Healthy Reefs Need Sharks! This is what Year 2 learnt when Jackie, from Amanyara’s Nature Discovery Centre, came into Osprey class last week. We were lucky enough to look at some photographs of sharks that live in and travel through the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as hear a story about Shark Stanley and his friends, Waqi the Whitetip, Manta Reigna, and Pierre the Porbeagle who battle to save the Coral Reef.
Jackie at Amanyara’s Nature Discovery Centre is working alongside DEMA and other individuals to raise awareness of how important sharks are, not only to the ocean worldwide but our waters in the TCI. She says “We are trying to get the word out in TCI about why we should care about our sharks, why they’re important, and trying to find out what people think about sharks. Conservation is key, and we want to eventually educate the community about how we can do that.”
Osprey class were left with a lot to think about – our opinions of sharks, and the impact they have on the oceans around us, have really changed for the better.
We found out lots of interesting facts about sharks. Did you know…
- Approximately 100 million sharks are killed in commercial fisheries each year.
- Nearly 30% of known shark species fully assessed by scientists are threatened with extinction. Another 26% are close to becoming threatened in the near future.
- Healthy and biologically diverse shark populations are important to maintaining balance in marine life, including commercially important fish species.
- Sharks are more like dolphins than fish! Their life history characteristics, such as slow growth, late maturation and production of few offspring, make them vulnerable to overfishing and slow to recover from decline.
- Coral Reefs: Food and Tourism! Coral reefs are also vital to tourism here in the TCI. They provide much of the white sand for the beaches. They also help protect coastal communities from storms.
For more information on the projects that are being developed around the world and in the TCI you can visit these websites www.pewtrusts.org and www.sharkdefenders.com.
