Posted on 06/21/2015 12:04:31 AM PDT by beaversmom
40 years ago, Jaws terrified beach-goers from swimming too far from the shore. Now, in real life, great white sharks are filling the waters off Cape Cod.
Forty years ago this month, Jaws, Peter Benchleys best-selling toothy fish tale, was made into an iconic movie that helped usher in a new era of blockbuster films. Set in a fictional New England town, it told the tale of a bloodthirsty great white shark that developed a taste for humans and a penchant for gory mischief. Filmed primarily on Marthas Vineyard, off the coast of Cape Cod, the irony was that while sharks such as the porbeagle, thresher, tiger, and mako were abundant, great whites were relatively a rare encounter.
Fast-forward forty years, and that is no longer the case. Great whites are now in abundance in the waters around Cape Cod. These regular seasonal visitors have reached the point of tourist attraction, drawing throngs to the Capes sandy beaches in hopes of a glimpse of one of the toothy beasts. Even with an uptick in attacksseveral have been reported in recent yearsthe community vibe is more welcoming than menacing.
If anything Ive noticed, among the business community of the town of Chatham, which is the epicenter of white shark activity, theyve embraced these animals as a way to make money and draw people to the town, says Dr. Greg Skomal, a senior biologist with the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries department, leading expert on these apex predators, and essentially the New England great white guru. Virtually every shop on Main Street is selling some kind of shark trinket or shirt, you name it. I think its been a positive response, one of people trying to embrace these animals.
Skomal and his peers have been tirelessly huntingwith cameras and radio tags, as opposed to harpoons and gunsgreat whites for years, and the numbers keep growing. The reason for the dramatic increase in population is that most primal component: a huge increase in their favorite food. Seals.
The growing seal population is a result of the Marine Mammal Protection Act from 1972, he explains. The seals are now rebounding, recolonizing, and becoming resident in many parts of the northeast where they previously had been wiped out. White sharks are the top predator of seals, one of their only predators, and is responding to that. So in essence you get this food source that has grown to a huge level on a relative scale and youve got sharks moving in closer to shore to feed on them.
Cape Cods beaches are now an all you can eat buffet for a meat-eating predator that can grow up to 20 feet long and have as many as 300 serrated teeth ready to grind away at whatever they decide is for dinner. But dont worry, swimmers, surfers, and other ocean-loving types, you should still be okay bobbing around out there.
Its going to be a situation where we have coexistence, Skomal admits. Its happened in other parts of the world. If you look at the shark attack statistics in California, where a few decades ago they went through a similar phenomenon with the seal populations responding to protection and white shark attacks on seals increasing, there was no similar trend in attacks on humans.
Cape Cods beaches are now an all you can eat buffet for a meat-eating predator that can grow up to 20 feet long and have as many as 300 serrated teeth.
Before you roll yourself in chum, put on a seal suit and charge into the surf, however, there are some things you should keep in mind.
Having said that, the presence of these animals does raise some concern among beach managers and the swimming public, he adds. The best way to deal with the presence of these sharks is to be proactive in terms of education. Putting ones head in the sand is not the right course of action, thinking that these sharks are not here. I think up-front honesty, candor, and discussion regarding the presence of these animals is the best way to avoid interactions.
So what should you do if you plan on doing some oceanic recreation in shark-infested waters? What steps can the average Joe looking to catch a wave take to avoid coming home in his or her board bag?
One of the reasons were doing so much research on white sharks off the coastline here is to be able to provide better answers to stuff like that, Skomal says, deadly serious, adding that the general rules of thumb are to avoid swimming at dusk and dawn, which are thought to be prime great white feeding times, use the buddy system, dont swim too far from shore, and, most importantly, dont be an idiot.
Seriously.
Dont swim in areas where theres high concentrations of seals and sharks are likely to be spending their time.
And even if you do somehow get bit, try not to take it personally.
We know the sharks are not actively attacking or going after people because we just arent having the interactions we would have if that were the case, he explains. But the shark could make a mistake. Its a wild animal. So dont put yourself in a position where you could increase the probability of an interaction.
In Jaws, one of the most terrifying themes is that the shark seems to develop a taste for human flesh, to the point where it prowls the shoreline stalking bipedal prey. If seals are delicious, tourists must be, too, right? Whats to keep great whites from suddenly deciding theyd rather have some leaner meat?
Theres no empirical evidence that sharks will adapt their diet to consume humans, Skomal says, humor in his voice. I think they could, possibly, if they would starve to death. But theres no evidence theyd do that. Youre talking about an animal that has evolved over hundreds of millions of years in the ocean, and has become reliant on ocean prey. Can a shark adapt to feeding on humans because they see them as a readily available food source? No, I dont believe so. I dont think theyre hard-wired to do that.
Its a good thing, too, especially for the people of Cape Cod, where Skomals team counted more that 68 individual great whites, identified via video footage and told apart by their unique body markings.
We literally use a plane to locate the sharks, go up to them in a boat, and video them with GoPros. We literally do that, he laughs.
One would think that with years of shark hunting under his belt, Skomal would have some pretty great stories. And he does, but nothing that compares to the final scenes from Jaws, in which the beast essentially eats a whole fishing boat to get to his desired human snacks.
Ive had a lot of different experiences, he admits wistfully. Sometimes just seeing these white sharks off Chatham and Orleans is really quite intense. Theyre big, beautiful animals. Last year, we saw one attack and kill a seal. That was pretty dramatic, and traumatic. I did a bunch of work in the Arctic Circle with Greenland sharks, and diving with those under the Arctic ice was pretty exciting and exhilarating.
40 years on, and Jaws is real. Okay, sort of. But one thing is for certain: shark hunter Greg Skomal? Hes the real deal.
lol. At least they are both smiling. :)
One of the Biggest Great Whites Ever Filmed
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week/videos/one-of-the-biggest-great-whites-ever-filmed/
Yeah, kinda weird, huh?
He was always such a happy lad.
It may seem that way, but he had to go through many years
of therapy and a 12-step program to get to that point.
Here’s to swimmin’ with bow-legged women.
“Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he’s got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white.”
It’s the circle of life,...
The growing seal population is a result of the Marine Mammal Protection Act from 1972,
Maybe Obama will want to vacation there, I hear the water is great for swimming.
Forty years ago, after the backlash against sharks caused by the movie JAWS, scientists were bemoaning that the anti-shark attitude would make sharks extinct within a few years.
Mark up another one to “settled science!”
Sarc:
That thar is just funny! :-)
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