Great White Shark Attacks: Why?

[Kathianne]

Unintended, but not unpredictable consequences:

http://bostonherald.com/news/regiona...eid=1061150143

Experts: Sharks feasting on super-sized seal meal

Conservation policy blamed for hike in great white sightings

<!--//Byline box//--> By John Zaremba, Christine McConville and O’Ryan Johnson
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The booming, federally protected seal population basking in Bay State waters will only bring more hungry, dead-eyed great white sharks closer to shore — where they can strike in as little as 6 feet of water, experts warn.


State wildlife officials said yesterday they’re tracking nine great whites — the most they’ve ever had tagged — but it’s not clear whether that lethal group includes the stealthy predator that attacked a bodysurfer off Ballston Beach in Truro on Monday afternoon, splattering blood on the beach...

...

Swarming the Cape coast in pockets from Eastham to Chatham, seals — a protected species for the past four decades — are being blamed for the sudden spike in shark sightings.


“Nature is out of balance,” said Michael Snell, a former Truro beach commissioner. “Until we start harvesting seals, we are going to keep having these kind of problems.”


Wildlife experts warn that seal preservation and swimmer safety are on a collision course.

“It’s a smoke signal to start thinking about our conservation policies, and whether they’re really moving us toward sustainability or something else,” said Brian Rothschild, a marine science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth...

[CSM]

Hey, sharks gotta eat too!

[darin]

They were born that way. We should embrace and celebrate their choices!

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

When its not a shark eat shark world its a shark eat whatever is handy world. Do these people complain when a lion switches from eating Impala to Zebra? Let 'em eat seals they've been doing that as long as there has been sharks. Our government policies have nothing to do with it or at least they shouldnt have IMHO. If the mandated controls on seal hunting caused this problem then remove the interference. Just another example of liberal feel good legislation causing problems farther down the road as happens so often. -Tyr

[gabosaurus]

These guys are obviously lefties from CA with a real problem and a possible vendeta towards sharks. A bunch of lil' libbie loser lemmings who can't deal with sharks and their rights to pack a full set of teeth.

It also appears that this is a leftist-radical attack on sharks. ....there certainly seems to be a great deal of folks sightseeing at the scene (without prayer rugs or facing Meca). The anti-shark terrorists was either focusing on our military, Christians or AMERICA in general.

[WiccanLiberal]

Seems like an example of sharks just doing what they do. Humans hugely impacted the population of great whites by hunting them. Peter Benchley said he regretted the impact his book [U]Jaws[U] had on the public's perception of and awareness of sharks and spent a lot of his latter years on shark conservation. Sharks hunt seals. When humans go into the water, they sometimes resemble seals and sharks will, mistakenly, attack. The reason I say mistakenly is that often, they let the person go once they get a taste. You want to save the seals, the sharks won't respect your protections. And if you go in the water you pretty much take your chances. If there are seals in the water and possibly sharks, don't go swimming. OOhh what a radical idea. Just think, if we had left the sharks and the seals to their own devices, nature might have balanced herself nicely.

[Kathianne]

Seems like an example of sharks just doing what they do. Humans hugely impacted the population of great whites by hunting them. Peter Benchley said he regretted the impact his book [U]Jaws[U] had on the public's perception of and awareness of sharks and spent a lot of his latter years on shark conservation. Sharks hunt seals. When humans go into the water, they sometimes resemble seals and sharks will, mistakenly, attack. The reason I say mistakenly is that often, they let the person go once they get a taste. You want to save the seals, the sharks won't respect your protections. And if you go in the water you pretty much take your chances. If there are seals in the water and possibly sharks, don't go swimming. OOhh what a radical idea. Just think, if we had left the sharks and the seals to their own devices, nature might have balanced herself nicely.

Cull the herd of seals, protection has made numbers so high that the sharks are coming coastal to partake. Unintended but foreseeable consequences.

[hjmick]

Because they're hungry.

Look, bottom line, you go into the ocean, you enter a food chain in which you are not at the top.

[Kathianne]

Because they're hungry.

Look, bottom line, you go into the ocean, you enter a food chain in which you are not at the top.

Yet 'man' thinks he knows better than the food chain. Therein lies the problem.