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.
@Sheril Do sharks actually think ohh human - attack or do they pick up signals from people in the water (splashing surely sends say electrical or noise signals) to the shark, which then instinctively heads to wards that as there is usually food.
@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.