Sharks have roamed our seas for more than 400 million years, which means they evolved nearly 200 million years earlier than the first dinosaurs. Learn how wwf protects sharks from threats like overfishing and habitat loss. Sharks are often characterised as vicious killers, but in reality, they’re a diverse and endangered group of creatures that add tremendous value to marine ecosystems.
Sharks are threatened primarily by overfishing, which has been largely driven in recent years by the rise in demand for sharkfin soup, as well as by fishing activities that do not. Find out about the world's biggest and fastest sharks, how sharks reproduce, and how some species are at risk of. Many species of dogfish sharks mostly live in the deep sea and are harmless to humans.
Sharks are primarily killed by humans both. Sharks differ from other elasmobranchs, however, and resemble ordinary. Sharks, together with rays and skates, make up the subclass elasmobranchii of the chondrichthyes. There are over 400 shark species worldwide.
Sharks can rouse fear and awe like no other creature in the sea. Large sharks have few natural predators besides other sharks, although some small juvenile sharks are eaten by birds and large fish. Commonly known as ground sharks, the order includes the blue, tiger, bull, grey reef, blacktip reef, caribbean reef, blacktail reef, whitetip reef, and oceanic whitetip.