A school of hammerhead sharks
Sharks are the most terrifying animal of the sea. Shark attacks can’t be avoided and are considered accidents. There’s no good reasons for getting close to a shark. There are lots of shark species, though generally the more dangerous sharks have wide mouths and visible teeth. Relatively harmless ones have smaller mouths on the underside of their heads. Keep in mind that almost any shark can still inflict painful and easily fatal injuries.
Each year, about 60 shark attacks are reported around the world, but perhaps surprisingly, death is pretty uncommon. Despite the relative rarity of shark attacks, the fear of sharks is not common. Almost all shark experts are of the opinion that dangers presented by sharks has been largely exaggerated, perhaps in part due to sensationalism regarding shark attacks in both news and entertainment media.
While there are more than 350 species of shark that we know of, only 4 of them are known to fatally injure humans in unprovoked attacks:
- Great White
- Bull
- Tiger
- Oceanic Whitetip
There are generally two types of shark attacks:
- The provoked attack: A person touches the shark, pokes at it, teases it, or otherwise provokes it.
- The unprovoked attack:
- The hit-and-run attack – Frequently not fatal, the shark bites and leaves; the majority of victims don’t see the attacking shark.
- The sneak attack – The victim won’t typically see the attacking shark, the victim may receive several deep bites. As you might expect, this is the most frequently fatal of the different shark attack.
- The bump-and-bite attack – The shark bumps before biting, then typically swims away.
Surprisingly, great white sharks don’t usually target humans as prey, at least not on purpose.
The larger shark species are apex predators of their habitats and possess little fear of any creature they cross paths with, unaccustomed to being threatened by any other creatures. They tend to be curious when encountering something strange in their territories. The only method sharks have enabling them to investigate something (living or not) is to bite it. This is called an exploratory bite. Most shark bites are actually just exploratory, and the animal will usually swim away after the exploratory bite. Exploratory bites on surfers are theorized to be the result of sharks mistaking a surfer for the shape of an animal the shark usually preys on. Accidents happen even in the natural world. Not surprisingly, a single exploratory bite can critically injure someone if the shark involved is a particularly powerful species such as great white shark or tiger shark.
Feeding is not a reason sharks usually attack people. In fact, Nutritionally speaking, humans can’t provide enough high-fat flesh for sharks to be worth the effort. They expend a lot energy in pursuit of prey, they need to hunt prey that provide the calories needed to power their large and muscular bodies.
A typical sharks strategy is to make one quick, brutal attack and then retreat and wait for the struck prey to die or exhaust itself. This strategy protects sharks from injury from the wounded and probably aggressive target, and also allows humans who have been bit the time need to get out of the water and get medical attention for the injury. Like with other assholes of the animal world, some shark attacks occur due to territorial reasons or as a show of dominance over another species of shark. Read more »
The sea wasp, or Chironex fleckeri, is one of several box jellyfish and possibly the most toxic, having been described as “the most lethal jellyfish in the world”. The sea wasp is also the largest of the box jellyfish species. It lives in the waters of North Australia all the way up to the coastal waters of the Philippines.
