July 14 – Shark Awareness Day

nPostednon July 14, 2015

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nThere seems to be somendisagreement about when Shark Awareness Day is – is it July 14?nJuly 15? July 17? – but I figure, with shark attacks being in thennews right now, let’s start as soon as possible and keep on talkingnabout sharks all week!

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nSo – are sharks a hugendanger to humans? Or is it more fair to say that the reverse is true?

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nBelieve it or not, evennwith North Carolina reporting (at the time of my writing) eight sharknattacks in just three weeks (!). we are still much more of a dangernto sharks than they are to us.

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nFirst, why would I saynsuch a nutty thing right after typing “eight shark attacks in justnthree weeks”?

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NOTE: This is NOT what
the waters of North Carolina
look like right now!

nWell, scientists tell usnthat the sharks off the coast of North Carolina are not suddenlyncraving human snacks. Instead, weather and population booms in thensharks’ favorite fishy food means that there are a lot more sharks anlot closer to shore, and they are snapping at splashing creaturesnassuming that they are fish. The shark attacks were notngulp-gulp-yum! sorts of attacks – instead, the sharks bit and thennlet go. We can assume that once the sharks realized that they’dnbitten into such a relatively large creature, and/or that thencreature they’d bitten didn’t taste fishy, they let go. No humansndied in these encounters. (To read more about the NC attacks, checknout this article.)

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nAlso,nwhen we hear that there are more shark attacks, we automatically feelnthat we are in more danger. But in actual fact, more people are innthe water, so the RATE of attacks (in most places) have actuallyndropped. People in California, for example, are a lot – lot – lotn– lot safer now than ever. Check out this article, whichnshows that an individual’s risk has dropped by more than 90%!!

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nSo,nhow many people die in shark attacks each year? Last year only threenpeople died, in the entire world, from shark attacks. Some years it’snmore like ten human deaths from sharks.

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nInncontrast, how 100 to 270 MILLION sharks are killed each year bynhumans!

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nTonreally get this contrast, check out this infographic,ncomparing how many people sharks kill per year to how many sharksnpeople kill PER HOUR. It makes the point!

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nTonfind out more about Shark Awareness Day, check out this short video. Another shark day is celebrated in May; check out this post on Fintastic Friday.