3w ago

Sharks from species once thought harmless kill and eat snorkeler in feeding frenzy

www.independent.co.uk

24 comments

Dusky sharks, who are apparently fed by people and tour boat operators so they stick around the boats.
Witness testimonies suggest a shark reportedly lunged at his GoPro camera.
“The situation likely occurred via a process of juxtaposition bites, with two distinct motivations: the first, a (probably single) reflex/clumsiness bite driven by food begging, and the second, several predatory bites triggered by a feeding frenzy,” researchers explain.
“The central objective is to eliminate the begging behaviour in sharks, and this can only be achieved by establishing and enforcing a complete and total ban on all artificial feeding of sharks by the public,” scientists write.
- Ah, once again we've identified the true problem while they're trying to blame and fearmonger sharks.
  Vending machines, people. Don't forget.
Wild animals are never “harmless.”
Deer have killed people. Birds have killed people.
- Water had killed people.
  \ Gravity has killed people.
  But above all, humans have killed people.
  If I wanted to live, I'd go live with the sharks.
  
  100%
  humans are the worst
- He looks so silly and cute tho...
  Juuuust a liiiiitle snoot boop...
I'm gonna go ahead and choose not to swim in a school of sharks.
- I'm gonna go ahead and choose not to pogo-stick on I-5 at rush hour
  
  Listen someone has to and it sounds like you just volunteered
- Back in the 70’s I used to swim with nurse sharks all around. Wonder if they will start eating peops at some point as well.
Sharks are literally underwater dogs. Same consequences for FAFO, but much more stigmatized.
- Sharks aren’t FAFO. If they are hungry they attack.
  
  If they're hungry and you look like food to them. Which is non-trivial.
The recession (climate change) is hitting us all, human and animal
If a tiny 2 foot long cookie cutter shark can take chunks out of people, then any shark bigger than that with sharp teeth is equally if not more dangerous.
- You just said the reason why I don't go in the sharks' homes. They live there. Sharks are gonna shark. Don't wanna get eaten by a shark? Don't go in the water!
  
  The article is saying that these sharks aren't really sharking though. The sharks behavior has been changed by environmental factors (regular human feeding and humans raising the local sea temperature by dumping warm water from the desalination plant).
  Sharks are attracted by usually warm water from desalination plant.
  Tourist guide boats start chumming the waters to keep the sharks around for tourists.
  The attraction of so many mostly harmless sharks changes their feeding dynamic. Ever tried eating an ice cream cone near a small child? Ever tried pushing an ice cream cart through a crowd of small kids? Way different dynamic as supply and demand changes as the crowd grows.
  Formerly mostly harmless and "shy around humans" sharks start directly approaching humans as a source of food.
  Sharks investigate human, beg for food. How do sharks investigate? By biting, nibbles really, or bumping into people swimming.
  The first bite generates a predictably violent reaction from the humans, which triggers a feeding frenzy response. Humans aren't equipped to defend or escape this.
  The point is that at every step of the way, these sharks are acting in a very strange way (for them) as a direct result of human action. We've seen this kind of thing before when people feed wild animals, strange and dangerous human seeking behaviors develop: alligators, bears, moose, etc. Dangerous animals? Yes, but the behaviors that result in human deaths are in no way natural.
https://xkcd.com/1387/
Somewhere, my mother's paranoia is shouting in vindication.
Turns out these sharks have been following the news.
Decent people.
The last thing that went through his head was "dusky shark do do do do do do..."
And they are still harmless, I'm sure flies have killed people too.

24 comments