Ban The Sale Of Shark Meat In Sudbury

Overview : Shark meat is being offered for sale in Sudbury and we ask that the City ban the sale of these products in our city. Why ban the sale of shark meat? For starters sharks are vital to our Oceans and without them there would be a collapse in the Oceans and possibly in the worlds food chain. What would start the chain reaction is the loss of the Oceans apex predator, the shark. Once sharks are gone their prey will over populate, then the prey will over eat their prey causing them to go extinct, then without food the first prey will go extinct. This chain reaction will eventually spread to the coast and cause the collapse of fisheries, then it will spread inland and effect coastal species, and so on eventually effecting humans.

• Petition: My name is Noah Pollock and I am a thirteen year old resident of Sudbury. It has come to my attention that shark meat is being sold in Sudbury. I have created this petition to ask you to ban the sale of shark meat in Sudbury.
  
  Sharks are vital to our Oceans and a collapse of their numbers could lead to a collapse in the worlds food chain. Also the loss of sharks could result in the loss of 50% of our planets oxygen. This could happen because phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth.They make 50% or our planets oxygen, some people even say they make more than that! But what does plankton have to do with sharks? Some species of fish eat that plankton, if sharks died out the fish that eat them will over populate and send the plankton into extinction resulting in a major loss of oxygen!

Also there are many health concerns in eating sharks. Sharks are very high in mercury, the most toxic non-radioactive element found on Earth. What happens is mercury is released into the air by factories and later falls into the water where it is eaten by small fish, then lots of small fish are eaten by bigger fish, then lots or bigger fish are eaten by even bigger predators, eventually the top predator the shark eats lots of fish that have extremely high mercury levels from all the smaller fish. The recommended does of mercury daily is 0.1, dolphins alone have 2000, now imagine how much sharks have! By consuming the sharks that contain the toxic mercury you become in danger of heart attacks, seizures, the destruction of neurons in the brain, and much more! The citizens of Sudbury may not know about this and they are unknowingly poisoning themselves.

You may also think there are many sharks and they wont go extinct, you are wrong. Most places where there used to be many sharks now have few, even the great white shark is now more endangered than tigers, with a total of less than 3500 great whites still in the Ocean! Up to 100 million sharks are killed each year by humans, yet sharks only kill 5 humans at the very max each year! Sharks reproduce very slowly, with a wait of 9 months-2 years to have the babies, and they have small litters, with low survival rates. They need to be saved now! Did you know sharks have been on Earth for 400 million years? With humans not too sure they will make it to 401 million years. But its not too late, if we act now we can save them. So please help ban the sale of shark meat in Sudbury, and together we can Save Our Sharks, S.O.S!