From the magazine

After half a billion years, are sharks heading for extinction?

Studies suggest that a third of coral reef sharks and more than half of pelagic sharks may be wiped out as a result of overfishing, habitat loss and pollution

James Bradley
The unutterably cruel practice of shark-finning, whereby the fins are removed from live sharks, which are then tossed back into the sea to die a slow and painful death.  Getty Images
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 08 February 2025
issue 08 February 2025

Sharks were never far from our minds as we grew up on the beach in Adelaide. Although attacks were rare, they were real. My grandfather was witness to the fatal mauling of a swimming instructor in the 1930s, and later a friend from university was killed while scuba diving off Port Noarlunga.

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