In the Chinese Year of the Tiger, endangered stripy felines may be getting all the attention, but marine biologists are trying to highlight the plight of great white sharks which is now believed to be rarer than the tiger.

Tigers are always going to get the sympathy vote over the creature that had it’s character assassinated by the blockbuster Hollywood movie, Jaws.

Frequent reports from South Africa and Australia of surfers loosing a limb or worse have compounded the ‘cold killer’ image.

And reports of the great white’s mating rituals being accustomed to ‘date rape’, have done little to endear these giant fish to the public. Anyone want to adopt a great white shark?

But surely that’s not a good enough reason for them to be allowed to go extinct is it?

The great white shark is one of the oldest known species having resided on earth for an estimated 430 millions years – that makes it older than dinosaurs!

But this great history could all soon be over; due to human interference great white shark numbers are believed to have fallen below that of the tigers, possibly as low as 2,600.

Yet while the tiger is classified as ‘critically endangered’ on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species, the great white shark is listed as ‘vulnerable, despite being more numerous with an estimated 3,200 animals.

According to Ronald O’Dor, Canada, the senior scientist at the Census of Marine Life project, “We hear an awful lot about how endangered tigers are but, apparently, great white sharks are pretty close to the same level.”

New research suggests that the number of great white sharks left in the world’s oceans maybe far lower than predicted earlier as their mobility is far higher than perceived, highlighting the fact that they can travel a long distance and may have been spotted and counted more than once.

There are many reasons for this steep decline in shark numbers like their £60,000 jaw bones or changes in their living environment but the primary reason seems to be the human encroachment of their habitat.

For example, shark nets, used to protect swimmers and surfers on beaches can kill as many as 600 sharks in a year according to Geremy Cliff, head of research at the KwaZulu Natal Sharks Board, Durban, South Africa.

Despite this, White Sharks form a major part of South Africa’s growing £10 million marine eco-tourism industry with whale- watching being the favoured sport of world celebrities (Prince Harry, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and ­Leonardo DiCaprio) amongst 32,000 other cage divers at Gansbaai and Mossel Bay every year which contributes £4 million to the local economy.

By Pallavi Malhotra

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