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By Sarah Sharkey
Predators play an important role in any ecosystem. In California’s sea kelp forests, the decline of the sea otter has lead to an explosion of sea urchins, which has lead to the decimation of the forests. Without the top predator, the entire ecosystem goes crazy and ends up being unsustainable.
The ecosystem in the Atlantic Ocean may be facing a similar situation. As more and more people are concerned about the long term stability of great white shark populations, the effects of their potential disappearance on the ecosystem as a whole.
The short answer is that the loss of great white sharks would be bad. Very bad.
Although we do not know enough about great white sharks, we do know that their population has been steadily declining over the past several decades. This means that they are a species that is very vulnerable to extinction. The first step to prevent this catastrophic collapse is research. We need to know more about great white sharks. So far, there is not too much information about their lives and that data is necessary to ensure their survival.
Chris Fischer of OCEARCH is leading the charge to do some research and uncover important information. Hopefully, his efforts combined with other researchers across the country will help fill our knowledge gap and save our great white sharks.
Learn more from our source here.