Yesterday a great white shark was sited off North Beach, Chatham, Cape Cod. There are colonies of grey seals that make Chatham their home and it is likely that temptation was too difficult to resist. Two kayakers heard a yelp, and witnessed a splash, followed by the disappearance of a seal under the water. Blood pooled to the surface in the aftermath. That event will certainly be changing the plans of vacationers who planned on taking their boats out into the bay, where a dip off the bow cools one down. Swimmers need to remember that when they enter the water, they are in a non-native environment. We barge into the shark's living room, or dining room, and get upset when the shark misreads our entree.
We have been laying a bum rap on sharks in that respect. The movie
Jaws promulgated the image of great white sharks as man eating machines when, in fact, humans are not typically targeted by sharks. Out of curiosity sharks may "test-bite" objects to find out more about them, similar to the way a baby mouths objects. Sharks have been known to test-bite buoys and flotsam, and unfortunately for us, sometimes surfboards and humans. At other times sharks have attacked humans because the silhouette it sees it confuses with a seal. Pound for pound, human beings do not have the taste appeal to sharks as seals, who are fatty and delicious. Sharks should be given some props for their products which have changed the way we live, such as shark teeth to shave with and shark skin as sandpaper. And sharks actually could accuse us of being shark-eating machines. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in some parts and has escalated the price of shark fins to greater than $200/lb. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (C.I.T.E.S.) has put the great white shark on its 'Appendix II' list of endangered species, as it is targeted by fishermen for its jaws, teeth, and fins, and as a game fish.
Yesterday a great white shark was sited off North Beach, Chatham, Cape Cod. There are colonies of grey seals that make Chatham their home and it is likely that temptation was too difficult to resist. Two kayakers heard a yelp, and witnessed a splash, followed by the disappearance of a seal under the water. Blood pooled to the surface in the aftermath. That event will certainly be changing the plans of vacationers who planned on taking their boats out into the bay, where a dip off the bow cools one down. Swimmers need to remember that when they enter the water, they are in a non-native environment. We barge into the shark's living room, or dining room, and get upset when the shark misreads our entree. 
We have been laying a bum rap on sharks in that respect. The movie Jaws promulgated the image of great white sharks as man eating machines when, in fact, humans are not typically targeted by sharks. Out of curiosity sharks may "test-bite" objects to find out more about them, similar to the way a baby mouths objects. Sharks have been known to test-bite buoys and flotsam, and unfortunately for us, sometimes surfboards and humans. At other times sharks have attacked humans because the silhouette it sees it confuses with a seal. Pound for pound, human beings do not have the taste appeal to sharks as seals, who are fatty and delicious. Sharks should be given some props for their products which have changed the way we live, such as shark teeth to shave with and shark skin as sandpaper. And sharks actually could accuse us of being shark-eating machines. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in some parts and has escalated the price of shark fins to greater than $200/lb. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (C.I.T.E.S.) has put the great white shark on its 'Appendix II' list of endangered species, as it is targeted by fishermen for its jaws, teeth, and fins, and as a game fish.
1 comment:
wow i'm really glad i didn't know this before i went to chatham on vacation last week
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