|
In the Race
Now, here, you see, it takes all the blogging I can do to keep in the same place. If I want to get somewhere else, I must blog twice as fast as that! You see, I'm in the Red Queen's Race...
Blame It On One Of Two Things...Either George Bush
By Janet Evans
Monday, May 5 2008, 06:40 AM
OR Global Warming….
This one will go under global warming, according to “some experts.”
What is it this time?
This....
"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."
Read the article from The Guardian Observer
Surge in fatal shark attacks blamed on global warming í here
I guess that's enough to convince me.
How about you?
Nah...it really wasn't.
How about some statistics.
The easiest place to find those...Wikipedia, :
In 2000, there were 79 shark attacks reported worldwide, 11 of them fatal. In 2005 and 2006 this number dropped to 61 and 62 respectively, while the number of fatalities dropped to only four per year. Of these attacks, the majority occurred in the United States (53 in 2000, 40 in 2005 and 38 in 2006). For the same period, the Global Shark Attack File records 69 unprovoked attacks of which five were fatal.
2008 attacks
An Austrian tourist died February 24, 2008 after being bitten by a shark while diving near the Bahamas in waters that had been baited with bloody fish parts to attract the predators.
A 16-year-old Australian boy died on April 8, 2008 after being attacked by a shark in the coastal town of Ballina, on the mid-coast. The boy died whilst bodyboarding when he and a friend were taking advantage of a teacher's strike; the teenager's friend is now being considered for a bravery award. The shark responsible was thought to be a bull shark.
A 66-year-old man died on April 25, 2008 off the coast of the Southern California city of Solana Beach. The species of shark was a great white shark. A 25-year-old man died on April 30, 2008 off the coast of Mexico. The species of shark was a nurse shark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why Sharks Attack...
From HowStuffWorks:
Ninety percent or more of shark incidents are mistakes. They assume that we're something that we are not.- Gary Adkison, diver ("Sharkbite! Surviving the Great White")
Although shark attacks can seem vicious and brutal, it's important to remember that sharks aren't evil creatures constantly on the lookout for humans to attack. They are animals obeying their instincts, like all other animals. As predators at the top of the ocean food chain, sharks are designed to hunt and eat large amounts of meat. A shark's diet consists of other sea creatures -- mainly fish, sea turtles, whales, sea lions, and seals. Humans are not on the menu. In fact, humans don't provide enough high-fat meat for sharks, which need a lot of energy to power their large, muscular bodies.
If sharks aren't interested in eating humans, why do they attack us? The first clue comes in the pattern that most shark attacks take. In the majority of recorded attacks, the shark bites the victim, hangs on for a few seconds (possibly dragging the victim through the water or under the surface), and then lets go. It is very rare for a shark to make repeated attacks and actually feed on a human victim. The shark is simply mistaking a human for something it usually eats. Once the shark gets a taste, it realizes that this isn't its usual food, and it lets go.
The shark's confusion is easier to understand once we start to look at things from the shark's point of view. Many attack victims are surfers or people riding boogie boards. A shark swimming below sees a roughly oval shape with arms and legs dangling off, paddling along. This bears a close resemblance to a sea lion (the main prey of great white sharks) or a sea turtle (a common food for tiger sharks).
Shark Sensory System
Attacks have also frequently occurred when humans were spear fishing in ocean waters. Sharks are attracted to the signs given off by dying fish -- the smell of blood in the water and the electrical impulses given off as the fish struggles. Sharks detect these signals with their ampullae of Lorenzini, a set of "detectors" under the skin on a shark's snout. The ampullae are electrically sensitive cells that connect to the skin's surface through small tubes. Once a shark arrives on the scene, it may become agitated and aggressive in the presence of so much food. A hungry, excited shark can easily mistake a human for its usual prey.
There are cases in which sharks seem to attack out of aggression, rather than hunger. Very little is known about shark behavior, but it is believed that some species, including great whites, display dominance behavior over other sharks. This behavior can take the form of "punching" with the snout, or bites that don't do much damage to the tough skin of a shark. Unfortunately, when a shark makes a dominance display toward a human, these "gentle" bites can still cause horrendous damage.
Sometimes, the cause of a shark attack is simple to determine -- the shark is responding to human aggression. Nurse sharks, for example, are generally placid fish that lie still along the bottom of the ocean floor. For some reason, this makes some divers think that it's a good idea to pull their tails. Irritated nurse sharks have taught several divers to keep their hands to themselves. For this reason, shark attack statistics are divided between provoked and unprovoked attacks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm going to go with a theory of more people being in the water or changing patterns of other animal behavior in the waters that have drawn sharks to the areas.
But not global warming.
I can't remember the last year I've had my heat come on in May....but it did this week.
But if people really want to believe global warming is attracting sharks and causing attacks...
Then, get out of the water!
|
|
