Great white sharks could soon trade 'Jaws' image for endangered listing

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2004

BANGKOK (AFP) — The great white shark, responsible for killing scores of swimmers and scaring a generation out of the sea through the film 'Jaws', is set to get protection from its even deadlier foe, the human trophy hunter.

Despite its reputation as the oceans' most ferocious predator, great white numbers are dwindling and the species is being hunted close to extinction, according to conservation groups.

The sharks are primarily hunted for their teeth and jaws, but are also accidentally netted in large numbers, targeted for shark fin soup and suffer because of increasingly polluted coastal waters, according to the governments of Australia and Madagascar.

The two nations warn that the shark's ferocious reputation has threatened its future and have joined...