Sharks and other scary stuff

[rgscpat]

Shark silliness with Veterans' Day almost upon us...

[JPA Cate]

On this side of the date line, tomorrow is Armistice Day (Veteran's Day, to Yanks). The 150 yr. old lighthouse on Amedee Is. is lit from below (as well as its light above) in honour of the allied veterans. It is beautiful, and visible here, from about 5 miles away.

Thank you, each and every one of you. this civilian is truly grateful for your service.

Ann

[tuffr2]

Ever see a Goblin Shark, Angler Fish, Wolf Fish, Giant Squid, Blob Fish or Giant Sea Bug (Giant Isopd)?

I have been in the Florida Keys swimming were there are a lot of Barracuda just watching from a distance. That is not too bad but at dusk it gets creepy and I got out of the water.

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[a64pilot]

The Cuda have never messed with me, although it is unnerving at times to be looking at a mouth full of teeth right in front of your face.
When I first started diving I had a second stage that the body of the reg was chrome, and the purge button was bright orange, I had a Cuda right in front of me doing that mouth opening and closing thing they do and I realized just how much my regulator looked like the fishing lures I had in my tackle box.
Since then I don't put shiny things on me when I dive

Oh and apparently dusk and dawn are primary hunting times times for predators, maybe not the best time for a swim

[tuffr2]

On TV watching a shark film crew chumming for 'Smooth Hammerhead Sharks'. They finally see one and say 'oh boy' hurry get into the water.

Two young aggressive Mako sharks show up...divers say gotta pay attention or you will get bit as he pushs the smallish shark away several times.

So that is the key...pay attention and push the shark away...got it...ugh.

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[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

... Oh and apparently dusk and dawn are primary hunting times times for predators, maybe not the best time for a swim

As a beach kid in SoCal there always seemed to be one or more long-distance swimmers in the early morning crawling along well out past the surf line. I thought it was pretty risky even then.

[GordMay]

Sharks may be closer to the city than you think

A new study [1], by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, tracked three types of sharks, including 14 great hammerheads, 13 bull sharks, and 25 nurse sharks, off the greater Miami coast, in an effort to study their behavior.

Based on studies of land predators, scientists predicted that sharks would avoid the densely populated coastline, or appear only during periods when there are fewer people, such as late hours and weekdays.

But scientists, discovered the opposite.
Unlike big land predators, the ocean’s top predators don’t avoid urban areas.

When looking at the data, scientists found that "space use patterns of tracked sharks were consistent with that of 'urban adapters.'" They said the "modeling also revealed that an unmeasured spatial variable was driving considerable shark residency in areas exposed to high urbanization."

The scientists found three reasons why the sharks could be more attracted to populated coastlines, including nutrient runoff, and sewage discharge, going into the marine to create bottom-up food webs, that attract sharks; marine food waste, such as fish carcasses being dumped into the bay; and leftover fish, from the Miami Seaquarium, being discarded into the water.

More reporting about ➥ https://news.miami.edu/rsmas/stories...tag=MSF0951a18


The study:

[1] “Urban sharks: residency patterns of marine top predators in relation to a coastal metropolis” ~ by Neil Hammerschlag et al
➥ https://www.int-res.com/articles/fea...tag=MSF0951a18


The ISAF 2021 shark attack report
The Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File investigated 137 alleged shark-human interactions worldwide, in 2021. ISAF confirmed 73 unprovoked shark bites on humans, and 39 provoked bites.
More ➥ https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sh...tag=MSF0951a18