Since records of such things have been kept, there has never been this many shark attacks in such a short time off our state’s coast – and the summer is barely halfway over.
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While there have been no deaths, the spate of serious injuries has caused something of a panic among vacationers – and local officials.
NDN: Do you think that shows like the ones featuring the megalodon shark hurt the reputation of Shark Week? Tonight on “Sharks of the Shadowland“, researchers are looking harder at the mysterious Sevengill.
“We said what better way to leverage that buzz but to give consumers the opportunity to contribute”. Instead, several factors have combined to create a “perfect storm” of shark-friendly conditions.
Food: This year has seen an increase in the number of menhadens, a silvery herring that’s a favorite among predatory fish.
Most tourists say they are now extra careful when in the water because of the recent attacks, but when it comes down to it, a week at the beach is not worth missing. And yes I am a surfer and have been since 1974 and grew up on the waters edge on the Sunshine Coast.
From movies like “Jaws” to Disney’s “Finding Nemo”, along with all of the negative attention brought by a rash of shark attacks off North Carolina this summer – 12 so far – sharks often get a bad rap. Typically, sharks are presented as hunting on their own, not with a pack mentality-a good thing in most of our minds, no doubt. Part of the problem facing sharks is the consumption of shark-fin soup in Asia, a phenomenon that boomed in the 1990s with the region’s economic growth, said Worm.
Around 3.5 billion people around the globe depend on the ocean as their primary source of food. You have probably been reminded that deer and cows kill more people every year in this country, and it’s not even close. And you will. And we don’t care because it gets us ratings, ” says the bearded narrator of Nat Geo Wild’s ad for SharkFest while “Battle Hymn of the Republic” plays in the background. “Frankly, we’re invading their space”. We need to learn to value the ocean’s sharks, as our long-term survival depends on them.
And filming underwater involves more than dealing with potentially deadly megafauna.
“You have a higher chance to win the lottery, a much higher chance to drown in the ocean, than to be attacked by a shark”, said Ferretti. “I mean, if they overlap, then the big one eats the little one”, he says.
“We love Shark Week“, VandeZande put it mildly in a telephone interview Wednesday.
The trend in increased number of shark attacks may indicate an increasing population of white sharks off California’s coast, but it is difficult to know without baseline historical data, the authors said. Researchers say it’s important not to allow events like these to lead to snap judgments about how to deal with sharks. It’s been tough historically to track shark populations. Biologists point to effective marine management strategies as a way to re-direct sharks away from human activity. Between 1959 and 2010, lightning killed more than 190 people in North Carolina alone, while sharks claimed a single life. But there’s still a small risk, and if we can’t accept that, Burgess said, we have to stay on the beach. “The reality is, it’s a very different experience”. No dive is safe with these thin, long sharks because they like to approach you from behind in the murky water. “Just be aware these are”.
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Surfers and swimmers return to the ocean Sunday, July 6, 2014, one day after a swimmer was bitten by a great white shark off the Southern California beach city of Manhattan Beach, Calif. Steven Robles was in the water off Manhattan Beach when the 7-foot (2.1-meter)-long juvenile shark suddenly appeared Saturday morning.
