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Earth Idle News Science

Great White Sharks Visiting San Francisco 105

Ponca City, We love you writes "Juliet Eilperin writes in the Washington Post that while for years, humans have thought of great white sharks as wandering the sea at random, only occasionally venturing close to shore, it turns out we were wrong. Scientists lured 179 great white sharks to their boat with a carpet decoy designed to look like a seal, and used a lance to attach satellite tags with the aid of 2.3-inch titanium darts to track the sharks and discovered that Pacific white sharks spend months near the northern and central California coast between August and February, foraging among elephant seals, sea lions, and other prey. The sharks were spotted as far inland as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, east of the Golden Gate Bridge. 'It shows you how wild it is off our West Coast of North America. This is Yellowstone,' says Stanford University marine sciences professor Barbara A. Block. The fact that 'a major concentration' of great whites can ignore humans 'shows us the sharks are really minding their own business. The number of interactions with people is very small, considering,' says Salvador J. Jorgensen."
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Great White Sharks Visiting San Francisco

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  • Re:uh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12, 2009 @04:25AM (#30070290)

    Let's see. You're using a film, produced by Hollywood, as a guide to the behaviour of a wild creature. Great move, that.

    While you're at it, how about using Independence Day (ID4) as a guide to defeating an alien invasion using a Macintosh? Or The Core for a guide to plate tectonics? Or The Day After Tomorrow for a guide on global warming?

    Sheesh.

    As any serious diver will tell you, generally speaking, a shark sighting is a cause for excitement and anticipation, not panic. Leave them alone, and they'll generally leave you alone. Remember, kids: things make the news because they're (a) sensational, and (b) rare (which leads to the sensation.) The hype of shark attacks is nowhere near justified.

  • by dougisfunny ( 1200171 ) on Thursday November 12, 2009 @08:48AM (#30071280)

    Intent, just like the difference between manslaughter and murder.

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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