Sharks
Every year, some 100 million sharks are killed by poachers. 100 million! And all just for their fins. Shark fin soup is a luxury delicacy in China and other countries for which a lot of money is paid, about eighty euros per cup!
Choking at the bottom of the sea. The way the fins for the soup are obtained is truly gruesome. Poachers cut the fins from the sharks that are still alive and then throw the animal back into the sea. They sink to the bottom and suffocate, because many sharks have to swim to get oxygen from the water. Or they are immediately eaten by other predators; they can't swim anyway. Terrible!
Human or seal? Many people think sharks are bloodthirsty killing machines, but that's nonsense. Sharks don't like humans at all. When a shark attacks a human, and that really only happens a few times a year, it is a mistake: it thinks it sees a juicy seal swimming and attacks. Moreover, shark attacks on humans are disproportionate to the number of sharks killed by humans.
Bitten by a shark. I myself was bitten by a Caribbean reef shark in the Bahamas. Fortunately, except for a nice scar, I didn't get too much out of it. I have also dived without a cage with white sharks in the Pacific Ocean, hammerhead sharks in the Bahamas and tiger sharks in the Maldives. That was SO cool! Wouldn't it be terrible if these beautiful animals went extinct for a cup of soup?
