I blogged over at Riding With the Top Down today. Stop over, if you can. Everyone who comments has a chance to win a copy of The Power of Two.
I stayed up way too late last night. It's Shark Week on The Discovery Channel, and since I'm fascinated with sharks, I usually flip over each year and catch a few of the shows. I wish they had less about attacks because I can't handle anything gory (even if it's just in my imagination), but so much of what they show is fascinating.
There was a show about a guy who swims with Tiger Sharks. Um, better him than me. He says they're not as aggressive as they've been reputed to be, but as far as I'm concerned that's the second most dangerous species out there when it comes to attacking humans. Plus, the Tiger Shark eats baby albatross birds and that's just sad because they come right out of the water and pick the babies off. They can barely fly at this point. I know--sharks being sharks, but still...
Anyway, the show that kept me up last night was about this area in Brazil where shark attacks suddenly shot up. They were covering the investigation into why and I was curious, so I stayed up to watch. The final conclusion was a little disappointing and I thought, I can't believe I stayed up for this!
Basically, what they looked at was what kind of shark population they're dealing with in the area. Then they looked at how these sharks behave in other locations around the world--namely the Bahamas (Tiger) and Cuba (Bull Shark). We got to see more footage of men swimming with Tigers and off Cuba, they're feeding Bull Sharks from their hands, and even have them take fish from their mouths! =8-O Never. Not me.
Bull Sharks, IMO, are the most dangerous shark out there when it comes to attacks on humans. Remember those two kids attacked off Florida a couple of years ago? The girl died. Bull Sharks don't give up when they've decided someone is prey and they'll hang with even after rescuers get the person into a raft or something.
But back to the show. They also looked at what changed around that beachy area in Brazil. It turns out that they dredged out an area near where several rivers flow into the ocean about 30 miles up the coast so that the big container ships can get in and out. They also paved over the areas where there were mangrove trees. Since this is a favorite kind of area for Bull Sharks, they headed on down to the next area where a river empties into the sea--this area is darn near the beaches where all the attacks are happening.
The final factor (and what I guess the big difference is between this area and other parts of the world) is that the sea around this place in Brazil is lifeless with the exception of some ship wreck nearby. Environmental damage has wiped out the sea and the sharks don't have enough to eat (as opposed to the area around Cuba where it's full of life and the sharks are well fed and don't need to attack humans, I guess). Basically, they said it was too late to repair the environmental damage so they're educating people about sharks.
And trying to keep people out of the water in that area! Despite all the shark warning signs, people are going in anyway. There are lifeguards, but I'm thinking, who in their right mind--lifeguard or not--is going to race into the water with a shark attacking? Not me. Sorry.
My other occupation for the night was trying to find information on dragon powers. Does anyone know of a website or book that talks about this? I'm pulling up way too much when I do a search.
