by Alissa King

Created on: September 22, 2008

Sharks all over the world are in trouble. It seems odd that the uber predator of the ocean could be on the brink of extinction, but that is the case for many shark species, including some of the most famous: The Great White shark, the Nurse shark or sand leopard, the Bull shark, the Whale shark, and recently added- the Hammerhead shark.

That's only a handful of the endangered shark species, there's many, many more.

It is mostly the fault of human beings that sharks are becoming scarce in the ocean. People have caused the declining numbers by directly over-fishing sharks, and also by destroying their habitat and catching them accidentally in commercial feeding nets and lines. And you know what's really odd? People are so fascinated by sharks, you'd think there would be a more visible conservation effort afoot. After dinosaurs, sharks inspire the most obsession of any predator on earth.

It's true, I visit the Yahoo Buzz index from time to time to see what the world is interested in. Yahoo's buzz index tells you what the recent hot searches' are on Yahoo. Right up there, next to baby pictures of celebrities, and Britney searches is the consistent 'shark' search on the world wide web.

I wanted to give my blog a hit-spike, and people just can't get enough of these predators, so like, brainstorm! Baby pictures of sharks!

Inevitably, I went and learned something while I was sifting the net for inspiration. Funny thing you know what's creepy about baby sharks? Everything. Everything is totally creepy. Baby sharks are a totally creeped up scenario. Many species of baby shark turn cannibal in the womb, and make a snack of their siblings in a prenatal bid for survival. Don't they realize they're endangered?

It's a little hard to find a decent picture of a baby shark, because without some object nearby to give a size perspective, baby sharks look remarkably like big sharks. They are shaped the same, they look the same, and they have the same dead, cold look in their eyes. Baby sharks entirely miss the adorable baby' bandwagon.

Then, too, there's the funny way they can go and get born. I'm not saying the usual method of conception is uncreepy' to an outside observer, but in lieu of a proper mate and some hot and heavy shark copulation, some species of female sharks can make-like-an-aphid and reproduce by means of parthenogenesis.

In popular media, this is touted as virgin birth. Not the least of the flaws in this descriptor is that the mass populous shouldn't go correlating a female Hammerhead with a biblical icon of Christianity, but additionally, parthenogenetic reproduction does not preclude a girl shark ever having had sex. To be blunt, just cus she reproduces female genes, doesn't mean she's a virgin. It just means no males were involved in the creation of those particular offspring.

At any rate, let's see how these creepy babies measure up against the ravages of people. Maybe a little education will help sharks survive the brink of endangerment. I rather hope so. They are a key predator to the health of all our oceans.

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