Posted on 05/03/2008 7:29:42 PM PDT by navyguy
Three decades have passed since the movie Jaws sent terrified bathers scrambling out of the ocean. But as any beach lifeguard knows, there's still nothing like a gory shark attack to stoke public hysteria and paranoia.
Two deaths in the waters off California and Mexico last week and a spate of shark-inflicted injuries to surfers off Florida's Atlantic coast have left beachgoers seeking an explanation for a sudden surge in the number of strikes.
In the first four months of this year, there were four fatal shark attacks worldwide, compared with one in the whole of 2007, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. 'The one thing that's affecting shark attacks more than anything else is human activity,' said Dr George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the database. 'As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.'
Some experts suggest that an abundance of seals has attracted high numbers of sharks, while others believe that overfishing has hit their food chain. 'I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's a convenient excuse,' Burgess said. Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. 'You'll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn't in the past with some regularity,' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Or perhaps follow the laws of nature and stay out of the water at feeding time.
I wonder if the color of the surfboards attract the sharks?
Hey if they are eating and your in munch line.
Shark eating men been around since the beginning of our existance.
Global laws of nature.
"And rising sea levels means that they don't have as far to drive to get to the shore!"
LOL! C, if I didn't know better I'd have thought that was a direct quote from the knuckleheads at The Guardian. You do a great imitation!
My nephew blamed not getting his homework done last Tuesday on globull warming (it was nice out, so he played instead).
/joke
Unbelievable! Any idea what happened to the guy?
Was talking to one moronic moonbat last night. Showed him the current spaceweather.com image. His answer? It was a fake image put up by the government at behest of the oil companies. Seriously. He was that stupid.
Its scary - he votes...
I think he was fine. The shark hung out for a while and then got bored and left.
I bet they had to clean the kayak seat.
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