In others the eggs are protected by egg cases and laid in sheltered places to develop on their own. In both cases the babies grow very slo wly. A female shark may reproduce only once every two or three years. Finally, many kinds of sharks pup in estuaries which are areas that suffer from pollution and heavy fishing pressure. Taken together, these facts mean that sharks cannot replace themselves when fished heav ily and recover slowly even if they are protected.
All large predators have a role to play.
We have begun to understand and appreciate some of them. Zoos, conservation organizations and even movies like Never Cry Wolf have educated us about wolves. We need to recognize that sharks also have a role to play in the natural order and that they too deserve to continue to exist. When the big sharks were killed, the number of little sharks began to increase because the big sharks no longer ate them. When their population built up enough, th e little sharks ate so many of the bony fish that there were not enough for the people to catch.