do not become too great. This protects other creatures and
plants in the oceans. Sharks also may someday be valuable for treatment of human diseases.
During a recent year, business and sport fishing killed an estimated one million or more
sharks. Most sharks reproduce only every two years and give birth to fewer than ten young. For
this reason, over-fishing of sharks is a danger to the future of the animal.
Julia Baum of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography worries that some sharks may disappear
from Earth. She has noted major decreases in sharks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
Ms. Baum and scientist Ransom Meyers carried out studies for Dalhousie University in Halifax,
Canada. Their work showed special danger to large coastal sharks. Populations of tiger,
scalloped hammerhead, bull and dusky sharks all had dropped by ninety five percent over five
years. The two researchers placed most blame on intensive fishing. This overfishing included
catching sharks by mistake.
Some scientists say about half of the thousands of sharks caught each year were not the target
of the fishing. But no one really knows whether these sharks would survive if they returned to the
water.
People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and shark skin. Collectors pay thousands of dollars
for the jawbones of a shark. Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A. Sharkskin can be
used like the skin of other animals.
Some people enjoy a soup made from shark meat. The popularity of the soup has grown greatly
over the years. Today, fishing companies can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark
fins. Some restaurants serve shark fin soup for one hundred dollars a bowl.
Finning, as it is called, means cutting the fins off a live shark. Some areas ban finning. But
illegal shark-fishing is big business.
Fishermen often cut off the shark’s fins and throw the animal back into the water. The shark is
left to bleed to death to save space on the boat.
In two thousand four, sixty-three nations approved laws to protect sharks. Some rules are
effective near land. But, as George Burgess notes, laws are difficult to enforce on the
international waters of the high seas.
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith.
And I’m Barbara Klein. Internet users can read our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us
again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Telegram Channel: @CMBGUYS