Despite how sharks are portrayed in movies and reality tv, here’s what to remember 🦈
Sharks kill 5-10 humans each year.
Humans kill ~100 million sharks each year (and that’s a conservative estimate).
Many species are now threatened with extinction.
Don’t fear sharks. Protect them.
@zleap @Sheril Usually what happens is the shark mistake a human for something tasty (I have it on good authority that we taste nasty to sharks). From below, a human paddling a surfboard with hands & feet looks a lot like a nice tasty seal. Splashing around in water is what prey do when in distress; blood in the water is, well, blood in the water.
Actual sharks just deciding to prey on humans for spite or something (like in "Jaws") is somewhere between vanishingly rare & flatly non-existent.
@zleap eSheril@mastodon.social
A marine biologist told me once that a fish’s (for these purposes, we’ll consider a shark a fish) entire usual thought process is:
1. Swim around looking for something to eat.
2. Eat the thing.
3. Repeat.
I think the first one is a good film, however it did get to the point in the franchise where the shark seems to have developed vengeance, which is when the franchise became rather lost.
I do however understand the link between the movie and bad rep for sharks, perhaps turn a negative in to a positive and use to open up discussions on the subject of sharks.
@zleap @wisteela @Sheril If someone made a successful movie franchise about some largely harmless animal, a monstrous giant hamster maybe, that killed people terrorized a small town, & got more vicious & vengeful with each sequel; lots of people would be terrified of killer hamsters.
It's been nearly 50 years since the first Jaws film was released, & I'm not sure that many dialogues have opened up. Sensationalistic terror always sells better that practical reason: humans always gonna human.
@zleap @Sheril I think it depends on the shark. There are mean bull sharks out there and some hungry black tips