No Deepwater Sharks In Survey - No Backup For Collapsing Populations

[hatrack]

With shark numbers dwindling, scientists have long hoped they would find previously unknown populations of them and perhaps even new species in the deepest parts of the oceans. A new study concludes the sharks aren't down there.

Sharks do not colonize below 1.86 miles, scientists said today. Calculations therefore suggest the oceans are 70 percent shark-free.

"Sharks are apparently confined to around 30 percent of the world's oceans, and all populations are therefore within reach of human fisheries, near the surface and at the edges of deep water, around islands, seamounts and the continents," said Monty Priede, at the University of Aberdeen in the UK. "Sharks are already threatened worldwide by the intensity of fishing activity, but our finding suggests they may be more vulnerable to over-exploitation than was previously thought."

A study in 2004 concluded that some shark species have declined 80 percent or more, due largely to fishing. A 2003 study found the populations of 15 of 17 shark species in the North Atlantic had been cut in half in less than two decades.

EDIT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11499966/

[DS1]

1. Maybe if some certain assholes from a certain region would quit

pulling them out of the water, cutting their fins off, and dropping them back in the water to sink and down, the population would be just a little bit stronger.

[Jara sang]

2. This is distressing. We are killing EVERYTHING on the planet off.

[hatrack]

3. Yes, we will eat the world and then bitch because we're hungry

And we'll wonder why that is so.

[phillinweird247]

4. One day the world will eat us to save itself! nt