PINE KNOLL SHORES, N.C. — There are over 520 species of sharks in the wild, but their population is dwindling. Compared to other species they have limited numbers of young, and contrary to popular belief, being a top predator on the food chain doesn't give them an easy path to adulthood.  

“Sharks are very very important to our ocean's health, our sound's health, estuary health,” said Ara McClanahan, an aquarist with North Carolina Aquariums. “They're everywhere basically, and they are foundational in the health of our oceans so to hear that their populations are declining is very unfortunate.”

The North Carolina Aquariums have said goodbye to three sharks in the past six months, two young pups who were born in the aquarium and unfortunately did not survive, and Jolene, an adult sand tiger shark who had to be euthanized for medical reasons. Each loss was felt personally by the staff members and teams that cared for the animals, but McClanahan says sometimes you can only do so much.

Constant care and even the best veterinary teams can never guarantee an animal's survival, and especially with sharks, so much is still unknown. The knowledge has grown over the years, but compared to humans, the information available on treatment and medical care is severely lacking.

“Just like humans, we're all different, we all have different physiology — each shark is individual, each one is different, and they may have different conditions or certain genetics that we just don't know and we're not aware of,” McClanahan says. “We learn as much as we can and our veterinary team works as hard as they can.”

Aquariums strive to bridge the gap between sharks in human care and those in the wild. Any information they can gather from the animals in facilities contributes to making sure sharks in the wild have better chances of survival.

They've started programs like Spot a Shark USA, which allows divers and the public to input information on sharks they see while offshore. The data helps researchers to monitor changes in shark populations in the open ocean.

“Hopefully in the future they will face less pressures and struggles that will allow them to rebuild the populations to what they once historically were,” McClanahan says.