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Author Topic:   Shark Attacks
berberry
Inactive Member


Message 1 of 16 (220262)
06-27-2005 10:19 PM


This is starting to get a little bit frightening. I realize that both of the recent victims had wandered far away from the shore, but if you look at some of the bird's-eye videos they've been running on the news shows it's very unsettling to see how close to the beach the sharks are prowling.
I had been considering a trip to either Florida or Mississippi's Ship Island to enjoy the beach later this summer, but now I'm having second thoughts.
Anybody else heading to the beach soon? Are you worried?

Replies to this message:
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jar
Member (Idle past 384 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 2 of 16 (220265)
06-27-2005 10:24 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by berberry
06-27-2005 10:19 PM


Sharks are always right in near shore. That is not new at all. I wouldn't worry anymore now than I would have a week, a month, a season or a year ago.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This message is a reply to:
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Minnemooseus
Member
Posts: 3940
From: Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (West end of Lake Superior)
Joined: 11-11-2001
Member Rating: 10.0


Message 3 of 16 (220300)
06-28-2005 12:50 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by berberry
06-27-2005 10:19 PM


Anybody else heading to the beach soon? Are you worried?
I'm not going in that water. Way to damn cold.
Moose
This message has been edited by minnemooseus, 06-28-2005 12:51 AM

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kjsimons
Member
Posts: 821
From: Orlando,FL
Joined: 06-17-2003
Member Rating: 6.3


Message 4 of 16 (220375)
06-28-2005 8:34 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by berberry
06-27-2005 10:19 PM


Sharks on the East Coast of Florida are more likely not to be bull sharks and so they mostly practice a bite and release program. You end up with stitches but no deaths or loss of limbs. The thing you should be more concerned about in Florida near the month of July is lightning!
Page Not Found | Florida Disaster
Florida shark incidents by county
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/...rks/statistics/GAttack/mapFL.htm

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kjsimons
Member
Posts: 821
From: Orlando,FL
Joined: 06-17-2003
Member Rating: 6.3


Message 5 of 16 (220377)
06-28-2005 8:37 AM
Reply to: Message 3 by Minnemooseus
06-28-2005 12:50 AM


Well you do live further north then I ever did, but I would (as a kid) swim in Northern Lake Michigan by this time of year. Actually swimming may be a misnomer, more like jump in cool off (~ 1 msec to turn blue) and jump right out again with teeth chattering!

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jar
Member (Idle past 384 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 6 of 16 (220437)
06-28-2005 12:14 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by kjsimons
06-28-2005 8:34 AM


I think both of the recent incidents were in the Gulf.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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Replies to this message:
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EZscience
Member (Idle past 5144 days)
Posts: 961
From: A wheatfield in Kansas
Joined: 04-14-2005


Message 7 of 16 (220440)
06-28-2005 12:21 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by berberry
06-27-2005 10:19 PM


You have to look at the odds.
You are more likely to die in traffic DRIVING to Florida than by a shark attack on the beach. Or as KJ mentions, there are actually more people killed every year by lightning strikes in FL than by shark attacks. In summertime, there are typically 3-4000 lighting strikes *per hour* in the Tampa Bay area. My advice is go in winter - weather is nicer, and both shark attacks and lightning strikes are far less likely - you will only have the traffic to worry about

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kjsimons
Member
Posts: 821
From: Orlando,FL
Joined: 06-17-2003
Member Rating: 6.3


Message 8 of 16 (220444)
06-28-2005 12:29 PM
Reply to: Message 6 by jar
06-28-2005 12:14 PM


Yep both were in the Gulf about 100 miles apart on the Florida panhandle. The boy it seems was bitten by a bull shark and some of the experts are saying the the girl was too. I remember the last fatality in FL from a shark was also a bull shark in St. Pete. It killed a man swimming just off his dock.
One the east coast you are way more likely to get bitten, but less likey for it to be a fatal bite.

