Shark attack. .

[legions]

Wendy, It is apparent that you are very compassionate about this subject. Once again I am very curious, and, as I have been taught, curiosity more times than not gets a person in trouble. So, in spite of my better judgment I would like to ask you the following.

If an encounter between a human and a shark turns tragic, what wording would you prefer in place of "attack". How would you like the incident to be reported to the general public.

I am very interested in your views.

 

[101recon]

I am done. this is falling on deaf ears.

respectfully
ww

I heard you.

Call it an attack,or hunting,or stalking prey,or foraging,or domesticated slaughter.It's all the same.I personally call it supper.All things eat to survive.It is a fact of nature.

Humans are the ones who came up with all these different words to describe the taking of one life to feed another.Animals just eat.Thinking that you are always at the top of the food chain is a mistake only made by humans.We enter a preditors environment and are then shocked by the predator behaiving naturally.I would think that as the more intelligent species we would know better.

 

[scubamountaingirl]

I would say an encounter between swimmer and or diver was unfortunately encountered today, the person was lucky enough to have escaped with little or no harm. period


end of story
how are we to describe the death of a tiger or lion that we were "tracking" or when we are camping out on some super expensive holiday in africa? that the lion attacked? we are in his freaking front yard how stupid are we to do these acts?

pretend this? we are watching a sci fi movie and there are man eating dinosaurs. would we
a) tell the humans yeah man go into that den, that forest, that cave and see whats there. its beautiful. the weather is great the water is warm and the chances of the dinosaurs eating you are really slim.... then the dude gets bit. do we feel bad for him? do we say well its a risk you run? or do we look at the dinosaurs and say hey man that dinosaur just ATTACKED our friend....think about it. how is it different?
b) this area has animals that will eat you . they are hungry and do not know the difference between you and a seal, you and a big rodent, you and what ever prey is around. do not go into this place unless you are willing and or have a wepon ( boot knife or such) to defend yourself in case you encounter a hungry animal.

that is what i would say instead of ATTACK.

thank you for asking
ww

 

[legions]

Wendy, Thank you for your reply.. And please remember...I was just curious.

It is also apparent, that by the way you hold your regulator, you are very comfortable under the water.

It takes some divers along time to become that comfortable.

Cheers.

 

[scubamountaingirl]

LOl well i have no idea if your being sarcastic but my teeth mostly hold my regulator, you can thank my dentist for that.

dive safely
ww

 

[geekthegreek]

This discussion of semantics is interesting, but do we actually know the extent of the swimmer's injuries? No argument from me that the media will/would sensationalize the term 'shark attack', but it doesn't sound like we know much about this incident at all.


BTW, wildlife will sometimes attack (I can't think of any better term) for reasons that have nothing to do with feeding. Animals can be territorial, or will attack to defend their young (even herbivores, sometimes, such as elk during the fall rutting season). Such attacks can be on other animals or on people.
Here in western Canada, we advise outdoorspeople to know the difference in appearance between black bears and grizzly bears, and to discern between different types of behaviour. Only rarely are human-bear conflicts a result of a bear trying to eat a human; much more commonly they are mother bears defending cubs, bears being surprised by people, bears defending a carcass (I suppose that is food-related) or bears feeling cornered. Most wildlife biologists I know would say that this behaviour is entirely natural, but would still call physical encounters of this sort 'attacks' (I'm an ecologist, btw).

 

[spoolin01]

It may have been a mean shark.

 

[tommy tiger]

I did one Night dive in the Fl. Keys that was enough for me. This kid doesn't put his butt in The ocean when ya can't see period and it ain't just about sharks.Like the two guys who went into the blue hole in Egypt on a night Dive and only one comes back saying "they both agreed to turn off their flashlights at a certain point" and the one that came back say's when he turned his Light back on his buddy was Gone!! What!!! Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. It's on you tube.The blue hole is something amazing for taking divers even during the day. Thanks trolling for sharks using myself for bait is not going to be one of my hobbies.

 

[Hank49]

if you dont mind me asking what does a belizean baby harp seal interceptor do?

Do you mean for fun? Or for work?

I sent a picture of a fish I had speared to my buddy in the US, with the fish at my feet there in my boat, and he sent back the photo doctored picture in my avatar. We have a 7 month, ongoing joke about it.

 

[Rick Murchison]

A shark or a lion or a tiger or any other of the animals on our planet who have the ability to be higher than us on the food chain are not ATTACKING. they are simply eating. feeding living.

Uh, my bachelor's is in biology. Though it was a while back, and I suppose there could have been some change in the lexicon, in biology we use the term any time one animal attempts to capture, kill, or even just drive away another animal - we call that an "attack." And while some prey gets attacked and eaten all at once, more often "feeding" begins after the attack is over and the prey is dead. This is pretty clear, and consistent with the dictionary meaning of the words.
Animal interactions are often far less than "pure." Cats and Killer Whales in particular just love to play with their food, and sometimes kill just for fun. Many other animals occasionally do too. They're not nearly as sensitive to "political correctness" as we often think they are. Sharks will sometimes bite "just because it's there" with no desire or intention of eating what they're biting.
Rick