Their numbers have dropped dramatically in just 50 years.
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00:00 Sharks may be scary, but they're also an integral part of our ocean's ecosystems.
00:07 But now, according to a new study published in the journal Nature, overfishing of sharks
00:12 has left a pretty big gap in ocean life.
00:14 According to the research, some species of sharks and rays have dropped by 70% in the
00:19 last 50 years alone.
00:20 But the worst hit shark species was the white tip.
00:23 It's now labeled critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of
00:26 Nature, with researchers finding the species lost 98% of their populations worldwide in
00:32 the last 60 years.
00:33 Sharks are often fished for their fins or accidentally caught by careless fishermen,
00:37 and they grow relatively slowly and reproduce less often than other fish.
00:41 And the researchers found that three quarters of all the shark species in the study are
00:44 now facing extinction.
00:46 One of the study's authors and founder of the Marine Megafauna Foundation, Andrea Marshall,
00:50 had this to say about the findings.
00:52 "It happened quicker than we could have ever imagined, and it demonstrated to us that
00:55 we need to take immediate action."
00:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:00 (upbeat music)