Let’s talk about Sharks!

Last Friday Wildlife Action Hero Simon Enderby, CEO and wildlife cameraman at Scubazoo.com concluded the last two weeks’ wildlife talks at Kinabalu International School. His brilliantly visual and fact-packed talk to the primary students got them thinking and talking about Sharks, marine ecosystems and conservation.

Simon has been filming Sharks around the world for the past 20 years and the personal encounters he shared with the students were visualised through photos and footage and offered a genuine and real-life perspective of these fascinating and majestic fish.

There was an instant show of hands when he asked the students, “Does anybody recognise these shark species?” as he showed them photos on the big screen. Oh, yes. This audience knew their sharks! Fantastic.

It was great to learn that not only the fastest fish but also the biggest fish in the sea roam our waters here in Sabah, Borneo and that people travel from all over the wold to Sabah for a chance to see, photograph and swim with them. The Whaleshark and the Sailfish are truly two of the many valuable, natural treasures Borneo is home to.

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There are around 440 known species of sharks in the world and over 100 of these species are found in Sabah waters. Some of the species Simon talked about were Lemon Sharks, Nurse Sharks, Hammerhead, Black Tip, White Tip, Whale Sharks and a personal favourite of mine; the Leopard Shark. Mention of the latter always brings to my mind encounters I was lucky to have, diving at Sipadan with leopard sharks and their calm nature as they rested at the bottom of the coral reef.     

It is wonderful to know that we are blessed by Mother Nature with Sharks Galore in Borneo. It does however also remind us of the importance of protecting them. Not only are they a very valuable source of income for the diving tourism hence greatly contributing to the local economy. They are also very important for the eco-systems. Being top predators, sharks play an important role by regulating healthy populations of other marine life within their habitats, a necessity for the marine eco-systems to thrive.

Simon also talked about the special super powers sharks have. For example, unlike us humans, Sharks use sensors around their nose to detect electric forces made from prey in motion. The more its prey moves the easier it is for the shark to detect it.

Simon assured us that it is extremely rare for people to be bitten by sharks and that fatalities from shark bites are even rarer. In fact, over the past 20 years of filming Sharks around the globe and being up-close and personal with Tiger Sharks, Great White Sharks, Oceanic White Tips and many other large Shark species, he has never been bitten or felt seriously threatened by a shark. Bee stings are for example a much more real and frequent threat and people are more likely to be killed by bees or lightning strike than they are of shark bites. Now that we are on the topic of shark bite statistics, I read an odd and quite disturbing fact the other day that New Yorkers bite 10 times more people per year than sharks do!  

Another shark fact that really struck me was that mind-blowingly, some sharks have over 50,000 teeth over the course of their lives! I could not help but think of the challenge it would be to get three kids out of the house in the morning in time for school if they had that many teeth to brush. I am counting my lucky stars.

It was clear from the talk that humans are a much bigger threat to Sharks than Sharks are to humans. People simply love sharks to death!

The number 1 threat sharks face is people catching them and taking their fins for shark fin soup. It is estimated that up to 100 million sharks are killed each year for commercial and recreational fishing. When the fins are harvested for shark-fin-soup, the rest of the shark is often discarded. It is an extremely wasteful industry and the number of sharks killed is simply so high that Nature cannot keep up with this attack on the eco-system and global shark numbers are dwindling, negatively impacting all other marine life.

Number 2 threat is human interaction with sharks, especially with whale sharks. Last week we learned how sensitive turtles are and how we should never touch them. Sharks are also very sensitive creatures and when too many divers and snorkellers crowd them underwater, they end up harassing the fish and disturbing its feeding and other natural behaviour. I will definitely remember this and talk to my kids about it, so that when they encounter these animals they will be sure to keep a distance and respectfully admire the magnificent creatures that have roamed the seas of this planet long before we humans started populating its lands.

Thank you Simon for taking the time and sharing your encounters and knowledge with us about sharks.

Wildlife Action Heroes Dr. Wong Siew Te, David McCann and Simon Enderby all gave some great insight and lots of inspiration for the students at Kinabalu International School to talk more about wildlife. The students are currently in the process of selecting three Sabah animals as Mascots to represent their School Houses Gaya, Sapi and Sulug and I can’t wait to hear who the winners will be.

Mrs. Fletcher revealed to us the primary students top three votes are:

Watch this space as we reaveal later in the week who the winning candidates are once all the secondary students have finished casting their votes.