SHARK!

At least 11 people have been attacked along the coast of the Carolinas this year, seven in North Carolina and four in South Carolina. Most of the attacks have occurred since June 11. The seven attacks in North Carolina are the most recorded in one year since the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File began keeping records 80 years ago.

Forty years ago, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster hit about a calculating, diabolical, giant man-eating shark grazing on beachgoers plugged into our primal fear of monsters.  Some sources claim that humans killed anywhere from 63 million to 100 million sharks in the last 12 months.

A recent spate of shark attacks in North Carolina may have been partly caused by global warming, an expert has claimed. The warmer weather not only brings sharks further north, but also entices more people to get into the water. Coupled with other factors such as higher salinity, an increased number of bait fish and fishing near swimmers has supposedly created a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions for shark attacks.

Speaking to National Geographic, George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said global warming could be a factor in the increased number of incidents.  He is clearly a hotcoldwetdry guy that has bought into the global warming hooey hook, line and sinker.  (Pardon the pun.)

But hold on.  A marine zoologist with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has studied sharks for over 50 years poo-pooed his assertion saying there’s too much natural variability in weather cycles to blame the recent shark attacks on global warming.

There’s no such thing as a shark attack.  We live on the land.  Sharks live in the water.  A shark attack is when you’re where you’re supposed to be and a shark shows up.  If you’re in the shower tonight and you feel a tap on your shoulder, you turn around and a shark asks, “Wassup?” that’s a shark attack.  Getting bitten in the ocean is a shark accident.