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Sharks What Are The Real Facts
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Due to hollywood movies about sharks many people think of them as predatory creatures that will hunt down humans due to be blood thirsty. On the contrary sharks, don't even like eating humans. The blood of humans doesn't taste the same as the food they actually eat which is why when a person is attacked it usually just one bite.
The hunter's diet is comprised of fish, seals, and other assorted sea creatures. We find them so terrifying in part because of the characteristics they've evolved to fit into their ecological niche: strength, agility, and an enormous number of teeth.
Frequently, what happens is that humans cause the sharks to attack by inadvertently copying natural animal activity. They swim way out in the ocean, paddling on their surf boards as they attempt to ride the crest of a great big wave. They don't realize that they seem just like injured seals to the sharks swimming nearby. The result is a very regrettable accident, like a swimmer getting sucked up in a fierce undertow. The people shouldn't be doing what they're doing where they're doing it.
Although many millions of people visit beaches every year, only about twelve are actually killed by sharks. Out of the approximately ninety shark attacks each year, most are not vicious and result in only a bruise. Although this is not negligible, these bumps and nudges are mostly accidental, not purposefully vicious, and should not be taken out of context.
It is interesting that falling coconuts are more of a danger to people than sharks are. It is a rare event when even the aggressive sharks such as the great white shark or the tiger shark attack a human. Driving your car is vastly more dangerous as in the USA more than 40,000 people die from vehicle accidents each year.
So when a shark does bite a person, pity the victim their suffering. But also pity the hundreds of sharks that will be killed in the name of pointless retribution. Those animals don't understand why we're suddenly hunting them, they're not like people in that they can be told why they're being punished. The only choices we have are to kill them all or learn to coexist peacefully. And trying to do the former hasn't kept us safe.
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Strange though it may seem, falling coconuts actually cause 10 times as many injuries to humans as sharks do. The Tiger shark and the great white shark may be the most aggressive type but they very rarely attack humans. You'll find yourself more at risk whilst you drive to the beach, bearing in mind that driving kills more than 40,000 people on the US each year. It is only human to feel compassion for anyone who suffers a shark bite. Unless we eradicate them all, we are going to have to learn to live alongside them.
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