Shark teeth

The first time I saw a shark was on the big screen. The year was 1975, and the film was one that became an instant classic and the culprit for all the horror shark movies to follow in subsequent decades. I had gone with my friends, skipping school to sneak in to watch a movie that my parents would otherwise not allow me to see.

I was twelve, but a small girl for twelve. I wore my hair short, never wore dresses, no jewelry, and my only friends were a group of boys who shared the same interests. If you didn’t know me, you’d think me a boy. Of course, it didn’t help that I was flat like a plank. Some other girls in my class had started to develop breasts, but the fact that mine hadn’t shown up yet was actually something I was extremely grateful for. I was not looking forward to having those cumbersome things on my body, so the longer they took to sprout, the happier I was.

However, I am digressing. We had cut class so we could go watch Jaws. There was such hype about the movie, and we all wanted to go watch something different, so why not a killing machine that lurked in the waters?

I admit I got a bit scared, living in Massachusetts, spending family summers in Cape Cod, and considering the story takes place in the East Coast didn’t help. There had been sightings of sharks in those waters, and I didn’t want to have one of my limbs chewed up by one of those beasts. However, a sudden fascination arose in me as well. I wondered whether these sharks were as terrible as Peter Benchley had portrayed them in his book. Were they really these mindless, killing machines, going for anything that moved in the water? Furthermore, did all sharks look like the Great White? If not, how many were there? Did they all have those sharp, intimidating teeth?

I wanted to know more. I needed to know more. I was thirsty, hungry, craving more information. I started reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. The first thing I found out was that Jaws was inspired by a story about a bull shark that was believed to have killed four people in New Jersey in 1916 and people had declared war on the creature. I don’t think it’s possible to prove that the killings were all done by the same shark, but I discovered in my research that bull sharks thrive in both salt and fresh water, so it wasn’t impossible. However, that case was a rarity. Throughout the years, as I’ve learned more about them, I’ve read that it’s more likely to be killed by your toaster at home than by a shark. Why the fear, then?

I started watching everything Cousteau did and I could get my hands on. He was the pioneer of undersea filming and documentaries of sea life and became one of the first “celebrity” conservationists. His legacy would be later followed by many other marine conservationists.

However, it wasn’t until I was sixteen that I decided to become a marine biologist that specialized in sharks and shark behavior. It was pretty unheard of a girl wanting to study sharks and become a marine biologist, but I didn’t care. I knew it would be challenging, but it was my true calling. I discovered this one day when we went to the marinas in Cape Cod only to discover that there were tournaments for shark hunting. The biggest prize was given to the person who caught the biggest, heaviest shark. To my dismay, I realized they were being hunted for sport. No matter how threatening the creatures might seem, or how dangerous they were perceived to be, I couldn’t believe that people would sign up for that.

Of course, I shouldn’t have been surprised, hadn’t humans been hunting animals for decades (centuries?) just for sport or for ridiculous reasons (superstitious or medicinal purposes —with no factual basis)? Didn’t some even romanticize the hunting of wildlife? Didn’t Hemingway do so himself in Green Hills of Africa? —which I was never able to finish because I was so disgusted by how he described the pleasure of the kill, that I had to throw my copy in the garbage.

Over the years I came to notice how the media always blew shark attacks way out of proportion, always portraying them as these savage creatures capable of just mutilating people for no reason whatsoever. Why couldn’t they mention all the sharks that were being killed yearly, mostly for their fins? Millions of sharks? Where was the balance? Millions of sharks being killed by humans, compared to a handful of people killed by sharks? Sharks that had been around for hundreds of millions of years, keeping our oceans clean and healthy. Keeping the ecosystem balanced. Reigning the depths and removing carcasses, bacteria, and other harmful elements for the oceans. Eating animals that otherwise would overpopulate the oceans and cause havoc in the ecosystem.

Why couldn’t we ever try and understand? Why couldn’t we ever become attuned to Nature and its creatures?

Yes, it was that day, when I asked my parents why that was even legal that I decided I wanted to study life in the oceans, especially that of sharks. It couldn’t be that these majestic creatures had survived for so long in the depths of the oceans for no reason, only to be killed by humans so quickly that by the time I write this, many species of sharks are endangered, threatened, vulnerable, or near extinct.

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It became even more difficult to make friends as I was growing up once I had decided to pursue this dream. Girls couldn’t understand my fascination, and most boys just had this childish idea of sharks being beasts, either us or them, they’d say. I would sigh and roll my eyes.

Eventually, I found my tribe in college, where like-minded people were studying the same subject matter as me. Perhaps not many were as shark-obsessed as I was, but nobody judged me or found it strange.

As I write this I am proud to be a marine conservationist and shark educator, working hard with others to finally eradicate shark fin soup and illegal fishing. Creating more safe places and protected areas for sharks to thrive, especially since many species take a long time to mature, which means they are slow to reproduce and, therefore, are in more danger of extinction.

I can’t help but shed a tear every time I think about how much suffering we have inflicted upon these creatures that have done nothing but keep our oceans clean and healthy.

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This story is inspired by reading William McKeever's Emperor of the Deep, Peter Benchley's Shark Trouble (which he wrote years after Jaws when he became a conservationist), and from following the accounts below.

To learn more about sharks, follow @oceanramsey, @juansharks, @thesharkwarrior, and @jim_abernethy on IG.

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