Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's charity announced a new project to conserve sharks worldwide to mark Shark Week. Sharks are threatened by human fishing, pollution, climate change and other causes.

Many people might find it difficult to have sympathy for this nasty beast, especially due to rise in shark attacks along the East Coast, but lack of awareness is a major factor that most people have a little knowledge about these creatures.

The aim behind the Global FinPrint initiative is to provide key data to design and implement plans to ensure sharks are not being pushed to extinction. The project, announced by Vulcan Inc. on Tuesday, will be based on a research survey to obtain the desired information about the sea creatures that live in the vast abyss of the ocean.

Microsoft founder Paul Allen runs Vulcan Inc., a private investment company. The GlobalFinPrint initiative has been allotted $4 million by the company to build on the expertise of renowned shark researchers worldwide and obtain significant details to come up with a conservation program.

Dune Ives, Vulcan's senior director of philanthropy, says the inspiration for the program came after she attended an ocean summit in 2014, which focused on loss of so many sharks every year.

"No one knew the answers. There were bits and pieces of research that had already been done, but I wasn't able to find a source for why", she added.

Global FinPrint has planned to conduct surveys on sharks and rays in coral reef ecosystems over the course of three years. These species are known to have close relation with each other.