Joe Chernov & Ripetungi. Shark Attack Infographic

Joe Chernov y Robin Richards (Ripetungi) han creado una infografía que ilustra el asombroso número de tiburones que son matados por los seres humanos cada año. Según la infografía, los tiburones mataron a 12 personas el año pasado, pero los humanos matan un tiburón que cada cuatro segundos, lo que suma un total estimado de 100 millones de tiburones al año. Muchos tiburones son asesinados por "aleteo", un proceso en el que las aletas de tiburón son cortadas para la venta de sopa de aleta de tiburón.

Organizaciones como la Shark Conservation Society, Stop Shark Finning , Humane Society International, documentales como Sharkwater y campañas ambientales en The Pew Charitable Trusts están trabajando para dar a conocer y, finalmente, evitar el aleteo.

via laughingsquid

I recently read a Huffington Post article that cited research estimating that100 million sharks are killed annually. Most of the slaughter is the result of “finning,” a cruel and wasteful practice in which hunters slice off the living shark’s fin(s), causing the lame fish to drown or be eaten by other predators. The fins are sold for shark fin soup.

The article stuck with me. I thought about it for days. It occurred to me that it’s nearly impossible to appreciate a number as large as 100 million without context. It somehow had to be made visual if people were going to wrap their heads around the enormity of the figure.

So I sent a Facebook message to Robin Richards, the head of design firmripetungi and one of the world’s premier infographic designers. I shared my idea for a graphic that did one thing: exposed the outrageous ratio of the number of people sharks kill to the number of sharks people kill. We riffed on a few ideas, Robin mocked up some comps, which we refined together. Then he did what he always does: he nailed it.

The great irony is that the shark is arguably the most feared animal on the planet, yet whereas they killed 12 people last year (a peak year), we kill that many every four seconds. Please share this infographic and check out the organizations listed in the footer. Maybe with enough support we can do something to curb finning and protect the ocean’s apex predator. Joe Chernov