Main content

Do 11,000 sharks die every hour?

Investigating if 100 million sharks are killed by fishing nets every year.

Hollywood has given sharks a terrible reputation. But in reality, the finned fish should be far more scared of us, than we of them.

Millions of sharks are killed in fishing nets and lines every year.

One statistical claim seems to sum up the scale of this slaughter – that 100 million sharks are killed every year, or roughly 11,000 per hour.

But how was this figure calculated, and what exactly does it mean?

We go straight to the source and speak to the researcher who worked it out, Dr Boris Worm, a professor in marine conservation at Dalhousie University in Canada.

Presenter: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Nicholas Barrett
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Annie Gardiner
Editor: Richard Vadon

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Sun 7 Sep 202523:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 6 Sep 202504:50GMT
  • Sat 6 Sep 202517:50GMT
  • Sun 7 Sep 202504:50GMT
  • Sun 7 Sep 202508:50GMT
  • Sun 7 Sep 202510:50GMT
  • Sun 7 Sep 202523:50GMT

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

BBC Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast