Sharks

Lots of people are frightened of sharks. That makes some sense if you think all sharks are relentless man-eating teeth-machines, but in reality the vast majority of them are much more scared of us, or they should be. There are over 350 species of sharks around the world, but they don’t all get to grab the headlines or star in feature film franchises. So in honour of Shark Week, and to show you how daft it is to be irrationally fearful of some of these critters, here’s a quick guide to the silliest-named sharks in our oceans.

It’s Shark Week. Despite us trying to tell you otherwise, some of you still worry about getting chomped by a shark. So, to allay your fears and help give you some practical ways to avoid being shark sushi, here is the handy Greenpeace guide to avoiding shark attacks.

Okay, so it’s unlikely you’ll ever see a hammerhead on a helter-skelter; it’s fair to say you won’t see many basking sharks see-sawing with sawfish; and woe betide the wobbegong that tries to have a go on a roundabout. But sharks need parks too. They have as much right to play in safety as anyone else, right?

Update, 9 March 2011: both Princes and Asda have committed to removing tuna caught using fish aggregating devices in combination with purse seine nets from their supply chains by 2014. Read more >>

By the time you read this, I'll be at the head office of Princes in Liverpool where a frenzy of sharks is demanding an end (a fin-ish?) to the dreadful fishing methods that kill other marine species like sharks, rays and even turtles which Princes relies on for its tinned tuna.