Richard Collins: Why the sharks in Irish waters are in trouble

100 million are slaughtered each year to make soup

There were 10 times more sharks millions of years ago than today.

SHARKS have survived, largely unchanged, for 400m years. Theirs is a winning formula, but, according to research results just published, life wasn't always plain sailing for these predatory fish. They have stared extinction in the face.

Palaeontologists from Yale University and from Atlantic College examined fossil teeth and fish scales recovered from ocean sediments.