Shipping: a great danger to endangered whale sharks

If you haven't heard about whale sharks, they are known for its peaceful behaviour. They are not harmful to humans, simply because they are filter feeders! Furthermore, they are big boys. They can grow up to 20 meters in length and they can be even 130 years old! 

Unfortunately, a recent research has shown that whale sharks are highly endangered due to their collisions with the large shipping ships that sails the ocean to deliver goods. It is a huge problem whale shark population is facing right now.

Scientists located around 350 whale sharks and mapped shark 'hotspots' which overlapped with global fleets of cargo, tanker, passenger, and fishing vessels - the types of large ships capable of striking and killing a whale sharks. It has been revealed that over 90% of whale shark movements fell under the footprint of shipping activity.

Scientist of University of Southampton Freya Wormersley says, we are basically so greedy on buying foreign products delivered overseas, and thanks to that we are unwittingly contributing to this dying out of the important shark species for the oceanic ecosystem and its balance.
Let's try together to lessen the number of overseas delivered products, by for example simply not buying them as much as we do now. Let's help these beautiful creatures to live and thrive.

- Šimon Petránek

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220509150641.htm