Sharks

[Andre]

What do guys think?

Dont know if you heard but we have had a spat of attacks all around our country of late. Many surfers from up north are calling for a cull of sharks.

Im not sure how they think they are going to get the ones that have gone for humans considering great whites can move along at a about 10 Kilometers per hour and are probably 60 70 k's away by now.

So if your beach got attacked would you call for a cull? If a bear attacks a camper do people call for total bear culls?

[IamInuit]

What do guys think?

Dont know if you heard but we have had a spat of attacks all around our country of late. Many surfers from up north are calling for a cull of sharks.

Im not sure how they think they are going to get the ones that have gone for humans considering great whites can move along at a about 10 Kilometers per hour and are probably 60 70 k's away by now.

So if your beach got attacked would you call for a cull? If a bear attacks a camper do people call for total bear culls?

Saw the footage this past morning of that 20 footer off that coast of yours. A pregnant female.

But to the question, I think its amazing that it does not happen daily. These animals are apex predators to the extreme. Its incredible to me that when a few of us get taken that its some kind of shocker considering the beaches of this planet on any given day. You would almost think that feeding on us would almost be instinctive and passed on like seals. Same kind of dinner bell but pretty much 365 days of the year. Perhaps we simply taste bad and that too has been passed on


Now add the fact that about 75% of their living quarters has been fished out. Its surprising they dont just kill us out of spite.

[brocktonblockbust]

I just came back from a 3 day vacation in North Carolina and Virginia Beach too. One of our beaches was closed due to sharks --- and we saw a lot of dolphins as well, they came right up to the beach almost, a bunch of about 12 or so. weird stuff lately.

[p4pking]

Wouldn't this be a bit like wilderness hikers calling for a cull of Grizzly bears or something? I think surfing is awesome, but you better know damn well it's a possibility down there.

I watched a docu some years back after the same thing was happening with Tiger shark attacks all around the same popular beach in Hawaii somewhere. Instead of a cull they brought in some scientists to tag and track a whole bunch of them. What they found was in the next couple of weeks, practically every single one went all over the globe in a completely independent pattern, they just follow warm currents or the smell of prey and were in no way regulars in the area where all these attacks happened, it was all different ones. I have no idea if different types of shark are more territorial, but wouldn't it be worth trying to figure out first?

[Dia bando]

Maybe it's people at fault theses wild animals, look at us as prey weather it's the sea or on
land, Sharks,! Bears, Big Cats, etc we are in crocheting on there habitat.
I understand in the states people are getting attacked by Mountain Lions, paths made through
woodland joggers etc, are getting targeted but remember your in wild places were there are
predators.
Andre mate your forgot Salt water Crocodiles, shit just be careful don't take chances.

[Beanflicker]

Went on a Florida trip with a few buddies in 09 and we went swimming, I was about 30 feet from the shore in waist deep water when out of my peripheral I noticed a large 7-8 foot form gliding towards me about 5 feet away. Ran out of the water screaming "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK". Apparently it was just a blacktip shark, not the most dangerous out there but still scared the fuck out of me. After a few days I worked up the courage to get back in the water and about 5 minutes I stepped on a sting ray and got stabbed in the leg. I mostly stick to pools, I've been terrified of sharks since seeing Jaws when I was 4 or 5.

Australia and South Africa seem to be great white central. Maybe someone can develop some kind of device that emits some kind of frequency that fucks with sharks and keeps them off the beaches haha.

I dunno if a cull is the right thing, like you said sharks can move from place to place very quickly. Up in the northern parts here sometimes small communities have problems with polar bears wandering in and posing a danger to people, so they are hunted and killed, but that's a land animal. I reckon trying to hunt a specific sea creature is a lot tougher.

[Beanflicker]

Saw the footage this past morning of that 20 footer off that coast of yours. A pregnant female.

But to the question, I think its amazing that it does not happen daily. These animals are apex predators to the extreme. Its incredible to me that when a few of us get taken that its some kind of shocker considering the beaches of this planet on any given day. You would almost think that feeding on us would almost be instinctive and passed on like seals. Same kind of dinner bell but pretty much 365 days of the year. Perhaps we simply taste bad and that too has been passed on


Now add the fact that about 75% of their living quarters has been fished out. Its surprising they dont just kill us out of spite.

