Allow me to step onto my soapbox for a moment...

As it says in my profile, I adore sharks. Ever since I was a little girl, watching Shawn Weatherly, a former Miss Universe, freak out over being close to Great White Sharks on "Ocean Quest," I have been utterly and completely fascinated by these wonderful examples of perfect design. Sleek, fast, hunters that lived long before the dinosaurs evolved and survived long after.

The sad truth is that their existence is threatened by the one predator with the power to destroy everything on earth: man. From the demand for shark-fin soup (with horrifying consequences) in Asia, to the indiscriminate killing that results from gillnet, driftnet, purse seine, and longline fisheries where they are simply bycatch - not targeted, and in most cases not commercially marketable.

Because of the images that resulted from "Jaws" and media sensationalism that results from rare but captivating shark attacks, sharks have been demonised in the same way and with the same results as coyotes in the West. Science, people, and indeed even government policy is finally beginning to realize that sharks are a critical element of healthy ocean ecosystems, and their demise heralds the demise of the oceans as a whole.

This article in the NY Times is just one example of how the balance of the ocean's ecosystems has been upset by the removal of its apex predators. Fewer sharks = fewer scallops; a connection I'm not sure many lay people would make, but for the information presented in the article. Killing "big, scary monsters" means that there are fewer yummy scallops, which means your scallops wrapped in bacon are going to get must more expensive, if you can get them at all.

One of the reasons I love working at NOAA, even on the worst days when I curse the inefficiency or red tape involved in working in a huge bureaucracy, is because perhaps, in some small way, the work that I do will save my sharks. Please, when you are trying to decide what to buy for dinner, look at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list and make an ecologically sustainable and responsible choice, or look at the Marine Stewardship Council's website to see what fisheries are being managed the best. Frankly, for all the crap the US gets with respect to the environment, our fisheries management policies and regulations, including monitoring and enforcement, are some of the best in the world. Buy US products - avoid European and Asian imported fish and seafood. Buy trolled or trap caught when possible. I know it costs a little more, but doing the right thing sometimes means making sacrifices.

This problem is getting more and more attention all the time; check out this month's National Geographic for great articles and depressing pictures on the state of the world's living marine resources.