Shark

[rockystock1]

Do you think if your in the wild with a great white it really depends if the beast is hungry or not?? It might have just scoffed an elephant seal that day and be absolutely stuffed, couldent possibly manage another human leg.. On the other hand if it's starved your fcuked..


Mike

 

[EFX]

I don't think hunger is the trigger, at least the primary trigger. Ritter talks about other triggers that bring sharks within eyesight. For sharks that have never seen a human they're curious and use taste as their way of exploring what this human creature is. Sharks prefer high caloric (fat) meals and humans look more like an apetizer to them. There just isn't enough fat. This is especially true for Great Whites where seals are prefered because of their high fat content. Get Ritter's book. It was a good read.

 

[boulderjohn]

So your telling me you would happily jump in with great whites so long as you didn't have any dead fish on you??

He would.

 

[Iralub]

Shark Attack! | Gilliam

oceanic white tip fatal attack on diver (a very good diver).

Don't think that large predators are like cuddly puppy dogs.

Geez, that has to be the most nightmare inducing thing I've ever read!

Having said that - there are dozens of ways one can die or be seriously injured underwater. Shark attack is among the least likely of them. I wouldn't deliberately get in the water with a great white, but also won't waste energy worrying about such a remote risk.

 

[AfterDark]

BTW, if barracuda is following you and you look it in the eyes it will increase the distance and possible swim away. But you have to look at it and follow it with your eyes. Same with most of the sharks..

I far as I know all predators know eyes and what they do at least on some level, which is why some fish have an eye looking spot on their tail.

Experiments with dogs showed that a dog will not take a treat on the floor in front of it as long as the owner is looking with their eyes opened, as soon as the owner closed their eyes woosh! treat gone!

 

[drrich2]

Do you think if your in the wild with a great white it really depends if the beast is hungry or not??

Only in a rare 'straw that broke the camel's back' sense, if the shark were really 'on the fence' about whether to try it. Even though great white numbers are much lower than in the distant past, there are enough of them that if every time one happened to be hungry and saw a human with no other prey immediately to hand it attacked, and considering that they have free range of the ocean and probably see humans often, there'd be a lot more victims out there.

Richard.

 

[g1138]

This thread is making me cringe now....
I think Peter Benchley just rolled a bit in his grave.

 

[drrich2]

Remember that when you see video of somebody 'riding' a great white by the dorsal fin or some such, it is generally some sort of professional (or very passionate, seasoned non-pro. maybe?) who deliberately sought out the animal. These are not random recreational divers on tourist dive charters who just spotted a big GWS or tiger shark and decided to play with it.

Put another way, most people can walk in the forest without an encounter with a grizzly bear or mountain lion. It's like on nature shows where you can watch the host walk around & big scary wildlife seems to pop up all over the place.

A big question is where do you dive? There are places where seeing a shark of substantial size extremely unlikely.

Richard.

 

[kayakguy]

Experiments with dogs showed that a dog will not take a treat on the floor in front of it as long as the owner is looking with their eyes opened, as soon as the owner closed their eyes woosh! treat gone!

I have to wonder if the person who came to that conclusion has ever actually lived with a dog. I am sure they spent a lot of money on that study that anyone who has spoiled dogs in the house will tell you is b.s.

Yeah science!

I wonder what affect those new underwater horns I see advertised would have. Not that I want to scare them away personally I just wonder about their reaction to weird sounds.

 

[dmoore19]

Might work for a while. I watched a National Geographic documentary on man eating Lions. The locals used to beat on pots with a spoon when walking around in the bush at night. They did it to scare the lions away. It worked for a while, then the lions began to understand that particular noise meant there were humans around and it seemed to draw them in instead of scaring them off.