Advocates Worry About a COVID-19-culling of Sharks - Fox 25 Boston

Thank you to Fox 25 Boston for covering our #SharkFreeVaccines announcement. If you only have time to read or watch one thing, this is a great interview with our Executive Director, Stefanie Brendl. Click the button below to tune in.

"'‘People were used to decades of seeing no sharks and now that there are regular sightings they think sharks are taking over the world. It’s not really it,’ Brendl said. ‘It’s that our baseline -- what we perceived as normal -- was so low.’

Shark populations rebound slowly because they reproduce in low numbers -- sometimes as few as two offspring -- and some species don’t give birth every year.

Sharks are also slow to mature. The Greeland shark, for example, reaches adulthood at age 150.

‘You know it’s too bad the sharks get a bad name, just doing what they do,’ said Jodie Cavanaugh, who was visiting Chatham.

Last March Cavanaugh successfully battled Covid-19, despite suffering from several comorbidities. He was heartened to learn plants could step in for sharks to provide squalene. ‘I’m not a big shark fan necessarily. But God put them here for millions of years. They just do what they’re supposed to do. And we get in the way.’”