Shark Food

Who knew that slave traders
cared so much about life in the sea?

When slavers carried so many slaves
across the many oceans of the world
and kept them in such a poor state
that they knew that a quarter of 'their stock'
would die of illness and malnutrition
before they reached their destination.

The sharks could smell the sickness
on the ships from a long way away.
They were patient for when the dying
and the dead,
about whom they knew nothing,
but had their own natural self interest,
were due to be thrown overboard.

Since it was well known
that slavers 'had souls'
but slaves, for being owned,
did not, the latter had no need
of any parting ceremony
before they were disposed of.

The slavers and the sharks
that followed the slave ships
were surely both very happy
in their mutual efficiency
with how they processed human life,
though the role of the sharks
take in this story makes them
the  most altruistic of the two.

What else were dead bodies at sea for?