Comments on: Shark Theory

By: Goodfoot

Goodfoot — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:10:06 +0000

SACRE BLEU!!!

By: Timothy Paxton via Facebook

Timothy Paxton via Facebook — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:11:42 +0000

Great article.JAWS didn’t bother me as much as that book my mother gave me (and she would spin tales of serpents and so forth). I don’t know what’s worse, clear water where you can see the sea monster coming out of the depth AT YOU or murky water where you don’t know where the crypo is lurking… So many unexplained critters out there, and with new species being catalogued weekly, who’s to tell you that there aren’t any water monsters?

By: Randi Wood via Facebook

Randi Wood via Facebook — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:57:24 +0000

Also…I agree with your rules. The water is full of danger. Funny though…I live in granbury Texas and lake granbury is where everyone swims…(not my family). although I’d be more afraid of the filth in the lake than the so called ‘old one eye’.

By: Randi Wood via Facebook

Randi Wood via Facebook — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:53:11 +0000

Okay that’s very frightening. You know where I saw jaws? At church. Being in the Bible belt..I grew up being taken to Wednesday night church and there was a class for kids and preteens where they showers movies and then discussed what Bible lessons were in it. Weird. Well Indiana Jones and the holy Grail was obvious. But then he showed us jaws. When asked what we learned the whole room sat stunned. LOL. There was no more movie class after that. Lol

By: sketko

sketko — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:01:08 +0000

Did anyone else notice that the supposed palm-print was a GREEN STAIN? Now that may have been an error in transcription, or even an offhand reference to greenish bruises, but that kinda jumped out at me. I know of no animal that would leave a green stain, unless it was covered in some kind of odd algae, but even algae washes off relatively easily. Kinda smacks of body paint, doesn’t it? A young idiot diver’s prank gone wrong, perhaps? Drunk kid channeling the creature from the Black Lagoon?

By: Craig Woolheater

Craig Woolheater — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:14:42 +0000

Case in point: Sharks Attack, Kill Surfer in Florida I rest my case...

By: Shelley

Shelley — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:39:27 +0000

Fortunately I did not see Jaws until I was an adult, so had a wonderful childhood in the waters of the South Jersey shore, even in the years when there were shark attacks. Post-Jaws, I went swimming in the beautifully clear green waters off the Florida Panhandle, and couldn’t stop looking at every passing shadow in the water!

Couldn’t this attack in the Ohio River be a large catfish? While they would not leave anything like a palm print, they are feisty and there were some very large ones around up until the pollution and fishing thinned them out.

By: korollocke

korollocke — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:40:59 +0000

Why is it in all these tales that a high ranking military comes to tell whom ever it was to keep quite? It’s really a cookie cutter formula. The idea of aquatic and carnivorous humanoids is not outside the realm of possibility if your a student of evolution and adaptive change. I still think bigfoot is an unclassified offshoot of mountain gorilla.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:02:50 +0000

Jaws, a classic to be sure. As for shark attacks, I think good ole Quint put it best when he said-

“Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark… he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin’ and the hollerin’, they all come in and they… rip you to pieces.”

I hate to freak anyone out here, but although The “Creature from the Black Lagoon” corollary is amusing, the it is unfortunately probably more psychological than anything.

A visible bottom just isn’t a guarantee of safety. A good many shark attacks happen in water that’s only a few feet deep. The same goes for alligator attacks. Most people are attacked by alligators in shallow water close to shore rather than when they are out swimming in water where they can’t see the bottom. The reality is that the conditions of most alligator attacks are in places where the bottom is more likely to be visible than not.

It’s not even sharks and alligators that can get you when you’re in water where the bottom is visible. Jellyfish, stingrays, poisonous fish or octopuses can all give you a bad day whether you can see the bottom or not. Same thing goes for things that aren’t even alive, like dangerous currents that can pull you under and away from shore.

The water being murky could be a factor. In the case of direct attacks, I suppose murkiness of the water might make a predator more bold when it thinks it can’t be easily seen. In the case of alligators it can conceal them so that you don’t even know they are there. However in a lot of cases of deadly encounters with a variety of harmful organisms, this is not necessarily a significant factor. In most cases the visibility of the bottom is more a psychological comfort for us rather than any real protection from harm I’d say.

The ocean is full of stuff that can hurt you in any depth under any visibility conditions. These organisms are not exactly out to get humans, they are just doing what they do and we are coming into more and more contact with them as the amount of people taking a swim increases.

My own corollary would be if you want to be completely sure of not getting hurt or attacked in the water, then don’t go in at all.

Sorry about the nightmares for anyone afraid of the water.

By: John D

John D — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:34:22 +0000

As a life long Floridian, I have to agree with your “Creature From The Black Lagoon Corollary” (though I do spend a fair amount of time in the ocean). Without even worrying about unidentified creatures, down here alligators are a major concern, especially as swamp and marshland is filled in to make way for cookie-cutter-sub-developments. In fact, many ponds and waterways have specific “beware of alligator” signs (which are largely ignored in my area by tourists looking for somewhere to cool down or fish). I have always used one simple rule when it comes to bodies of water other than the ocean: “If you can get wet in it, there’s probably an alligator in it.” It has never let me down. Your corollary fits nicely, though in South Florida I would add the following: “and if you can see the bottom, make sure that there is nothing unpleasant waiting for you” as gators and water snakes occasionally tend to find there way into swimming pools.