Shark attack in Florida

[ReefGuy]

Watch the media frenzy now. Much more dangerous than a sharks feeding frenzy. You never know where the casualities will be. The shark feeding bugaboo is gone, who will the media cast blame on now?

 

[Rick Murchison]

who will the media cast blame on now?

Don't you know?
Just a matter of time.
Rick

 

[The Chairman]

I'm hearing the music already.

 

[chickdiver]

Hey Rick- this coming weekend is Blue Angel weekend- and SRIA and Gulf Breeze have been at war for months over having the show on the island (they are- SRIA is so money hungry). So.... of course this is a plot by Gulf Breeze to discourage all those yankee tourists from coming to Pensacola Beach and being relieved of their vacay money!

In all seriousness- the Gulf of Mexico has a large and diverse shark population. My Dad ( a lifelong Gulf Coast resident) and I were talking about the increase in shark bite incidents in relatively shallow water in the last few years. The coastal contour here has changed significantly int he wake of Hurricanes Erin, Opal and last year's Ivan. Wonder if the fact that the "second sandbar" is relatively non-existant anymore has any bearing on the larger predators coming closer to shore?

 

[Mrs.Prages]

Well according to the movie CBS showed during Spring Break, the fault for all of the recent shark attacks is the placement of artificial reefs you know. Those pesky things cause sharks to come in by the thousands and apparently makes them gather like huge packs of dive bombing vultures into throngs of scantily clad teenage youthful bodies. SO Reefs are Bad!

 

[Spectre]

Well according to the movie CBS showed during Spring Break, the fault for all of the recent shark attacks is the placement of artificial reefs you know.

I knew we'd be able to blame this on the Oriskany mess somehow

Maybe we can figure out a way to spin it so that sinking the oriskany know would solve the shark issue.

 

[Li'l38]

In all seriousness- the Gulf of Mexico has a large and diverse shark population. My Dad ( a lifelong Gulf Coast resident) and I were talking about the increase in shark bite incidents in relatively shallow water in the last few years. The coastal contour here has changed significantly int he wake of Hurricanes Erin, Opal and last year's Ivan. Wonder if the fact that the "second sandbar" is relatively non-existant anymore has any bearing on the larger predators coming closer to shore?

Good point. Sad thing is, the media will probably miss that too. Nothing is certain except that fear, gore, gossip and bad news make ratings. Money talks and the truth and facts get buried and blurred, all for the sake of making a buck.

 

[Rick Murchison]

In all seriousness- the Gulf of Mexico has a large and diverse shark population. My Dad ( a lifelong Gulf Coast resident) and I were talking about the increase in shark bite incidents in relatively shallow water in the last few years. The coastal contour here has changed significantly int he wake of Hurricanes Erin, Opal and last year's Ivan. Wonder if the fact that the "second sandbar" is relatively non-existant anymore has any bearing on the larger predators coming closer to shore?

In my shark killin' days (early 60's) there was never - as in never - a shortage of sharks in the surf along Alabama Point/Florida Point from Gulf Shores to the Pensacola pass. In those days there were two distinct bars; three in some areas. There were plenty of Blacktip and Bull sharks around all summer, usually running the channel between the two bars - that channel was typically 50 - 80 yards offshore and 10-15' deep.
What wasn't there then and is there now is a solid wall of condos and near elbow to elbow swimmers. And the handful of swimmers we might see on any given day back then were usually more waders than swimmers, staying inside the first bar... today they're out on boogie boards and sea-doos all over the place.
My only surprise is that given the quantum increase in swimmers - and therefore opportunity - there are as few chance "bite & spit" encounters between swimmers and sharks as there are.
If anything the shark population is lower than it was in the early 60's.
Rick

 

[divetahoe]

My only surprise is that given the quantum increase in swimmers - and therefore opportunity - there are as few chance "bite & spit" encounters between swimmers and sharks as there are.
If anything the shark population is lower than it was in the early 60's.
Rick

Due to overfishing, finning (completely another topic), and fear-caused general hunting, sharks populations are teetering on the edge. I've seen estimates that the populations (in general) are about 10% of what they were back in your hunting days.

Steve

 

[saildiver]

In my shark killin' days (early 60's) there was never - as in never - a shortage of sharks in the surf along Alabama Point/Florida Point from Gulf Shores to the Pensacola pass. In those days there were two distinct bars; three in some areas. There were plenty of Blacktip and Bull sharks around all summer, usually running the channel between the two bars - that channel was typically 50 - 80 yards offshore and 10-15' deep.
What wasn't there then and is there now is a solid wall of condos and near elbow to elbow swimmers. And the handful of swimmers we might see on any given day back then were usually more waders than swimmers, staying inside the first bar... today they're out on boogie boards and sea-doos all over the place.
My only surprise is that given the quantum increase in swimmers - and therefore opportunity - there are as few chance "bite & spit" encounters between swimmers and sharks as there are.
If anything the shark population is lower than it was in the early 60's.
Rick

Hey Rick -That's why I didn't get your point on "killin em" earlier in this thread-maybe you were being sarcastic? Its not the sharks that are the problem-if we go into the ocean, there is going to be some small chance of running into a hungry shark-the odds increase as the human population increases-esp. near the oceanic shores and as humans spend more time in the water-and as you said,even though the shark attacks are not increasing(probably because the number of sharks are decreasing). We would have to "kill them all" to ensure that we'd really be safe! The "people" are the problem-and if the media makes a three ring circus out of this, some politician will likely want to try and win a few votes in the next election by fearmongering-ie,making it safe for "YOU" to go back out into the ocean again-after all isn't that one of our "RIGHTS"-freedom from sharks....and the population of sharks will plummet even further...but I won't feel any safer-I worry most about the most dangerous critter on this planet-mankind(what an oxymoron). I've been drugged while dancing with my wife (as has she),I've been robbed,I've had identity theft occur 3 times,my business has been broken into,I've had family members raped,sexually attacked or mistreated,predjudices tear our country apart-religious,ethnic,racial,sexual,politcal,and economic;power imbalances cause descrpancies everywhere in our society-monetary,social strata,"who you know",who gets health care,and who has the power-and who abuses it!The stresses in our country from poverty,joblessness untreated illness,discrimination,disability,depression,people working hard just to get by and still barely making it,the high cost of living,prolonged economic recession,staggering national debt,pollution of every kind,Aids wiping out Africa,chronic middle Eastern War and political instability,and international terrorism of all kinds....whew, I'm actually less afraid of sharks than I am of my health insurance company-they've raised rates 4 times in about the last 2 years-they are so unpredictable and they actually pretend to be doing me a favor when they really are making as much money as humanly possible off of me. Sharks are more predictable than they are! If I were a movie producer and I really wanted to make a scary movie(eh-like Jaws),there are a lot of really scary things out there that are WAY SCARIER than sharks are....there is no way one shark,or an ocean full of them, will ever do the damage to us that we are doing to our selves every day. Is it possible that we are just too afraid to look at our real problems because they are too scarey-and that we unconsciously project these combined fears on the "monstrous man-eating shark"? Sharks attack about 70+/- people in the world per year (who are intruding into the shark's feeding grounds)-of which only a small proportion are fatal attacks (In 2004,if my math is correct- there were 74 shark attacks,and 10 were fatal)...I just don't see how killing this shark is going to do any good for the world-we have far more important issues to focus our attention on....Peace...Saildiver.