In Chatham, Massachusetts there have been at least ten sightings of great white sharks over the past week. Beaches have been closed over the Labor Day weekend as these sharks have been seen only seventy yards from the shoreline. In nineteen seventy five a movie named Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, scared the living the wits out of me. My days of swimming at Cape Cod beaches just might be over.
A total of five great white sharks have now been electronically tagged off Cape Cod, allowing experts to track their movements. The state office of Energy and Environmental Affairs says three more sharks were tagged on Tuesday off Monomy Island, near Chatham. Agency spokesman, Kate Plourd, says one of the sharks was estimated to be 15 feet long. The others were estimated to be 10 to 12 feet and nine feet in length, respectively.
White sharks are predatory animals that begin life by feeding on fish, rays, and other sharks, and as they grow, switch to feeding on marine mammals and scavenging on large animal carcasses. Their first mammalian prey is usually the small harbor seal; but as the sharks increase in size, they become large enough to eat sea lions, elephant seals, and small toothed whales. Attack strategy consists of a swift, surprise attack from below, inflicting a large, potentially fatal bite. The pinniped often dies from massive trauma or blood loss; but the bites may be superficial or misplaced on the body, allowing the seal to escape and survive the attacks with their scars as witness. Large white sharks will also scavenge on the carcasses of whale sharks, and on the fat-rich blubber layer of dead whales. They will occasionally feed on sea turtles and sea otters, and are known to attack, but not eat, humans.
So they only attack humans and not just eat us. Great! Nothing like getting bit by a shark I always say. Only hurts as bad as a mosquito bite, right?
Experts say the Great White Shark has entered the shores of Cape Cod because the seal population is exploding there. The Great White Shark see’s seal on the menu and goes out for dinner.
Sharks are not the only species on earth that people feel are useless. Wolves, bears, and cougars also do not serve a purpose that people can see. They can hurt people and people's livestock without provocation. On the other hand, without these predators to prey on animals; these animals can run wild, overpopulate and eat all the food items. They also can have a population crash which will lead to disease and who knows what else....oh, did I mention that since all the deer, elk, etc. are overpopulated our livestock now has little too little to eat. On top of that, all the prey animals are now destroying our crops because they are reproducing with nothing to check them.
We are prey animals after all. And we want to go parading ourselves in front of a hungry predator which to me is extremely unwise. We put ourselves under undo risk. Why should those animals fear or respect us? We pass laws so that they can't be hunted, and we expect them to thank us for it? Welcome to the real world. Predatory animals are not just animals, they are machines programmed to eat, sleep, and produce other little eating machines.
When you are a predator you eat the easiest things you can find, a'la humans. We have to start respecting the animals and not just kill them off. We as humans above all need to know our place as one of god’s creations. We are a steward of this earth and we need to protect and preserve it. Sometimes you have to cull things out. This earth doesn't belong solely to us......we hold it in trust for those who follow. The Great White Shark has a place on earth; I just wish it was not near the beach I swim at. We can not just go out and destroy every predatory animal that we believe is “useless”. We have to learn to live with them and learn that humans are not the only species on earth.
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