water_baby83;3573381; said:
That's actually more than I was expecting! Plus, those teeth are really sharp!
shark v shark
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That's actually more than I was expecting! Plus, those teeth are really sharp!
chefjamesscott;3573406; said:
IMO I don't buy it. But from a scientific point of view, that statement would be a pretty hard one, if not an impossible one to make with any authority. Implying that "most" shark attacks are never reported because their victims die, is not only a "shot in the dark" personal theory, but it's also one which wouldn't even logically add-up. Most shark "attacKs" (as he's calling them), take place less than 300meters from a shore (be it a beach, rock formation/island - as with Seal Rocks in AU), or otherwise), and are most common (though in the bigger picture, still VERY uncommon statistically) in areas rich with life, being that they are natural feeding grounds. Additionally, this is generally where humans congregate, stirring a shark's curiosity, and in many cases unintentionally provoking an attack brought on by mistaken identity (as with surfers, body boarder, water skiers, etc.). Sure, with pelagic sharks, there have certainly been instances of attacks taking place when a vessel sinks, or even as with the documented case of a girl getting bitten 7 miles off the coast of Chile, while her and her fellow students from an oceanic research group decided to leave the vessel for a swim. So I agree that there are certainly some instances where an attack, resulting in a fatality goes unreported because of circumstance, however those would hardly account for "most" IMO. This is for a number of reasons, but mainly because within the International Shark Attack File, there is over 4,000 investigators who make it their mission to research, document, and catelogue shark attacks (from all species), world wide. In 2000, the year with the most recorded shark attacks, there were 79 attacks reported worldwide, 11 of them fatal. As of 2009, the ISAF - http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm recorded a total of 2,251 attacks worldwide since 1580, with 464 attacks being fatal. That equates to roughly (if we were to take the number of attacks (2,251), divided by the number of years they span, (429) meant to show an annual number of global attacks if spread evenly throughout the years) only 5.247...(further decimals dropped) attacks globally each year, with only 1.0815..(further decimals dropped) being fatal. Now we know that there aren't the exact same number of attacks world wide each year, so don't mistake this demonstration as an accurate depiction of actual attacks annually, but rather, as an example (if one were to spread them out evenly over the 429 years these records document) as to how rare shark attacks - especially fatalities, truly are.
Aside from the ISAF, other organizations such as the Shark Research Institute, of which I have worked with, the Global Shark Attack File, IUCN, plus several other local and international groups all study, research, and document and analyze (to authenticate) shark attacks all over the world. It's hard for me to believe that with so many individuals, spanning the whole of the earth, that "Most" attacks, would go unnoticed or unreported. Sure it happen's, but not IMO, at any level even close to tipping the scales of current statistics.
The Florida Museum of Natural History http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/compares these statistics with the much higher rate of deaths from other, less feared causes; for example, several thousand people die annually from lightening strikes. It is estimated that a person's chance of getting attacked by a shark is 1 in 11.5 million, and a person's chance of getting killed by a shark is 1 in 264.1 million. The annual number of people who drown is 3,306, whereas the annual number of shark fatalities is 1. In comparison, humans kill 100 million sharks each year....
(P.S - By the way, MANY people in Australia are not activists for sharks, and along the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, there are several groups of fishermen and other individuals who make it their "Job" to hunt out and slaughter sharks, claiming it makes their beaches safer....Ignorance is contageous, if not innoculated with truth...be careful. )
Fear is a crazy emotion that gets played with when it comes to shark attacks/bites. It's all in how you look at them. Check the reality of it....
Things that kill more people annually than sharks:
Bee stings, coconuts falling from trees, garage doors falling closed, vending machines tipping over, air conditioning units falling out of window, being burried by sand at the beach..... Don't even ask about cars/trains/planes/boats.
Should I go on?
Things that kill more people annually than sharks:
Bee stings, coconuts falling from trees, garage doors falling closed, vending machines tipping over, air conditioning units falling out of window, being burried by sand at the beach..... Don't even ask about cars/trains/planes/boats.
Should I go on?
Zoodiver;3574118; said:
...People choking on ball point pens, lollypops, their own vomit - people choking on anything period, falling asleep in the bathtub, drug overdose, allergic reaction to peanuts, other animal attacks - lions, elephants, and especially a wide array of reptiles and amphibians, dehydration.....
once again, not even touching on planes/trains/automobiles/boats/disease/infection/murder/etc....
