Yeah, I see a lot of shark positivity posts on my dash these days and I really appreciate that. But I think something is being left out of the message so I’m just gonna say that:
YES, Sharks are not bloodthirsty monsters. They only do what they do because they are instinctively driven to do so.
NO, sharks are not your friends. They are not sea-puppies, gentle babies, or whatever BS anthropomorphic “cute” term you want to use to describe them.
YES, you are more likely to be killed by falling coconuts and any number of improbable circumstances than you are to be killed by a shark attack,
NO, sharks are not “harmless”. They are apex predators of their habitats and deserve to be treated with the same respect that you would give to a wild lion, bear, or wolf. JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT LIKELY TO ATTACK YOU DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY WON’T. ACCIDENTS CAN ALWAYS HAPPEN, AND A SHARK’S PATIENCE IS NOT LIMITLESS.
YES, you should take every precaution to prevent a shark from “test-biting” you.
NO, a test-bite is not just a harmless consequence of shark curiosity. A TEST-BITE CAN KILL YOU. Just because sharks generally release people after the first nip and don’t make any effort to eat them does not mean that the bite is somehow any less deadly. You will bleed out in the water if the wound is bad enough.
YES, sharks are endangered and unfairly demonised and worthy of our support.
NO, that does not mean that anthropomorphising them and spreading false information is okay.
Please support sharks, but please, for the love of god, give them the respect they deserve when you do so. YOU ARE NOT HELPING THEM BY ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO SWIM RIGHT INTO THEIR JAWS.
Your annual Shark Week PSA. Sharks are incredible, thrilling creatures but spreading the idea that they are all harmless or interested in eusocial behavior with humans does them no favors.
“sharks aren’t vicious!!! they’re like huge puppy dogs!! they’re big sweethearts and i dont understand why people are scared of them!!”
“sharks do not attack humans in the way movies constantly portray them. sharks are curious, inquisitive animals and many bites come from sharks who “test bite” humans in order to see what they are/if they’re a threat, but that one initial bite can be fatal. while sharks are not monsters bent on hunting and targeting humans, human who hand feed them and treat them like any other animal causes more human-shark incidents (sharks can become used to humans feeding them and thus bite at a human to find fish). sharks are not blood thirsty maneaters, but they are an extremely powerful animal that deserves respect and should be admired from a distance.”
“Oh look, they’ve got little suckerfish on their tummies!”
No, friends.
those are their genitals
This is one of my favorite things to point out to people especially because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) really loves to draw detailed claspers on every shark on their visual images, such as this diversity poster.
Claspers are sort of odd genitals, too, because they fill sort of a similar function to penises but aren’t the same structure – and they’ve got sharp attachment points for holding on. Here’s a great explanation of how they work from elasmo-research.org:
“After communicating its amorous intentions to a sexually receptive female shark through ritualized swimming and gentle ‘love nips’ along her back or flanks, the male grasps one of her pectoral fins (the wing-like fins located behind the gill slits) in his mouth and arches his body so that his pelvic fins are brought close to hers. If the amorous male happened to ‘dock’ along the left side of the female, he flexes his right clasper across the mid-line of his body and inserts it into her vent (genital opening). To secure the inserted clasper in place, its tip unfolds in complex, species specific ways — often anchoring by way of one or more spike-like clasper spurs (ouch!)”
It’s very common for people to get worried about pet rats and tumors as well – for a good reason, since they are very prone to tumors. Often what they’re reacting to is just giant rat balls though! Sometimes people get worried a rat is sitting on a hairless pink baby rat, which is even funnier when you know what’s actually going on.
Male rats have balls that are massive in relation to their bodies, you really can’t miss them. Producing a lot of offspring is very important for wild rats, since they rarely make it to 2 years old due to diseases and predators. Rather than living long and being healthy, they trust in large populations and producing big litters of babies, often. For that, male rats need big balls.
Because of the ridiculous sizeof rat balls, most movie makers and tv people consider them a little too rude, and only use female rats in films and on tv. There’s a good chance every single rat you’ve seen on film was a girl! Figuring out the sex of rats in tv and movies is one of my secret hobbies, and it’s super easy. If the rats don’t look like they’ve got big pink figs under their tails, you’re looking at a bunch of cute rat actresses.
The Frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) is one of two extant species of shark in the family Chlamydoselachidae, with a wide but patchy distribution in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Behind its grin is a mouth like nothing researches have ever seen: Row after row of razor sharp, hooked teeth; twenty-five rows; over three-hundred teeth. It’s possible that some of the myths and legends of sea serpents came from the Frilled shark.
Since its summertime and people are gonna be hitting the beach to swim and/or surf, i decided to make this informative shark post.
In the media sharks are portrayed as mean bloodthirsty and vicious creatures. Such as in movies like “The Shallows” and “Jaws”. But are sharks really that vicious? The answer is no. No they are not. Sharks are really nice and sweet creatures. I am a surfer and have been bitten a couple of times by sharks but i still know the truth… sharks aren’t evil creatures.
You may be thinking “but you’ve been bitten by one! How can they not be evil!?” Well the answer to that my bro
is simple, its all a misunderstanding. You see, sharks dont have great eyesight. They are blind as fuck. So they rely on other senses to find food. They see the silhouette of us surfers on our boards and they see it from a below angle and they think we kind look like seals, their favourite meal (as seen in the pics above). So they take just a nibble to see what the fuck we are. Once they realize we aint a seal, they go away. Why? Sharks HATE the taste of human meat. We disgusting af to them. Thats why the majority of shark attacks are just sharks bitting once and then leaving. They just wanted to know what the fuck we are bro. Its a case of mistaken identity. A misunderstanding. Have there been shark attacks where the shark bites more than once? Yeah. But thats rare and it only happens if the shark is either
(1) feeling threatened or provoked.
Or
(2) very hungry. Like, i mean STARVING.
Sharks just wanna eat but they dont wanna eat us. Its just a simple misunderstanding. As you can see in the photos above, people can swim with sharks and nothing happens. Its totally fine my dudes. So there you have it, sharks are homies, not hostile.
MORE INFO:
The likelihood of being attacked by a shark is thought to be 1 in 11.5 million, and only 4 or 5 people in the entire world die each year from shark attacks.[1]. If you’re still nervous about meeting one of these ocean predators, check out these guidelines to help you further minimize the chances of an encounter- http://m.wikihow.com/Avoid-Sharks-While-Surfing
PLEASE REBLOG THANKS MATE
If you’re scared of sharks don’t go in the water, but don’t actively hate sharks. Even Peter Benchley (the creator of jaws) hated what his story did, and actively tried to fix what damage had been done due to the paranoia caused by his book/the movie. He defended sharks until he died, and hated the shark hunting craze and fear he caused.
Sharks are good animals, don’t hate them just because you don’t understand them
A group of fishermen in Cornwall, England has just successfully released a massive thresher shark, forgoing an official size record to see the fish return to the sea.
Based on dimensions, the shark was estimated at some 368 pounds (167kg). If accurate, that number tops the UK shark-fishing record of 323 pounds (147 kg), which was set by another thresher shark in 1982.
“I knew what it was because it jumped 20 feet out of the water,” Watkins told us. “I couldn’t believe it. I was like a kid a Christmas. When the shark was brought aboard I made sure there was water passing over it.”
The team measured and photographed the shark, a process that Watkins limits to about three minutes. This is the same time goal used by many shark scientists during their workups, and it helps to reduce additional stress to the animal after a battle on the line.
PiraticOctopus 