It’s Shark Week! Did you watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel with family and friends in years past? I did! Millions of people tuned in every year to learn about these fearsome predators. 

And yet, many people are still very afraid of sharks, to the point that society has turned a blind eye to the fact that their populations are at risk.  Even the writer of Jaws regrets convincing people they are scary, when really, they are one of the ocean’s most amazing and important creatures. 

Want to learn more about sharks? Watch this video about sharks in Hawaii from AVON, one of our streaming video databases. (You may need to log in with your Durham Tech username and password.) 

 Want to listen to a shark expert tell you cool shark facts? (Transcript and censored episode available on the Ologies website.)

Humans have killed more sharks in the past year (~100 million) than sharks have killed people in all of human history (~6-8/year for 50,000 years)(yes, that’s a guess). 

Many people are working to bring awareness to the plight of sharks and educate us on their importance in keeping our oceans healthy. Get to know and track individual sharks through OSEARCH.  Support organizations bringing diverse perspectives to shark science. And, last but not least, start telling all your friends and family about these awesome creatures and how we can all help them survive the ongoing Holocene Extinction.