Foxfire:
So far you have not provided a shred of evidence that this thread is anything more than an attempt to gauge how divers assess an acceptable risk of a fatal shark attack or that I've promoted anything on this thread to suggest otherwise.
Not only in my view, but judging from others posts on this thread, it is believe that you yourself have provided evidence to that effect in your postings on the forum.
It seems a number of us don't believe you have.
This is a different thread with a different perspective.
I'm not convinced your perspective has changed that much.
Hank49:
The more people that swim in the sea and expose themselves, the more great whites may accept them as prey. Fish learn.
Given the intelligence of sharks, I've wondered about this possibility myself. With lions, tigers and leopards it has happened in rare but dangerous individuals. But a large enough number of sharks has had ample opportunity to learn from the enormous numbers of humans in the seas such that I am relieved we don't seem to have great white 'serial killers,' so to speak.
The closest I've heard of such an issue in recent memory was an oceanic white tip which, if the same shark, attacked some few people? So there is some potential, but it seems surprisingly rare.
I get chased from a very fishy spot by bullsharks. They've stolen my fish, approached in a semi aggressive manner and make it so I can't stay and spearfish. Because they have gills, I'm in their territory? We're mammals....many of us, aquatic mammals. They're eating my fish.
Couple of issues with this. And in advance, I, too, see humans as part of nature, not alien invaders from another planet.
1.) The ecosystem is assumed to have been crafted over time with a multi-factorial balance that does not include human predation.
2.) Our experience of the environmental effects of human predation (e.g.: wiping out large land carnivore populations, over-fishing the seas, rain forest decimation) is far, far different from the effects of other predator species (which are seen as aiding the ecosystem rather than wrecking it).
3.) Human numbers are so vast that our impact can overwhelm a local ecosystem rather easily, as evidenced by the species we drive into or near extinction.
So I have no problem with you nailing a few common fish from healthy populations to eat. As for the bull sharks, what do you propose to do if not give ground? Spear those that come after your fish? Support a cull to drop their populations so you're not bothered?
If bull shark populations were known to be healthy and abundant, I'd have no major problem with somebody eating one. But I don't think that's the case.
Richard.