Recent Articles of Interest

Although the Hollywood image of sharks has left many people afraid of the water, it is important to be aware of the fact that sharks are not seeking out humans as prey. In fact, shark attacks on humans usually only result in a single bite and they would prefer to eat their typical food rather than humans.

The hunter satisfies its voracious appetite with seals, fish and other animals found in the sea. To capture these animals it has developed the necessary qualities of speed, strength, agility and a mouth armed with many, many teeth. This is a prime reason we humans perceive them as so very frightening.

Frequently, what happens is that humans cause the sharks to attack by inadvertently copying natural animal activity. They swim way out in the ocean, paddling on their surf boards as they attempt to ride the crest of a great big wave. They don't realize that they seem just like injured seals to the sharks swimming nearby. The result is a very regrettable accident, like a swimmer getting sucked up in a fierce undertow. The people shouldn't be doing what they're doing where they're doing it.

Even so, only a dozen or so people, out of the millions that go to beaches every year, get killed by sharks. Additionally, there are only around 90 or so shark attacks each year and many of those are nudges or bumps that leave nothing more than bruises. Each is certainly a tragedy but looking at it in context, the events are accidental rather than malicious.

Strange though it may seem, falling coconuts actually cause 10 times as many injuries to humans as sharks do. The Tiger shark and the great white shark may be the most aggressive of sharks but they very rarely attack humans. You'll find yourself more at risk whilst you drive to the beach, bearing in mind that driving kills more than 40,000 people on the US each year.

So when a shark does bite a person, pity the victim their suffering. But also pity the hundreds of sharks that will be killed in the name of pointless retribution. Those animals don't understand why we're suddenly hunting them, they're not like people in that they can be told why they're being punished. The only choices we have are to kill them all or learn to coexist peacefully. And trying to do the former hasn't kept us safe.