20 feet, Jesus...

Someone caught an 18 foot tiger shark off of Australia. Imagine sharing the fucking water with this cunt.

[X]

People who call for a cull on sharks should themselves be culled, with maximum prejudice.

Sharks have already been regularly culled by ignorant savages who eat their fins, and waste the rest of the fish. Most shark species are now endangered.

I was a working scuba Divemaster in Egypt for a few years, and there is nothing like seeing and admiring a shark in its natural domain. Scuba diving is like a cheap and unregulated safari, and we need life in the oceans to survive ourselves.

The actual number of shark attacks' is tiny, more people get attacked by their pet dogs, but there is always a disproportionate media firestorm.

The fact is that we are not sharks' natural prey, most 'attacks' are when a shark is making an exploratory bite to see if we are food because we look like seals or injured prey thrashing around on the surface. If you read the reports properly, nobody has been wholly eaten by a shark (only injured, albeit sometimes fatally). Nobody would ever survive a proper shark attack if one of the Big Five really wanted to eat them. Victims usually suffer a single bite, and the shark swims off because they don't like the taste and have now ascertained that the human is not food.

Incidentally, the Big Five - Great White, Tiger Shark, Mako, Oceanic Whitetip and Bull Shark - are the 'potential man eaters'.

The Big Five on land - rhino, lion, leopard, buffalo and elephant - are nothing to do with that. It shows our atavistic fear of sea predators!,

[El Kabong]

We've had plenty of attacks this summer no calls for a cull to my knowledge. Mainly bull sharks doing the damage too.

[Spicoli]

No cull, no way and sharks are at the top top my list when it comes to things that amp up my Pucker factor . Its essentially a caged hunt, humans are funny. We have a habit of taking leisure in the living rooms of the most impressive and at times dangerous but awesome animals but want a stacked deck after a few consequences arise. We shit in and pollute a natural home, house wreck with abandon and carefree and wonder why patterns and habitats change. We take our chances. What next..Styrofoam padding on the cliffs, fins and coral

[imp]

Why not stop surfing.

Make an indoor surf machine if you can't handle nature.

[TitoFan]

Everybody sticking up for the sharks..... but when a 19-year old girl gets attacked on a public beach in waist-deep water..... it's hard to keep playing the "Nature Boy" part. Yes... it's their habitat... but humans have been enjoying beaches since we've been around. Now... an extreme sport diver goes to get a closer look at a shark feeding frenzy and gets bit, well.....

[Master]

Sharks are evolutionary perfect they have swum in the oceans for almost 450 million years. That extra few million years of evolution have enabled many shark species to develop some extraordinary abilities as perfect predators. Modern humans only date back perhaps 60,000 years. That means sharks have existed 100 times longer than hominids and 3 times longer than dinosaurs (or twice as long as dinosaurs if we include birds).

Throughout history there is evidence of catastrophic events that dramatically changed the environment and resulted in the mass extinction of a significant percentage of species. In the worse such event, 251 million years ago, as many as 95% of species were killed, perhaps due to either a comet impact or volcanic activity. Five major mass extinction events have occurred during the past 439 million years. Sharks have survived all five of these mass extinctions, a testament to their versatile design.

Man’s recent rapacious slaughter of sharks does not mesh well with shark reproductive capacity. Most sharks take years to reach sexual maturity and raise few pups in a lifetime. This makes them ill equipped to respond to man. Thus, the 450 million year legacy of sharks may well be meeting its greatest challenge.

[Gandalf]

No, you should never cull. It is the price worth paying for getting into the water. It is their home, not yours. You don't like it, then you keep out. I hate humans and how they think they can control and dominate all they like. Sometimes I wish the sharks would walk out of the water and we get to see what it is really like being human. Humans disgust me.

[Master]

Is there way of putting a barrier like a massive net so that no fish can get near the coast that people can surf in safety?