Though it's difficult to say just how many sharks were killed in the subsequent twenty or so years, the F.A.O (Food and Agricultural Organisation) declared that in 1997 alone, there was an estimated world-wide shark catch of 1.3 million tons; some 60 - 100 million sharks - with half of those being unwanted catch from modern fishing vessels.

Of the 374 species of sharks that exist, very few are really dangerous to humans, however nearly 20% of shark species are in danger of extinction. Indeed what people don't seem to realise is that sharks such as the Great White, are of vital importance in keeping the ocean's food chain stable.
Without their presence in the world's seas, other larger fish mainly feeding off the ocean's phytoplankton, would over breed. With the plankton supplying some 60 to 90 % of the earth's oxygen, the consequences are very serious indeed.

Incredibly enough, the Great White Sharks are not listed in the C.I.T.E.S (Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species) and the only places to have enforced laws to protect the shark from extinction are South Africa, Australia and California.
Some of the problem must also lie in the fact that shark meat is also very valuable. The Dyer Eiland Visseryes meat processing company in South Africa, for example exports annually some 600,000 tons of shark meat, to countries where it is considered a delicacy, such as Japan, China, Italy and France.

As Doctor Leonardo J.V. Compagno, one of the worlds top shark specialists explains *1, the earliest ancestor of the Shark, the Sarcopterygii or Coelacanth fish (though extinct until 1938) was swimming the seas some 400 million years ago.
For extinction of the Great White Shark to occur now, would have disastrous effects to the food chain, as well as adding, yet one more name to the increasing list of animal and fish species, driven to extinction due to human ignorance.

*1 ) Doctor Leonardo J.V. Compagno is also Chief Researcher at the Shark Research Department at the South African Museum, Cape town.