The Misunderstood Shark

                Sharks of all kinds are feared by the human race. Personally as a person that loves sharks is worried for the future of sharks. I first discovered I liked sharks when my family brought me to the Natural History Museum in New York City. Mostly I was bored until we got to the ocean exhibit, thats when my eyes widened. I started running around looking at all the different plastic creatures and the I turn around and I see this massive jaw filled with razor sharp teeth. Im sure I tried to touch it and my parents quickly stopped me from getting a nasty cut but who knows. From that point on I new I loved the ocean and I especially loved sharks. 
               Right now there are approximately 470 known species of shark in the world, but it's impossible to count the exact number of individual sharks on the planet.World Wildlife Fund estimates that more than 100 million sharks are killed each year for their fins. An d guess how many humans are killed each year… 26 was the most reported deaths in 2010. A vending machine is more likely to kill you that a shark. 
              Sharks live everywhere, they rang from Antarctica to Australia. They are everywhere. Now I don't mean to scare you but almost everywhere you go that is near the ocean, theres a shark. And you shouldn't be scared anyway, if I were to ask you right now why you were afraid of sharks, more than half of you will say something along the lines of "They eat people" or "they are blood thirsty flesh eating demons. or somewhere in that zone. But really they aren't hostile creatures.
             Sharks of all kinds have pretty common diet. they are all carnivores, But people have actually found some pretty wired things inside of a sharks stomach. here is a small list of things scientist have found in side a sharks stomach; Polar Bears, Reindeer, Licenses plates, Tires, Chicken coop complete with chickens, A full suit of armor, a fur coat, rubber boots, porcupine, video cameras, a horse head, and a bag of money. Now thats just a few things. You can probably imagine what else they eat. I guess they eat anything except for their veggies.
            Sharks have bad reputations because of movies and stories. The one movie that you always think about is… you guest it JAWS. Jaws was the first movie that really set off the whole flesh eating shark craze. Jaws is about this 25ft shark that is thirsty for blood and the main character, Brody, to save his town from this "monster" I won't say much more but there were sequels that just increased the fear with sharks.       
             Due to movies like this sharks are facing extinction. Over 1 million sharks are killed each year. People will either kill them for sport or some ail kill them for a tasteless soup made with their fins. It is a tradition in some countries to eat shark fin soup but is it really worth it? How they do it: First they catch the shark, cut off its fins and throw the animal back into the water to die slowly while bleeding uncontrollably. They leave the poor thing on the bottom of the ocean to die. 
       My goal is to make shark finning illegal all over the world. They have already done this in a few places fro example it is Illegal to shark fin in that state of hawaii. If sharks keep getting killed at this rate they will be gone in the next few decades. We need to stop this. You can help by going to here and donating even just $10 to help them stop this. I have done this, WWF is an great foundation to help. I hope you will learn to love sharks just as I did.

Thanks,
Sophie