From the article:
Hammerschlag notes such research is relevant to efforts to recover shark populations in certain areas. Rasher hopes his study “moves the conversation away from: ‘Do sharks ever matter?’ to ‘When and where do they matter?’ I think there is an urgency in understanding what their ecological roles are in nature so that we can understand the ramification of their loss,” he said.
A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports wades into this issue and provides evidence that, just like humans, fish are afraid of sharks, and in some reef habitats, this fear actually changes the structure of coral communities