Shark Attack-Research Paper

Lorriane Rodríguez
Professor M. García
INGL-3104 Sec.L01
May 14, 2012
Shark Attacks
Sharks have been well known for provoking panic across the world, but have you ever wondered why. Other than the various unprovoked shark attacks reported causing the death of many people, the famous movie Jaws made in 1975 created a distorted way of shark behavior. In many other movies, the shark is anevil, ugly monster, lying in wait to attack swimmers. It’s true sharks attack humans; however, between the year of 1990 and 2006 in the United States 11 people died by a shark attack. In the same period of time and in the U.S. also, 12,974 people died in bicycle accidents.
A seventy percent of oceanic waters around the world are shark free. There are 360 different species of sharks and only 4 havebeen involved in unprovoked attacks: the great white shark, oceanic white tip, tiger shark, and bull shark. Nevertheless, it is more the amount of sharks killed than the deaths sharks cause humans. About 80,000 sharks die caught in coastal protection nets. Year after year from 70,000 to 500,000 sharks die victims of “sport fishing”, 11,000,000 are trapped by mistake in fishing boats, and 30million are caught basically or mainly for the selling of their fins. In the last thirty years the shark population has been reduced by a 70%. These numbers show us that humans are much deadlier than sharks and even then we still feel more intimidated by sharks than ourselves.

Source Citation
"Shark Victim Laughed off Risk of Attack." 2 Apr. 2012. Web.<http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=37b8549faad824b3c55f600250793d16&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=cora&tabID=T004&docId=CJ284875233&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0>.
The great white shark strikes again in the Western Australia. It is specifically in Australia where there are more deaths caused by shark attacks. However, there are more shark attacksreported in the U.S.A., but not as many deaths as the ones reported in Australia. It is in this country that white sharks can find their favorite food, seals. The attack took place in Stratham Beach in Western Australia. The remains of what seemed to be Mr. Kurmann’s body, the victim, were found by a couple walking around a beach between Bunbury and Mandurah.
A man named Peter McDonald said, "Theywere both descending down the anchor rope to the dive site and Peter was in front of Gian and apparently it came out of nowhere and grabbed him." White sharks have a specific technique they use to attack and given the description that Peter gave I assume the shark must have been either protecting his territory or very hungry. The attack consists of the shark’s careful examination of its prey, inthis case Mr. Kurmann, then the shark keeps following him very closely, but never allowing its prey to see him. Just when the victim thinks he’s perfectly safe, in a flash, almost invisible, comes the shark without the victim even noticing it was there. Although the shark did kill a human being, I don’t think killing it is a great idea, because we never know why the shark attacked him in the firstplace. Of course people get scared but we can’t go around killing everything and everyone that hurts us in any way. There should be a better and more humane way to stop the sharks to attack in that tourist area.
Source Citation
"Man Badly Injured in Shark Attack." 19 July 2012. Web.<http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=37b8549faad824b3c55f600250793d16&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=cora&tabID=T004&docId=CJ277459655&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0>.

Another attack was reported off Redhead Beach in Australia and this time it was the aggressive bull shark. This shark is believed to be even more aggressive and dangerous than the tiger shark, because this shark can be found in both salt and freshwater. The...