Vast fleets from major shark fishing nations such as Japan, China, Taiwan and Spain comb the worlds’ oceans for profit. Armed with long-lines and gill nets there are frighteningly few places left on our planet were sharks are not being unsustainably exploited.

An estimated 73 million sharks are killed every year around the world and as a result 50 species are listed as vulnerable or in danger of extinction. Mako, tresher and hammerhead sharks have been hardest hit, the latter declining up to 90% in some parts of its range.

Sharks are primarily caught for their fins, a sought after commodity for use in shark fin soup. Fins can fetch more than 300 US$ per pound and are often sliced off while the shark is still alive, the rest of the body is then wastefully dumped at sea.

Shark meat is only regularly consumed in a dozen or so countries, many of which suffer from great poverty and food insecurity. Shark meat in fact regularly contains high levels of toxins such as mercury and lead, making it dangerous to eat.

Sharks are the glue that holds many of our planet’s marine ecosystems together, without sharks for example coral reefs would be shadows of their diverse riotous selves, become smothered by algae and eventually turn into lifeless rubble.

The fear of sharks permeates all levels of society, from young to old and from rich to poor. From building “shark attack” sandcastles (see photo above) to refusing to dip ones toes into a swimming pool, much of the modern wave of shark bite hysteria can be traced directly to Steven Spielberg’s 1971 film JAWS.

Probably less than 99.99 percent of interactions between sharks and people result in someone being bitten. Statistically, the risk is tiny – in 2008, with the world population soaring to 6.7 billion people, there were only 58 shark bites, of which just four were fatal. In comparison, 253 000 people died from drowning and every year in New York alone around 1600 people are said to be bitten by fellow New Yorkers.

Despite the incredible low risk of a shark bite occurring, South Africa continuous to be one of the few countries that systemically exterminate sharks under the guise of protecting bathers and other ocean users. A 44 km long installation of gill nets that entangle, suffocate and kill sharks has been positioned off the KwaZulu Natal coast since the early 1960s. In addition to catching so called "dangerous sharks", most of the catch is in fact made up of species harmless to humans or other marine animals such as rays, dolphins and turtles.

A credible alternative to shark nets is the use of shark spotters employed to scan the ocean from high vantage points for any approaching sharks. The system has been successfully used in Cape Town since 2004 and whenever a shark is spotted a white flag with shark motive is hoisted and siren sounded to get people out of the water.

Research is currently underway to develop novel chemical shark repellents, both to reduce the risk of bites to ocean users, but also to reduce the number of sharks being caught by tuna and swordfish fisheries.

Diving with sharks has dramatically grown in popularity in recent years and today one can observe in excess of 20 species in two dozen or so countries around the world. In marine eco-tourism one live shark can earn as much as 30 000 US$ per year, while dead that same shark might only fetch a once off payment of less than 50US$.

In spite of their public notoriety we actually know very little about the ecology and behavior of most shark species. In fact every day dedicated scientists are racing the clock to try and discover as much as they can, all the while sharks are becoming more and more elusive due to overfishing.