1. Overfishing has wiped out over 70 per cent of some shark and ray populations in the last half-century, leaving a “gaping, growing hole” in ocean life, according to a new study.
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2. Among the worst affected is the oceanic whitetip, a powerful shark often described as particularly dangerous to man, which now hovers on the edge of extinction because of human activity, reports AFP.
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3. Targeted for their fins, oceanic whitetips are caught up by indiscriminate fishing techniques. Their global population has dropped 98 percent in the last 60 years, said Nick Dulvy.
![](http://www.shortpedia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Shark-Social3.jpg)
4. Dulvy and a team of scientists spent years collecting and analysing information from scientific studies and fisheries data to build up a picture of the global state of 31 species of sharks and rays.
![](http://www.shortpedia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Shark-Social4.jpg)
5. The team found three-quarters of the species examined were so depleted that they face extinction.
![](http://www.shortpedia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Shark-Social5.jpg)