printTED KENNEDY is back with a posse. “Beaches around Chatham, Mass., remain closed because of shark sightings made in the Cape Cod area before the busy holiday weekend. Reports of the sightings and closures — as well as the tagging by scientists of two great white sharks — make national news.”
In any event—and as I argued in “Animals Gone Wild”—“Steven Spielberg’s magnificent thriller Jaws is an infinitely better Guide For the Perplexed than the shark experts”:
The latter “insist that, if presented with a menu, sharks will choose fish over folks. (‘Too tough and chewy,’ confirmed a spokesfish for the shark community.)”
Dare I say that the alleged culinary preferences of sharks are because there are more fish in the sea than people? If the oceans were peopled more plentifully, sharks would adapt their refined taste buds to human flesh in a flash. A witness—a brave surfer who paddled to the rescue—confirmed that Sharky didn’t seem remotely put off, and was doing what powerful, flesh-eating animals with sharp teeth do: tucking in.
“Apparently, the bears and the sharks haven’t had the benefit of liberal expert propaganda.”
Shark experts. I’ve never seen a shark up close, but I’ve seen their teeth on the Discovery channel- serrated rows that unlike human teeth replace themselves when broken, and a jaw that makes vice grips seem puny. “They Prefer fish to people,” tell that to the crew of the WW2 ship that sank in the Pacific leaving approximately a thousand men in the water for three days. Sharks came for miles away to feast. Where do they find their credentials, in a box of Cracker Jacks or a cereal box.
USS_Indianapolis:
After delivering critical parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian on 26 July 1945, she was in the Philippine Sea when attacked at 0014 on 30 July 1945 by a Japanese submarine. The ship sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crew aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining crew of about 900 faced exposure, dehydration and shark attacks as they waited for assistance while floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats and almost no food or water. The ship was not listed overdue per the secrecy of its mission and the survivors were spotted by accident four days later. There were only 316 survivors. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_%28CA-35%29
Thank you Mr. Moon. A few months ago, I saw a program on the Military Channel, that depicted some of the last survivors dropping a memorial over the site, fifty years later, I think; but, couldn’t remember the name of the ship. Should have tried Wiki, I guess. Now if I could remember what Turner movie I saw; where the closing credits stated that “There is no record where a wolf has been known to kill a human.