SharkSavers

With movies such as the hugley popular Jaws franchise, sharks are among Hollywood's favorite viscious killers. Yet the truth is - sharks are not the hunters so much as they are the hunted. In large parts of the ocean, shark populations are down by 90% due to overfishing driven in part by a demand for shark fins. In a cruel practice called "shark finning," sharks are caught alive to have their fins brutally cut off. The rest of the shark is wasted, thrown back into the ocean to bleed to death, suffocate or be eaten alive. And while the popular image of sharks as monsters of the sea makes it easy to overlook their suffering, not only are they not the maneaters they've been made out to be, but sharks play an important role in keeping populations of other fish healthy and in proportion for the ecosystem. On Thursday's "Justice, or Just Us?" my guest is Kevin Sullivan of SharkSavers. We dispell some myths about sharks, shed light on the problem of shark finning, and learn about legislation to help protect sharks from cruelty and abuse.