Shark Count: New Shark Week Initiative to Count World's Population of Sharks

Sharks are important for the health of our world's oceans. Like wolves on land, sharks controls the natural balance of species by keeping down populations that might otherwise overgraze on sea grass. Now, scientists have started an effort to count world sharks with the help of baited cameras.

The new project is called the Global FinPrint initiative. The research survey is designed to provide the key data needed in order to better create conservations efforts to save sharks.

About 100 million sharks are killed every year, according to LiveScience. This means that populations are steadily decreasing over time and could majorly impact surrounding ecosystems.

The idea itself came about after Vulcan Inc.'s senior director of philanthropy, Dune Ives, attended an ocean summit in 2014. At the time, she noticed that conversations focused on why the ocean was losing so many sharks each year, but the research itself was piecemeal.

"No one knew the answers," said Ives in an interview with Mashable. "There were bits and pieces of research that had already been done but I wasn't able to find a source for why."

Some historical data already exists on shark populations, including some based on data from underwater cameras. This latest effort, though, would vastly increase the amount of cameras in place worldwide. Not only that, but it will help researchers better understand the total number of sharks in the world and where they are, according to Discovery News.

The new data will help researchers create better conservation efforts for these species. In addition, it may help scientists understanding what's happening to fragile marine ecosystems once sharks are removed from an area.

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