An interesting article that shows that the magnificent hammerhead shark, a family of sharks with at least nine different species are now close to extinction. The decline is of course due, primarily to the insatiable appetite for Sharks Fin soup.
Other shark species that would be added to the endangered list later this year were the smooth hammerhead, shortfin mako, common thresher, big-eye thresher, silky, tiger, bull and dusky.
The devastation to the marine ecology of the huge decline in these top end predators (“up to 99% decline in the past 30 years”) is not fully understood however it has been clearly shown that the presence of predators increases the diversity and number of different species in a given ecosystem.
Most of these species I have yet to see underwater and it saddens me that I am increasingly unlikely to be able to.
The full article can be found here