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| Grey Reef Shark |
YIKES, SHARKS!
Hello all you people out there! How was your week this week? I had a fabulous one spending time with my sister and girlfriends in Florida. The weather was quite cool except for the last day but we still had a lot of fun. So, my friends, how are all of you? All well I hope.
In light of my trip to Florida, I thought I would disclose some facts for you. Unfortunately we chose a vacation area not conducive to swimming. Oh, the water is beautiful and the waves were just right, but we found out some interesting facts while we were there. Where is there? We spent the week at New Smyrna beach, Florida. There is an inlet at the norther peak of this outer barrier peninsula called Ponce de Leon. While the weather was too cold for us to swim, which turned out to be a good thing, we did see fishermen standing in knee deep water catching fish and surfers. Crazy people and this is why…
We asked what they were catching (blue fin tuna) and then
asked (of course) about sharks. We were informed that the inlet is a breeding ground for tiger and bull sharks and that right on the other side of the rock pylons at New Smyrna beach, hammerheads and older bull, black tip, reef and tiger sharks hang out. Ok, I won’t be going in the water but, not all is lost as I love to watch the waves.
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| Tiger shark |
And what did I see? Dolphins! It was fun and exciting to watch them as they kept diving deep down, flukes high in the air. Then, one time, as I was watching, I see a nice big, narrow dorsal fin glide by slowly sinking into the water. Yikes! It was a hammerhead dorsal fin (you know the one that sticks out of the water)! I saw a shark fin one more time that day. I was so glad I was safely grounded on the beach. Yet there were people on tiny, little kayaks paddling around, surfers, and even some fishermen out waist deep in the water. Not
me or my friends!
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| Bull shark |
Another day while walking the shore I ran across a chunk of chum (raw meat; slang for shark bait). A big chunk, about the size of two footballs. It had been terribly windy that day and had been washed up on shore. I still don’t know if it was left over from the shark’s victim or if it was chum that someone dropped in the water to attract the sharks. Either way it had to do with sharks.
So I thought I would give you some interesting trivia on sharks;
- Sharks have both upper and lower eyelids but don’t blink.
- There are over 370 species of sharks worldwide.
- A shark can grow and use over 20,000 teeth in its lifetime.
- Sharks can swim up to 40 miles per hour.
- Baby sharks are born with teeth and can hunt right away.
- Sharks can see almost as well behind them as to the front.
- The capacity of dried shark brains to relieve pain is widely accepted.
- Nurse sharks in captivity have been known to push buttons with their snouts.
- Other than humans, a shark’s greatest enemy is other sharks.
- Around 100 million sharks are killed annually.
- About 75 shark species are in danger of becoming extinct.
- Both the upper and lower jaw of sharks move.
- Sharks can detect one drop of blood per ten billion parts of water. Equivalent to one drop of blood in an area the size of an Olympic swimming pool.
- The following information came from the International Shark Attack File, and the Global Shark Attack File. “Globally, there have been 447 fatal shark attacks and 2,320 nonfatal incidents since 1845. The number of reported shark attacks increased worldwide in 2010, with 79 attacks, up 25 percent from 61 the prior year,
according to the International Shark Attack File. That said, in the U.S., the last decade has seen 230 deaths from dog bites and only eight from sharks.”1
Hammerhead shark - The three most likely sharks to attack a human are bull sharks, great white sharks, and tiger sharks.
- About 90% of people that are attacked by sharks are not eaten and actually survive.
- Since 1845 the following North American regions have recorded shark attacks:
- Florida 988
- Hawaii 279
- California 276
- South Carolina145
- North Carolina 101
- Texas 170
- New Jersey 47
- New York 30
- Oregon 28
- Virginia 17
- The 10 most dangerous beaches known for shark attacks;
- New Smyrna Beach, Florida, USA
- Ponce de Leon inlet, Florida, USA
- Peyton, West Australia
- Second Beach, Port St Johns, Africa
- Reunion Island, east of Madagascar
- Malena Beach, Maui, USA
- Boa Viagem, Pernambuco, Brazil
- Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
- Surf Beach, Vandenberg, California
- Garden Island, Sydney, Australia
*Two rules you should follow: never swim alone and, if you’re actually attacked, take aim with repeated hard blows to the eyes or gills, not the nose.
So why did God create such amazing predators such as sharks and T. rexes? Genesis 1:30 states very clearly that God created His animals to be vegetarian. The ferocious teeth and behavior may very well have started to change after the Fall of Man and certainly after The Flood. In God’s original creations everything had been made very good. No death, disease, or suffering. We live in a fallen world and wondrous creatures such as sharks are reminders of both God’s astounding skills as a Creator, and of the Fall of Mankind and the consequences of disobedience to God.
Until next time, Take care and God bless,
Willow Dressel
References:
1http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/worst-beaches-for-shark-attacks/10
https://popculturemadness.com/Trivia/August/Shark.php
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