Surge in fatal shark attacks blamed on global warming?
You knew this was coming. Global Warming is to blame for everything these days, including Global Cooling. From The Guardian:
Two deaths in the waters off California and Mexico last week and a spate of shark-inflicted injuries to surfers off Florida’s Atlantic coast have left beachgoers seeking an explanation for a sudden surge in the number of strikes.
In the first four months of this year, there were four fatal shark attacks worldwide, compared with one in the whole of 2007, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
Of course, these deaths began with an unprecedented number of Great White sightings in southerly west coast waters beginning on March first. West Coast whites are migratory - they work a circuit across the Pacific that appears to be determined by fish runs, seal populations, time of year and breeding/birthing instincts. The fact that they all showed up at once in these waters suggests something along those lines - think Salmon in the fall.
‘The one thing that’s affecting shark attacks more than anything else is human activity,’ said Dr George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the database. ‘As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.’
Some experts suggest that an abundance of seals has attracted high numbers of sharks, while others believe that overfishing has hit their food chain. ‘I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s a convenient excuse,’ Burgess said.
So sharks don’t eat people but with more people in the water sharks are starting to eat people? And changes in their food chain (more seals off beaches and overfishing) are just an excuse? The question that should be asked (and isn’t) is how does Mr. Burgess know that? The belief that rising shark attacks is caused by more people in the water has become dogma with the Shark Commentariat, but where are the real numbers?
And there’s this silliness:
Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. ‘You’ll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn’t in the past with some regularity,’ he said.
This is just wrong. The Argo system - a series of 3,000 underwater buoys placed all around the world’s oceans to measure temperatures have shown ZERO increase in water temps - and actually a slight cooling. So how can warming sea temps be a factor when they are cooling?
it sounds like spin to this Beast - Mr. Burgess and his ilk appear to be casting the wide net for excuses. We can’t be certain what caused this recent spate of attacks, but one thing we can definitely be sure of is that it wasn’t global warming.
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[...] I blame my back taxes on global warming — er, cooling — er, climate change? Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising [...]
I blame Bush! Somehow, it’s his fault.
[...] Global Climate Forecasting is a science still very much in its infancy - the only thing “settled” about it has been the fact that it’s universally wrong. None of the two decades of predictions have come true. And, as others have noted, Anthropogenic Warming appears to be a theory that cannot be proved untrue. When temps rise - warming. When they fall - warming. Polar Bear populations have doubled in the past 40 years, but predicted arctic ice loss is going to kill them, so they go on the Endangered List. Even the recent spate of shark attacks and fatalities have beem blamed on Global Warming. [...]
I think you need to get your facts straight. Take a look at the past 20 years of IPCC reports (International Panel on Climate Change). You’ll see that their predictions have, and still are, coming true… unfortunately. In fact the worst case predictions made 20 years ago appear to be underestimates of atmospheric warming, CO2 levels and a slowing of global carbon sequestration, both terrestrial and marine. Even the Bush government has grudgingly conceeded that anthropogenic climate change is an issue to be taken seriously.
The reason we know sharks don’t eat people is because they don’t react to human blood. Put two litres of human blood in a small shark aquarium with divers in the water and the sharks won’t flinch… try it. You’ll be mobbed by every other fish in the tank. Dive in the waters off Cape Town (South Africa) and there will be a minimum of 300 great whites swimming in the bay with you. These are just the individuals identified, and the attacks are very rare and the victim is never eaten. If they wanted food, surfers would be a lot easier to catch than a seal yet they still hunt seals. This isn’t to say they are not dangerous, people just aren’t their food. The reason fisheries aren’t affecting shark attacks is because sharks are also being fished so the proportional amounts aren’t changing all that much.
Polar bear populations are not increasing, they are decreasing. They are being seen more commonly around human settlements because there is less sea ice for them to hunt from. Concequently they are having a hard time and it is easier for a weak bear to get food from human trash.
Finally arctic and antarctic ice loss is not just predicted, it is happening.
It may be a new science, only 60 odd years old but no scientist in their right mind would ignore it, and neither does big business, most especially insurance. I cannot explain the recent evidence that the seas have not warmed, especially as I am not a climate scientist, but I hope to hell it means the thousands of scientific puplications on the subject have missed something and are wrong.
Please, if you are going to write on a subject check your facts, especially if you are arguing against science.