7/15 Elf Island Blog - Shark Awareness Day!

Shark Awareness Day!!!


July 14th is Shark Awareness Day! It’s a special day to bring attention to common misconceptions about sharks and shed some light on the need for shark protection.

Sharks play a vital role in the oceans by keeping the food web in balance. Unfortunately, people often view them as mindless monsters or “eating machines”. You may be surprised to hear that humans are actually a much greater threat to sharks than sharks are to us! Millions of sharks are killed each year for their fins and millions more are accidentally killed in the nets of fishers.

Did you know?

• Over one hundred million sharks are killed each year by commercial fisheries
  
• Of the 350 different shark specifies, only 3 have been involved in a significant number of human fatalities
  
• You are much more likely to be injured while driving to the beach than you are to be attacked by a shark
  

So wouldn’t it be cool to be able to help save sharks? The first step is to become educated about sharks and spread the word about the importance of protecting them. Elf Island is also dedicated to saving sharks, and in the coming weeks we’ll unveil our plans to help YOU to play an active role in shark preservation!

Woot! Great Info Thanks Ink!!

~smalld

WoOtZ wOoTz! thanks ink

Great Info! I like that they are using some animal awareness in their Blog. Looking forward to the opening of this game.

Bug

I'm wondering how exactly we will be able to help spread awareness of common misconceptions of sharks!

ACECpt.RICH wrote:

I'm wondering how exactly we will be able to help spread awareness of common misconceptions of sharks!

Me too! I am curious how they plan to incorporate different causes in the game and what we will be doing to help.

Bug

Yah. As Rich and Bug said, how will that be incoorperated in real life and the game?

hmm. maybe they will
have some sort of shark
cause in the game? we
must wait and see!
peace out peach.

ACECpt.RICH wrote:

I'm wondering how exactly we will be able to help spread awareness of common misconceptions of sharks!

Call me a nerd, but I created a poster! Hehe, actually I created it for this online Marine Science course I took... The section was about sharks, and those that attack humans and the like. The poster was to focus on why sharks attack, and how to prevent them, not so much on the misconceptions though The course focused on that, yet we were supposed to create a poster on shark attacks... that people will read (so we had to do a "beware of shark" tecnique on the poster; my school was a bit hypocritical)...

OK, my general rule - When I start talking in circles, I stop

- Sugar :bounce:

Mmm.. Sorry but when I see shark I think Jaws.
Maybe I am the first person that you need to convince.

I was surprised with the shark blog. I think the game is heading in the right direction with its ideas of "good works". Besides just being entertaining, it's promoting compassion towards mankind and animals.

The thing with some people is that they think sharks attack you for no reason. They don't. The reason why they do is because people make a beach out of their habitat.
It's ok to be scared of them, (I am) but don't harm them.

~Jazz~

Cherishina wrote:

Yah. As Rich and Bug said, how will that be incoorperated in real life and the game?

I think it's awesome that they are making us aware of things here on our precious Earth. I'm thinking that if they make us aware within the game and continue the positive education of it that we will take our own stands within our communities and maybe even further out & take action to help.

nightmaretime wrote:

Mmm.. Sorry but when I see shark I think Jaws.
Maybe I am the first person that you need to convince.

Awww nightmaretime, you're not the only one. I'm so glad they posted something like this...sharks and many other animals are such an important part of our Earth.

People are killed by toasters and falling coconuts each year than they are by sharks. They truly are scared of us as much as we are of them, but it's the unknown. They actually won't even eat us, they don't like the taste of us LOL It's more like the other way around for that saying Man Eating Sharks...It is really true that "man" does eat more sharks than they "try" to eat us. Tens of thousands of Soupfin Sharks are killed every year just for their dorsel fin to be put into a can of soup for us to eat! GROSS!!! And they throw the rest of the entire shark back into the ocean, what a waste of a beautiful creature!

They truly are in our oceans to help balance it out. If it weren't for them and some other creatures in our oceans, it wouldn't be very clean and couldn't function to help our Earth in the long run.

I know alot about sharks because Im going to become a zoologist in the future. The only sharks that always attack their prey to kill are Great Whites, but the other species like reef, tiger, Bull head, and lepord sharks only first will take a very small bite out of their prey to see what it is sometimes, and then to see if its what they would like to enjoy(eat). Also Sharks like the ones I've mensioned (reef ect.) only bite you as a warning that your in their environment and getting to close. The point I want to make is that sharks are great but the ocean is their home, like the land is ours you can't expect them to want to share it (that much), and your more likely to have one of the following happen to you then get attacked by a shark: struck by lightening, get in a car accident, get bit by a bug that gives you an infection, get stung by a jellyfish, and get attacked by a adiline penguin when you really just wanted to meet one your entire life and then when the zookeeper lets you inside you get bit by one.

My quote from EI Blogs...

lilbumbles Says:
July 16th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
This is sooo cool, my oldest from VMK is studying to be a Marine Biologist & wants to work with Great Whites in Africa!
I loved all your facts that you posted, because we try to instill those same facts at our aquarium. It is so true, that you are more likely to be injured or killed by your toaster or toliet each year than you would be by a shark.
This would be so awesome to kick off Elf Island with the teaching of conservation of sharks & then continue with the education of other animals, especially the endangered.
Thanks again for bringing something new for everyone to learn, i’m loving this already! =D

I LOVE SHARKS! Im going to TL when I go on my trip to WDW tomorrow!! Im going to go in the shark reef to get some up close encounters with the sharks and fish they have in the tank.

Kanye