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Humans may fear them, but sharks are crucial to keeping oceans healthy By Hilary Parker SHARK ALERT: Scientists warn that dwindling shark populations are hurting the world's oceans. Jim Lipschutz/iStockPhoto Forget Jaws. The scariest thing about sharks is their tenuous future. Though often misperceived as villainous denizens of the deep, these top predators play an important role in preserving the balance of the ocean's ecosystems by keeping their prey's populations in check. And so, much to the chagrin of biologists and environmentalists, the decimation of some 1,200 species of sharks and their closest relatives, including skates and rays, is likely to have negative ecological and economic consequences. Yet, for many reasons, the decline continues. First, their biology is against them. Sharks typically grow slowly and take... [read full story]
