I'm Sam.
And I'm Rob.
Now, on Friday the 29th of June 1975, movie posters appeared in cinemas all
over the USA with the now notorious words:
'You'll never go in the water again'.
So, do you know which movie was being promoted, Sam?
Yes, I think it was 'Jaws' - Steven Spielberg's infamous horror movie which
terrified a generation with its story of a man-eating great white shark with a
taste for revenge and for human flesh.
'Jaws' multiplied people's fascination with, and fear of, sharks.
But sharks' fearsome reputation is not based on facts:
most attacks on humans are cases of mistaken identity,
where the shark mistakes a swimmer for fish.
In recent years the average annual number of worldwide deaths from shark bites
was as low as four.
Today sharks should be the apex predators of the ocean - the top predator that
hunts and eats other animals but has no natural predator of its own.
Instead, over 100 million sharks are caught and killed each year and,
thanks to this overfishing, many shark species are now endangered.
We'll hear more soon, but first I have a question for you, Rob.