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We need to declare war on some other things, but not sharks

bohdi

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Thought this was interesting

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/


From 2000 to 2005, ISAF reports there wereeight domestic shark attack deaths. The International Hunter Education Association reports that 385 U.S. and Canadian hunters were accidentally killed by other hunters in that same time frame.

The New England Journal of Medicine [/i]reported that from 1990 to 2006, there were 16 deaths on American beaches caused by digging sandholes till the sand collapsed, smothering the digger. ISAF counted a dozen U.S. shark deaths in the same period. Clearly, you’d be safer in the water, with the sharks, than you are in your own sandhole.

Florida is the most prolific state for both boating and shark attacks. Over a two-decade period, the U.S. Coast Guard reported 764 boating-accident deaths in the state. The sharks took four lives in the same years.

A decade ago, a Consumer Product Safety Commission report tracked vending machine deaths from 1977 till 1995, thirty seven Americans were killed when they got overly aggressive, toppling a vending machine to get a reluctant quarter or cola – an average of about two per year, or twice the number killed by sharks in the US. Just when you thought it was safe to get a Dr. Pepper …

Deer – the very symbol of the terrors of nature – take between 130 and 140 human lives each year – usually just after they’re in your headlights. The CDC estimates an average of fifteen U.S. deaths per year from snakebites. But the all-time champion animal nemesis for the human race doesn’t have a scorekeeper, and will likely never get its own series of movies or saturation news coverage. We don’t know for certain how many people are killed by mosquito-borne disease but the horrible toll easily reaches the millions each year.
 

deepdiver

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Thanks for the posting. Sharks are much maligned with little reason. Humans have a history though of eliminating apex predators from their midst until an ecological disaster from such rampant killing becomes apparent.
 

Sheldon

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This is Kind of like guns and kid deaths the statistics are blown all out of proportion by the anti's.

But you know sharks are natural eating machines andkind of give me the queses when seen up close.
 

imperialism2024

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Whoops, not clearly gun-relation. Bring out the padlock! There might be anti's reading!

Er, sorry. I almost tend to think it's a rule that the less dangerous something is, the more dangerous the media will make it appear. If the local news outlet were to report "People killed in car accidents! A slaughter in the streets!", everyone would say, "Uh, yeah, we know." The freak accidents are going to get attention (including shootings) because they shock the sh**ple out of their safe-seeming little world.
 

Flintlock

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This info is skewed because it only covers deaths. What about the maimings and horrific injuries to the ones that survive? (which are most Shark attacks) And those are just the ones we know about.. Off the coast of Africa, there are loads of Tiger sharks which try to pick people off all the time. They have to use large nets to block them from coming near the beaches...

I did my part.. Last summer I caught a 350 pound salmon shark off the coast of Alaska. It is a close cousin of the great white (even looks like one) and is lightning fast and agile with a temper. They are over populated, have incredible travel habits,and are mowing down the salmon runs. They eat as much as 20% of the entire salmon run.. That is astounding...

The meat of the sharkis currently in my freezer helping me get through the Alaskan winter. :)
 

LEO 229

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Tomahawk wrote:
Agreed. Shark meat is very tasty. Especially if they have been eating baby seals.
T-Hawk.... How insensitive... :lol:

Poor baby seals... :cry:


How many people are robbed at gun point and shot each year vs people eaten by sharks?

People will fear being eaten by a shark but hardly think twice about their chances to be robbed.
 

expvideo

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LEO 229 wrote:
Tomahawk wrote:
Agreed. Shark meat is very tasty. Especially if they have been eating baby seals.
T-Hawk.... How insensitive... :lol:

Poor baby seals... :cry:


How many people are robbed at gun point and shot each year vs people eaten by sharks?

People will fear being eaten by a shark but hardly think twice about their chances to be robbed.
Excellent point, and thank you for bringing this on topic :D
 

hsmith

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coconut's kill an estimated 300 people a year from them falling from the trees compared to sharks killing ~15

ban coconut's!
 

glocknroll

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expvideo wrote:
LEO 229 wrote:
Tomahawk wrote:
Agreed. Shark meat is very tasty. Especially if they have been eating baby seals.
T-Hawk.... How insensitive... :lol:

Poor baby seals... :cry:


How many people are robbed at gun point and shot each year vs people eaten by sharks?

People will fear being eaten by a shark but hardly think twice about their chances to be robbed.
Excellent point, and thank you for bringing this on topic :D
My personal fear of sharks stems from a complete lack of any means to defend against one. I know this borders on phobia, but it just is what it is. I have been in the ocean and had a shark dorsal fin break the surface about 50 yards from me. I got the hell out of the water. I still swim in the ocean, but the idea of a shark attack scares the hell out of me, especially since a 10 year old boy was killed by a shark 7 years ago at VA Beach.
 

Tomahawk

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Bah. It all depends on what kind of shark, how shallow the water is (shallow is more dangerous than deep, generally), and what else is in the water with you (swimming and chumming is not advised).

I've done dives around many sharks without problems, but they weren't the more aggressive species and the circumstances were not bad.

That said, if you are foolish enough to antagonize them, by say, grabbing one's tail, you're going to learn the hard way just which one of youbelongs in the water and which onedoesn't. They can f*** you up if you tangle with one.
 
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