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Great White Sharks Visiting San Francisco
Ponca City, We love you writes "Juliet Eilperin writes in the Washington Post that while for years, humans have thought of great white sharks as wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore, it turns out we were wrong. Scientists lured 179 great white sharks to their boat with a carpet decoy designed to look like a seal, and used a lance to attach satellite tags with the aid of 2.3-inch titanium darts to track the sharks and discovered that Pacific white sharks spend months near the northern and central California coast between August and February, foraging among elephant seals, sea lions, and other prey. The sharks were spotted as far inland as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, east of the Golden Gate Bridge. 'It shows you how wild it is off our West Coast of North America. This is Yellowstone,' says Stanford University marine sciences professor Barbara A. Block. The fact that 'a major concentration' of great whites can ignore humans 'shows us the sharks are really minding their own business. The number of interactions with people is very small, considering,' says Salvador J. Jorgensen."
... and there was no mention of laser beams (frickin' or otherwise), so move along now.
[Scene: A New York apartment. Someone knocks on the door.] Woman: [not opening the door] Yes? Voice: (mumbling) Mrs. Arlsburgerhhh? Woman: What? Voice: (mumbling) Mrs. Johannesburrrr? Woman: Who is it? Voice: [pause] Flowers. Woman: Flowers for whom? Voice: [long pause] Plumber, ma'am. Woman: I don't need a plumber. You're that clever shark, aren't you? Voice: [pause] Candygram. Woman: Candygram, my foot. You get out of here before I call the police. You're the shark, and you know it. Voice: Wait. I-I'm only a dolphin, ma'am. Woman: A dolphin? Well...okay. [opens door].
Love the first paragraph in TFA that points out the obvious: "For years, humans have thought of great white sharks wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore."
Holy shit. I always thought "For years, elephants have thought of great white sharks wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore."
I just learned something today. Guess I thought I knew more about elephants than people. I am sadly mistaken.
Let's see. You're using a film, produced by Hollywood, as a guide to the behaviour of a wild creature. Great move, that.
While you're at it, how about using Independence Day (ID4) as a guide to defeating an alien invasion using a Macintosh? Or The Core for a guide to plate tectonics? Or The Day After Tomorrow for a guide on global warming?
Sheesh.
As any serious diver will tell you, generally speaking, a shark sighting is a cause for excitement and anticipation, not panic. Leave them alone, and they'll generally leave you alone. Remember, kids: things make the news because they're (a) sensational, and (b) rare (which leads to the sensation.) The hype of shark attacks is nowhere near justified.
here's a typical shot of a great white in san francisco bay:
http://www.empireonline.com/features/golden-gate-bridge-in-movies/
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
This is madness!
Madness? No... this is Yellowstone
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
boring...
God's gift to chicks
As any serious diver will tell you, generally speaking, a shark sighting is a cause for excitement and anticipation, not panic. Leave them alone, and they'll generally leave you alone.
Unless there's ominous cello music playing in the background.
I've got a fever and the only prescription is more COBOL.
Relatively few humans are crazy enough to swim near the Golden Gates in the first place. There's a reason Alcatraz was such a secure prison, despite being a fairly short swim away from San Francisco; and it has nothing to do with sharks. Hypothermia, fast tides and currents, a rocky coastline, and a major shipping channel are not very conducive to happyfunbeachday.
Imagine all the people...
Not to mention the novel. Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, has stated that he regrets the perception that his work created of great white sharks.
Apparently, he didn't really know anything about sharks back then. Did anybody, even scientists? No. Mr. Benchley has offered the opinion that he wouldn't have written the book if he had known anything near what we know today, 'at least not in good conscience.'
Peter Benchley became an ocean conservationist later in life. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2006.
According to Wikipedia, "Benchley was a member of the National Council of Environmental Defense and a spokesman for its Oceans Program: "[T]he shark in an updated Jaws could not be the villain; it would have to be written as the victim; for, worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed than the oppressors."
Just so you know.
Go "Shark Darting" instead!
You get to peg sharks with 2.3 inch titanium darts!
It's not a good idea to take a quick dip in the water off the boat, though. I think sharks are smart enough to figure out who threw those painful titanium darts sticking out of their backs.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
It's all part of scientific outreach: http://xkcd.com/585/
Actually shark researchers have been observing Great Whites returning to the Farallon Islands about 35 miles west of the Golden Gate for over 20 years. This website doesn't talk about migration and return, but Susan Casey's book The Devil's Teeth does discuss how the researchers on the island saw many of the same sharks returning year after year.
The surprising things in the research (as opposed to the article) are the genetic distinction of the Hawaii-California sharks versus sharks in the Western Pacific, and to a lesser extent the fact that sharks habitually come close to shore but rarely interact with humans.
Several years back, an acquaintance of my sister was sea kayaking off of Northern California with her boy friend. They came up missing. They found one of them, I forget which, drifting, dead of blood loss, in the two kayaks which were lashed together. The one they found was missing large chunks of body. The other person was never found. While the sharks seem to mind their own business most of the time, the few exceptions are killers.
I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
they'll generally leave you alone
Mike Tyson "generally" is not going to kick your ass, but you're still not going to sit next to him in the airport. Are you?