Whenever there’s a shark attack or an “outbreak” of attacks, whether fatal or not, it always seems to prompt a panic among humans.
Um…why? Just don’t go to the beach! Unless a person is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to swim in the ocean, then just don’t go. Problem solved. Are we humans so arrogant and entitled that we panic when something we do for fun (in a place that is not our natural habitat) is temporarily off limits?
Human nature. Some people like the beach, or live near it that it’s hard to avoid. There are a lot of emotions I could name; arrogance is not one of them.
Seriously, people worry about bird flu, AIDS, SARS, mad cow, and brain eating amoebae as well, for equal amounts of overreacting.
Well I’ve heard rumors of sharks being carried off by tornadoes and attacking that way. In which case nowhere is safe.
Humans generally don’t like to be reminded that we can be prey animals.
When Jaws came out, I was about 8 or 9, and I was afraid a shark was going to come get me from the toilet lol.
Sharks are unpredictable. Being low on the evolutionary scale (among vertebrates, that is), they have a LOT of potential opportunity to continue evolving, which they may do at any moment. You never know when one of them will suddenly evolve lungs, legs, and opposable thumbs (hey, the dolphins did it) and start chasing people all the way back to the parking lot. They could even start showing up at your front door!
Scary stuff!
I seem to recall you could invite land sharks in and offer them oreo cookies. But I could be wrong.
They even have live footage of the attacks.
What emotion do you think they should prompt? Inner peace?
Concern for the victims, otherwise ambivalence. Much like my reaction when I hear of a large wreck on an otherwise safe roadway. It won’t keep me out of a vehicle even though I know there is always a slight risk of injury or death.
I simply don’t comprehend anyone who is actively afraid of sharks, or for that matter, planes, but gets in a car every day to drive to work.
AAAARGHHHH!
If you’re driving a car, you at least have the opportunity to actively manage your risk. Even though some people do it badly, I think it’s comforting to many to have that feeling of being in control.
If you’re swimming in the ocean, I think you don’t have much ability to manage the risk. You’re either in the water or not, and if you are, then the rest is up to the sharks. You don’t get an early warning that enables you to take action; your first indication of trouble is when they bite down on your body. That thought is kind of unsettling, even if the odds of it happening at all are pretty low.
I feel the same way about lightning.
You sure about that? I think attacks/outbreaks tend to prompt a flurry of sensationalist reporting by the media, but I don’t generally see widespread panic among beachgoers or anyone else. The surfers keep surfing, and the swimmers keep swimming. Life goes on pretty much as usual (except for the occasional person who loses an or or leg).
I just watched this shark week thing, shot movie style (with really shit poor actors), based on real events during one of these “outbreaks” in the 50s. The whole time the marine biologist guy was freaking out at the mayor for refusing to shut down the beach because it was such a high volume time for tourism I was like, “Gah, fuck them! They’re stupid for swimming there, I hope they ALL die!!” Seriously, when a dozen people, or whatever it was, get attacked off the same beach in a short time period, you’re completely retarded if you go swimming there and are basically asking for it at that point.
Blame Hollywood and the media (as usual), lol. I watched someone take 9 minutes to get into a parking space today…it almost killed me.
I saw a documentary about that recently. Fascinating stuff.
Sharks have their ways.
Same thing I do with my roomie and her penchant for recreational outrage, ignore her.
Honestly - I am sorry that whatever you are ranting about happened, but since it doesn’t involve me, or anybody I know and is not likely to happen to me, there is no reason to get my panties in a bunch about it. I can be upset if something happens that is truely stupid - like the thing about kids getting suspended from schools for absolutely dumb reasons like bringing a GI Joe prop gun to school, or a 2 inch long gun keychain, or going to pick up a drunken friend from a party and not having either been to the party or had a drink … that is the 0 tolerance program at its most brainless. Realistically all I could do is write a nasty note and mail it off to the brain dead school official in charge [and I wrote and snail mailed letters expressing my disgust at their actions to a selection of politicians responsible for the current mess] but there is no reason for me to rant and rave about things.
As was pointed out above - if there are shark attacks going on, don’t go to the beach.
Sorrow, sympathy, and outrage, of course, for the poor sharks. 100,000,000 killed every year – it’s horrible.
Oh, you mean shark attacks on humans, not sharks that were attacked?
In that case, I hardly see the need to concern myself – it happens so rarely, statistically speaking, as to be insignificant.
I don’t know. Do you think this shark is pregnant, or has been pregnant in the last 8 years? Her tummy is a bit poochy.
StG
