The catching and releasing of these sharks by recreational sports fishers can also be detrimental. “Hammerheads tend to die very quickly with stress,” says Papastamatiou. The longer a hammer stays out of the water, for something like a photo op, for example, the higher the chances it won’t make it. “Just because you see it swim off, doesn’t mean that it’s actually survived.”
Hammerheads are slow-growing sharks, so it takes a long time for them to reach sexual maturity, and they only give birth to a few pups each year. “It takes a long time to replace individuals after they are fished,” says Francesco Garzon, a marine biologist at the University of Exeter in the U.K.
Overfishing has a devastating impact on shark populations globally. “Between 73 and 100 million sharks are killed each year,” says Garzon. Since the 1970s, “we may have lost up to 75 percent of oceanic sharks, including hammerheads.”
Solution 1: Protecting shark habitats
Creating marine protected areas (MPAs) at key habitats such as nurseries, feeding and mating areas, and migration routes can be an effective way to protect shark populations, says Garzon.