Sharks

According to People.com, on April 17, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order reopening nearly 500,000 square miles of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to U.S. commercial fishing—an area that has been off‑limits for over a decade to protect endangered sea turtles, whales, coral atolls, and countless other species.

I find this decision not just misguided, but truly disgusting. I’ve loved the ocean my entire life, and every hour I poured into becoming a marine biologist was driven by a single purpose: to safeguard these fragile ecosystems and the incredible creatures that depend on them—becoming a voice for those who cannot speak.

And for what? So industrial fleets can trawl through MPA’s? So that corporations can chase short‑term profits while irreversibly damaging habitats? It’s heartbreaking. How can anyone ignore the science showing permanent harm from bycatch and habitat destruction? How do you not understand that these actions carry permanent effects. Marine Protected Areas should be a safeguard for marine life not a graveyard.

Humans should have 1000% more respect for the world we occupy than we do. It’s important that we understand that the world has been here long before we have, so the fallacy that the world is ours to exploit when we’ve only just got here in the grand scheme of things is outrageous. Stop trying to make every bit of the world yours to destroy and exploit.

Why?for the love of god.... please please tell me why this has even got to this point of us as a human race...having to petition to stop the pain and suffering of living creatures that have a right to be here and are ABSOLUTELY crucial to the ongoing harmony and eco system of our planets very excistence! and that aside...how so mindless we are to not see that the ocean is what gave us our beginning... as a child before i was even influenced or brain washed by people or society or even my parents i was deeply interested in documentaries on our planet... the ocean and everything in it always facinated me so deeply... i use to collect a magazine collection that came out each week at my local newsagent that educated me on sealife and explained and taught me alot.. my first magazine was about sharks and i learned how many hundreds of species of sharks there was in the ocean at that time and was fascinated by the "hammerhead"shark... i was only 11.. i thought to myself "how amazing is that that a creature can push out his jaw and swim so fast and catch his food?!" i remember thinking "i cant swim that fast!"... i then even at that age thought to myself and realised without influence that as human beings we are not that smart...Im so deeply and always have been hurt by mindless unthoughtfull behaviour by people against animals or creatures without a voice...i use to think to myself... "if they could speak what would they say? i would look into the eyes of an animal...and see there pain.. the eyes of anything can tell you so much if you see deeply enough....we are pathetic as human beings, brainwashed by poltics, drama and the love of power...do we think we are immortal?
We have become selfish, mindless, and we have evolved as a species not using our blessed power of voice for the greater good of anything or anyone, but our own selfish need for validation as a person or to show power...it hurts to the pit of my stomach that we are so consumed by power, ego, status. When these people in power that can quite easily turn this all around.. realise that the following they will receive for acting with compassion would be more powerfull and in tune with the people more so than the way they do it now...othetwise i hope they realise this...yoir real calling will be when you reach the gates of heaven and you face yourselves, then you will say "oh dear god im sorry i had the power to change these issues but i didnt"...its to late..dont let that be your last calling.
Peace and respect by us to all creatures great and small is what will make this world a better place...

As a lifelong Floridian, avid beach goer and snorkeler, I’m frequently swimming in ocean - my sightings of sharks have been extremely rare and my closest encounter was having a lemon shark swim just a foot or so away from me. It simply swam by, because I didn’t harass it and people aren’t shark food. Anything has the potential to be dangerous, it’s not worth decimating a species and ecosystem over.

As a diver for more than 20 years, I have always wanted to see a hammerhead shark underwater. Unfortunately, the only two I have seen in South Florida were hanging from the back of Mark the Shark’s boat.

Sharks are a HUGE part of the Marine life food chain. A huge part of society has made an ego or expectation around sharks. Not one of them have actually tried looking into why they attack, or even the numbers of deaths per year due to shark attacks. You go into a wild animals home and expect them not to act on their natural instincts. What people don't realize is that 22 of the 120 shark attacks are provoked, meaning a little under half of the attacks are because someone decided to poke the bear and found out. Sharks are misunderstood and are being punished and cruely killed to be created into a soup. Sharks die a slow and cruel death just for some food, they drown them.

This action is extremely inhumane, imagine you as the shark and someone cut off your arms and legs. Not only would you not be able to do the things you love, it would be much harder to live and get through life. These sharks are dying of hunger due to these cruel actions. Also sharks are a huge part in marine life, so this means that the food chain could collapse, causing other species to over populate. This needs to be stopped.