Year after year, beach season brings accounts of harrowing shark attacks as people around the world plunge into the surf to escape summer's heat.But the reality is that these fearsome predators kill an average of four people worldwide every year, while humans kill anywhere from 26 million to 73 million sharks annually, according to recent calculations by an international team of scientists.
With the killing of sharks mounting rapidly in recent years, there has been a growing realization that something must be done to prevent sharks from disappearing from the planet.
Two weeks ago, Mexico, which has a large shark fishery, enacted a new law that protects three species, bans the practice of shark finning -- slicing off the fins of a newly caught shark and tossing the animal back in the ocean to die -- and requires authorities to monitor the activities of large shark-fishing boats. Early next month, officials from around the globe will meet in The Hague, Netherlands, to decide whether to put tight new controls on the trade in two heavily fished species: the spiny dogfish and the porbeagle.
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