…I’m getting the distinct impression that humans must taste like chicken. OK, maybe not chicken, maybe menhaden. For those of you who have been out of the loop, that’s two shark attack deaths within the past 5 days here in the Mid-Atlantic states (one here in VA, another about 150 miles south off the coast of NC). What on earth is going on?
From what I’ve been reading, there’s nothing unusual about the number of attacks - it’s below last year’s numbers. More likely a reporting frenzy. One would think that people would learn that early evening is feeding time for sharks. Both deaths this weekend occurred during feeding time, IIRC.
Not to be cold or heartless, but stuff happens…
I found it interesting that JAWS was on at least twice thise past weekend…
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, you can’t cross the beach to get to it.”
–Blood Beach
Oh. The review is bad. I think he missed the point. Blood Beach is wonderful in its cheesiness.
I wonder why all the shark attack reports are coming from Florida? Shark attacks abound here in California (I think there were something like 110 last year) but they barely get a mention.
How many of those attacks were fatal? Both of the recent attacks in the news were about fatal shark attacks.
Oddly, this link: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/Statistics/2000attacksummary.htm says that only three attacks occurred in California, and that 34 occurred in Florida. Given that the numbers represent voluntary submissions by scientists associated with the organization, I suspect the numbers are a touch low for non-fatal shark attacks in areas outside of Florida.
However, I suspect the fatality numbers are fairly accurate. According to the article, there was only one fatality from a shark attack last year in the US. That makes two fatal attacks (one on a child) in less than a week definitely news.
Were you going to hint that a drop in the menhaden population had something to do with it?
It looks like I misinterpreted the the chart, which was taken from the same site that Zyada links. MSNBC did not have a date on the map and only mentioned “through 2000”. This map, from which MSNBC got their information, says the number of shark attacks is the total from 1670 - 2000.
Still, whenever someone is bitten here it usually just gets a 30-second spot on the news. (OTOH, no one has been bitten to death on this coast recently.)