MANY people believe sharks are dangerous and will always try to hurt or even kill humans. In fact, 94 per cent of the world's 400 species are harmless to humans.
A shark exhibition at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, US, proves this. Visitors can touch young sharks, see their eggs develop and watch a dozen different species swim smoothly around a huge tank.
Most people fail to realize that shark attacks don't happen very often. Humans are more likely to be killed by lightning than by a shark.
And to make this point clear, the museum has set up a special touching pool for children. There, kids can learn, from an early age, not to fear sharks. They can watch them develop inside their eggs and feel the skin of the older swimmers.
"People fear what they don't know," said Nancy Hotchkiss, an organizer of the exhibition, which runs until December. "Sharks have been around for 400 million years and play an important role in the ocean's food chain. We want people to discover that sharks are amazing animals that need our respect and protection."
A shocking 100 million sharks are killed every year around the world by humans.
A study, published in January in the US magazine, Science, found that almost all recorded shark species have fallen by half in the past eight to 15 years.
Thousands of sharks are hunted in Asia for special foods, such as shark fin (鱼翅) soup. And many others get caught in nets, while fishermen are hunting other fish. More than half of all sharks are smaller than 1 metre long.
"Some fishing methods are actually cleaning out the ocean," said Dave Schofield, the manager of the aquarium's ocean health programme. " The fishermen throw them away like rubbish.
It is a worrying situation and some areas have put measures in place to protect these special fish.
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