Sharks Are Pissed

For years global shark populations have been declining while shark attacks have been gradually increasing. It makes sens to me, if sharks were killing off the global human populations then I'd be pissed. I'd be going after those jerk sharks that made me their enemy. Unfortunately, there is a simple explanation for the decline in most wildlife populations on this planet.

"Because the global population of humans is growing fast, so more people go to the beach, said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History. And nowadays, beach-goers don't just go for a dunk. They hang out in shallow water (home for many sharks) for long periods of time to surf, windsurf, boogie-board, kayak and dive.

The number of worldwide shark attacks overall increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, continuing a gradual upswing over the past four years, Burgess said.

Sharks are disappearing from the world's oceans due to overfishing, says Julia Baum, a researcher at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. Baum and some of her shark-tracking colleagues made comments to reporters earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston

Sharks killed one human in 2007, according to the International Shark Attack File, but humans killed an estimated 38 million sharks for their fins each year (or up to 73M), Baum said. That's as many sharks as the entire human populations of the 35 largest cities in the United States." -source

Being scared of sharks is really laughable for anyone who gets around in an automobile. There are around 70 shark attacks worldwide but how does that compare with car accidents? There are an estimated 1.2 million car accidents worldwide each year leading to roughly 3000 dead per day, versus one death by shark per year. In fact, its very likely you'll live if you happen to be one of the 70 poor souls who gets bitten:

"Your odds of living are greater than 90 percent. The rate of shark-attack fatalities hit an all-time low in 2007 for the past 20 years, Burgess said. In fact, the trend for shark-bite fatalities in the 20th century is "down, down, down, decade by decade," Burgess said...

The real story isn't shark attacks, Burgess said. "The real story is what is happening to skates, sharks and rays on a worldwide basis. We have witnessed, in the last 20 to 30 years, huge declines in these animals worldwide. " -source

So I can understand why the sharks might be oh, just a little bit upset. I personally love sharks, love to swim with them. In fact the pictures in this post were taken by yours truly last summer. If you want to see some really amazing interactions between sharks and humans check out my post on tonic immobility.

*Update: Anti-shark device eaten by an irony-loving great white