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jar
Member (Idle past 384 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 9 of 16 (220446)
06-28-2005 12:34 PM
Reply to: Message 8 by kjsimons
06-28-2005 12:29 PM


What are the differences in water between the Gulf and Atlantic shores? Does the relative temperature differences play a part? How about the south flowing cooler internal flow of the East Coast? What are the bottom differences?

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This message is a reply to:
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kjsimons
Member
Posts: 821
From: Orlando,FL
Joined: 06-17-2003
Member Rating: 6.3


Message 10 of 16 (220464)
06-28-2005 1:31 PM
Reply to: Message 9 by jar
06-28-2005 12:34 PM


The east coast waters are cooler (outside of the gulfstream), murkier, and the waters are deeper than the gulf coast waters. I think the reason the east coast has more attacks, but not more deaths, is the murky waters in close to shore cause a lot of the more docile shallow waters sharks to accidently bite a swimmer thinking they are a fish. Because they are docile and not intending to eat humans these encounters are rarely fatal, the "bite and release program". I think the deeper water also keeps most people closer to shore as well, away from the bigger sharks.
That said, I've had friends who used to fly over the beaches alot and they said they always saw a sharks fairly close to the beaches, many times swimming between surfers and bathers, even some of the more agressive sharks.

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jar
Member (Idle past 384 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 11 of 16 (220490)
06-28-2005 1:58 PM
Reply to: Message 10 by kjsimons
06-28-2005 1:31 PM


In a previous life, one job involved biologists flying the coast counting whales and sea turtles. It was amazing to see just how many sharks patroled right along the shoreline and just how close to the waters edge they came.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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coffee_addict
Member (Idle past 467 days)
Posts: 3645
From: Indianapolis, IN
Joined: 03-29-2004


Message 12 of 16 (220514)
06-28-2005 3:01 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by berberry
06-27-2005 10:19 PM


Just go buy yourself a seal and bring it with you. Sharks love seals and will go after it rather than you.

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berberry
Inactive Member


Message 13 of 16 (220533)
06-28-2005 4:03 PM


Folks, I realize that the threat is statistically minimal. What alarms me is the fact that sharks are being found so close to the shore.
I was a teenager when the movie Jaws was in theaters, and I remember how the film was criticized and even condemned for implying that there might be any threat at all. One of the criticisms you heard most often was that sharks don't come anywhere near the shore. If that was true then obviously something has changed, because in some of the news footage the sharks are certainly close to the shore.

"I think younger workers first of all, younger workers have been promised benefits the government promises that have been promised, benefits that we can't keep. That's just the way it is." George W. Bush, May 4, 2005

Replies to this message:
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1.61803
Member (Idle past 1494 days)
Posts: 2928
From: Lone Star State USA
Joined: 02-19-2004


Message 14 of 16 (220552)
06-28-2005 5:24 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by berberry
06-28-2005 4:03 PM


Hello Berberry,
I have live on the East coast of Mass, and in Hawaii, I frequentley visit my parents who live in Florida and surf the beaches there.. As long as I can remember sharks have always been relativley common and feed within a few hundred yards of swimmers. They typically can be seen from helecopters swimming very close to bathers. They will and do obviously bite humans. And I personally can attest to this as I myself was "bumped" in Hawaii surfing on the North Shore. The thing is the media has become so global and focused that any attack is immediately at our fingertips. But has something changed? Maybe humans are encroaching more and more on once undisturbed shark territory.
The girl in Florida was quite a ways out when the shark killed her.
They say at least 100 yards or more. If you are going out stick close to the rest of the bathers and do not get isolated, sharks are very wary creatures of opportunity and do not risk a attack unless they are certain of success and minimal fight.
This message has been edited by 1.61803, 06-28-2005 05:53 PM

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jar
Member (Idle past 384 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 15 of 16 (220585)
06-28-2005 8:22 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by berberry
06-28-2005 4:03 PM


One of the criticisms you heard most often was that sharks don't come anywhere near the shore.
That was false then and it is still false. One of the things that surf does is stir up the bottom. That action brings in the smaller fish that live on the shrimp and crustaceans and then the larger fish that live off the little fish.
It was not at all unusual to see big sharks inshore of wading surf fishermen.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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