At a very crowded beach a few summers ago a woman was screaming sharks at the top of her lungs, and for her kids to get out of the water - NOW! She was incredibly loud and non-stop, and it was all quite a scene, and she became and animated waving her arms and screaming screaming(!)… nobody did a thing… as it was a school of dolphins.
Does it prompt a panic in humans, though?
I don’t think panic is the word you’re looking for. A panic may occur at the time of the attack or sighting but what you’re referring to after such an event isn’t a panic. First, people will still go to the beach and just not go into the water, or just very shallow, and there are those, as mentioned above that will enjoy the water regardless. Those who don’t aren’t in a panic, they’re just wary of the heightened risk and probably a little annoyed or disappointed.
A friend of ours was a scuba diver in the Navy, then worked as a diver for Scripps Institute of Oceanography (San Diego) until retirement a few years ago. The majority of his adult working life was spent scuba diving in the oceans.
One time he mentioned working in the Great Barrier Reef, which I (a person who watches movies and TeeVee) associate with monster Great White sharks. I asked him if he ever was nervous about sharks.
He told me that he had literally never worried about sharks, and hardly ever even thought about them unless he was looking at one (too many times to count), for the same reason he didn’t worry about getting struck by lightning. The odds against it happening to any one person were enormous.
That would be small comfort to me, but having known him for 25 years to be a confident, soft-spoken, no macho-bluster type of guy, I believe him.
Jaws.
Seriously, I sometimes get the heebie jeebies going into the water, and my swimming is either in a pool or lake. Thanks, Spielberg.
LOL! You’re my new favorite. I laughed out loud.