Posted on 09/07/2020 8:07:12 AM PDT by Capt. Tom
LOL...like ringing the dinner bell with the very thing that is supposed to save you!
I don’t know why-it just hits my funny bone squarely...:)
BTW, here in South Texas where a goodly percentage of adults are about as great in circumference as they are tall (Tex-Mex food is GREAT but HIGH CALORIE.- A friend of mine’s mother is about 300# & 62”tall.), I suspect that MANY of our citizens have sufficient body fat to make a suitable meal for a GW. = CHUCKLE.
Yours, TMN78247
Both seals and sharks have inhabited waters around Cape Cod and the Islands for centuries, long before humans.
Both have been increasing in numbers since the passage of federal regulations after populations were severely depleted by hunting and fishing in the late 1970’s. Population numbers for both seals and sharks in Cape waters are unknown due to their seasonal migrations and foraging behaviors.
Sharks eat seals. The two main ones in the northeast are harbor and gray seals and their populations have exploded. So as the seal come and go, so do the sharks.
As for human attacks, four million people visit the Cape Cod National Seashore each year. As the human population increases, more people are visiting beaches. The 2018 fatal shark attack on the Cape was the first in Massachusetts in more than 80 years (last was 1936 in Mattapoisett). A fatal shark attack occurs once every 730 million beach visits, or about one in a billion chance (Stanford University study). Sharks do bite to find out what the thing in the water is. But they generally turn them loose when they don’t taste like a seal.
They did the same regulations in California as a state and now they have seals coming out of their armpits. And the sharks came in when the buffet started getting bigger from San Diego to a lot of Oregon. If you feed them, they will come. San Diego is one of the top five shark locations in the world.
The 2019 worldwide total of 64 confirmed unprovoked cases were lower than the most recent five-year (2014-2018) average of 82 incidents annually. There were five fatal attacks this year, two of which were confirmed to be unprovoked. This number is in line with the annual global average of four fatalities per year.
rwood
Hahaha!!!!
This is because Wellfleet opted for real time shark ping alerts when a tagged shark pings the buoy they will know ashore in a matter of minutes a tagged white shark is nearby.
The other types of shark buoys are pulled every month or so to detect when the tagged shark pings occurred.
Other beach closures are made when a shark is visualy sighted.-Tom
Tom,
I swear I saw more MASS plates this weekend in Rye Beach, NH than any other weekend previously this summer. I think more people from MA are coming north to NH & ME beaches than in the past years.
This may be due to the lack of covid here(except at frat parties at UNH Durham) and all or restaurants/bars are fully open. It could also be that it seems the sharks either are not here(not close to the shore). We do not tend to see seals close to the beach. I think they tend to stay out by the Duck Island in the Isle of Shoals.
In Mass. our bars and restaurants are not fully open so that might be the attraction.
I am sure you also get a little traffic from fearful Mass. shark beachgoers.
Bathers here in Mass. rarely now go in deeper than their waist.- Tom
Even though our bars are open, they are supposed to keep the social distancing in place. Therefore, the bar will have two stools together then a 6’ space and then another two stools.
Also, many places have removed 1/3 of their tables because they were too close together. Many have survived by expanding their dining areas into the parking lot/sidewalks out front. In downtown Manchester, NH they have Jersey barriers out front of the restaurants on Elm street. The concrete jersey barriers separate the traffic from the table 4’ away in what used to be the parking lane.
This all works until it is 50 degrees outside in October. Then what do you do? Bring in the propane heaters. That gets you to maybe November. Then what? No one is going to be dining outside in December through March in NH.
What they do in my town (Scituate Mass.) is shut down the main street in town from 4PM -8 PM on Thursday, Friday and thru the weekend, and allow tables to be placed on the street for outdoor dining.
Cooling weather, earlier darkness, and rainy weather will end that solution shortly.
Then what?- Tom
LOL, I’m just gonna park it on the beach and sit in it!
Paint it life jacket orange or like the guy on the right, have it a half yum yum yellow and half life jacket orange.
When his Kayak got bit, he got to keep 2 nice white shark teeth. What great souvenirs.- Tom 
Thao Vang Lor: Who?
Walt Kowalski: Yum Yum. You know, the girl in the purple sweater. She's been looking at you all day, stupid!
Ah. I’m not a-skeered. I know that is just those kids with the cardboard fin on their heads...:)
Although there won't be as many bathers' in the waters here in Mass., the white sharks are still present. - Tom
We’ve only had two shark bites here on the Gulf Coast this summer.................. So far.............
That is good news, since your bull sharks, spinners, tigers and blacktips will go into waist deep water for a sample bite.
Here in Mass. white sharks are the problem, but so far no major incidents, as the bathers are really on guard, and paying attention to the surroundings, and not many are venturing beyond waist deep water. - Tom
Btw, THE ACHAFALAYA MONSTER was NOT (as the Louisiana Department of Game & Fish believed) a HUGE gator.
About a year ago, THE MONSTER was caught: A female 9+ foot, 400#, BULL with salt water NOWHERE nearby. - The nearest direct access to The Gulf of Mexico is about 35-40 water miles.
(An old Army buddy, who is now a LA Game Warden, said that he believes that MANY of the “mysterious disappearances” of “missing people” in that area of South LA were victims of THE MONSTER.)
Yours, TMN78247
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