Do you have a favorite shark?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Meg.

[arewethereyet]

[Brian37]

No shit....... 

I live on the coast, but since Jaws came out, back when I was a kid, I cant go into the ocean above my knees.

Sharks are not something you fuck with. 

Whenever I watch free divers who swim with any kind of shark, outside of whale sharks, I cringe. 

I always think, "Better you than me."

Nonsense.  Sharks are virtually harmless. It's almost impossible to get bitten by a shark, even if you provoke it.

Boru

NOT THE POINT DUDE!

Depending on size any species of shark can give you a bad day.

WE interact in their environment. 

If one wants to talk about shark attacks and lottery winnings I get that. But both  are still bad odds.


Nobody should vilify sharks, but at the same time depending on species and size it makes sense to keep your distance.


Sharks should NOT be vilified. I AGREE. But they also should not be presumed kittens.

---

Saw Sharks are freaky 



And then there is the  Megamouth Shark

---

Nonsense.  Sharks are virtually harmless. It's almost impossible to get bitten by a shark, even if you provoke it.

Boru

You are more likely to be killed by a cow 

Yes, most sharks are harmless. But humans are dipsthist and we far to often invade their waters and to say that one shark is placid in response to other species that are aggressive is bullshit.

If one is going to give all species of sharks the benefit of the doubt, I am with you. But that does not mean sharks are are all cartoon cuddly characters. 

It still remains for all animals humans interact with, and have problems with, HUMANS are the problem.

[arewethereyet]

Dafuq is dipsthist?

[chimp3]

I was fishing in the Pacific between L.A. and North San Diego County. A whale shark swam under the boat. It was beautiful. Seemed about the size of a school bus.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Nonsense.  Sharks are virtually harmless. It's almost impossible to get bitten by a shark, even if you provoke it.

Boru

NOT THE POINT DUDE!

Depending on size any species of shark can give you a bad day.

WE interact in their environment. 

If one wants to talk about shark attacks and lottery winnings I get that. But both  are still bad odds.


Nobody should vilify sharks, but at the same time depending on species and size it makes sense to keep your distance.


Sharks should NOT be vilified. I AGREE. But they also should not be presumed kittens.

---

Saw Sharks are freaky 



And then there is the  Megamouth Shark

---

You are more likely to be killed by a cow 

Yes, most sharks are harmless. But humans are dipsthist and we far to often invade their waters and to say that one shark is placid in response to other species that are aggressive is bullshit.

If one is going to give all species of sharks the benefit of the doubt, I am with you. But that does not mean sharks are are all cartoon cuddly characters. 

It still remains for all animals humans interact with, and have problems with, HUMANS are the problem.

1. The majority of shark attacks are unprovoked.

2. If you behave aggressively to most shark species, they’re much more likely to swim away than they are to bite you.

3. I never said that sharks ‘are all cuddly cartoon characters’. I said that the odds of getting bitten by one are so low that it doesn’t merit serious consideration.

4. Humans are often the problem, not always. Some animals are just naturally aggressive.

Boru

[Gawdzilla Sama]

1976, snorkeling in Shark Channel (east end of Puerto Rico). Saw a silvery shape zoom past me. Then about forty-nine more. Barracudas. Utterly uninterested in me.

[Gnomey]

I swear, you guys. Reading bits from this thread made me dream last night that I was tied to a chair near the bottom of a reef in the ocean waiting to hang out with a whale shark. Ended up being super scared it would eat me by accident and woke up. 😅 I know they're generally very safe, but GEEEZZZZZ!!

[Brian37]

I was fishing in the Pacific between L.A. and North San Diego County. A whale shark swam under the boat. It was beautiful. Seemed about the size of a school bus.

That is fucking neat!

Me envy!

---

I swear, you guys. Reading bits from this thread made me dream last night that I was tied to a chair near the bottom of a reef in the ocean waiting to hang out with a whale shark. Ended up being super scared it would eat me by accident and woke up. 😅 I know they're generally very safe, but GEEEZZZZZ!!

The thing is in reality, even with animals of any species we consider placid, like elephants and giraffes, they are still big, still tribal and defensive of their herds. A stingray killed Steve Irwin. Normally non aggressive to humans does not make them never dangerous. The bottom line for all wildlife is unless you are a trained biologist/zoologist it is always best to keep your distance. Steve knew what he was doing, and still died from interacting with a normally non aggressive species. 

Just because a particular species doesn't see humans as food, , they still can potentially see you as a threat. 

Humans still have not yet widely enough accepted that we are not an apex, but one of billions of species.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I was fishing in the Pacific between L.A. and North San Diego County. A whale shark swam under the boat. It was beautiful. Seemed about the size of a school bus.

That is fucking neat!

Me envy!

---

I swear, you guys. Reading bits from this thread made me dream last night that I was tied to a chair near the bottom of a reef in the ocean waiting to hang out with a whale shark. Ended up being super scared it would eat me by accident and woke up. 😅 I know they're generally very safe, but GEEEZZZZZ!!

The thing is in reality, even with animals of any species we consider placid, like elephants and giraffes, they are still big, still tribal and defensive of their herds. A stingray killed Steve Irwin. Normally non aggressive to humans does not make them never dangerous. The bottom line for all wildlife is unless you are a trained biologist/zoologist it is always best to keep your distance. Steve knew what he was doing, and still died from interacting with a normally non aggressive species. 

Just because a particular species doesn't see humans as food, , they still can potentially see you as a threat. 

Humans still have not yet widely enough accepted that we are not an apex, but one of billions of species.

You keep using the term ‘apex’, when I think what you mean is ‘apex predator’ (‘apex’ simply means peak or the highest point of something).

Depending on which side of trophic habits you come down on, and how you define the term, humans may or may not be apex predators. Since we aren’t the natural prey for any other animals, we are apex predators. But since we get the majority of our calories from farming, we’re not apex predators. Probably the best view is that the predatory status of human varies depending on culture.

And the number of species hasn’t got anything to do with whether we’re apex predators or not.

Finally, there are less than ten million species, not ‘billions’.

Boru