Tag Archives: surfing competition

Too many sharks, or too many humans?

Brian Kilmeade is one of Fox News Channel’s co-hosts on its “Fox and Friends” morning show.

He wonders — in the wake of the spate of shark attacks — whether coastal authorities are doing enough to rid the waters of the predatory fish before swimmers dive into the surf.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/foxs-brian-kilmeade-why-arent-we-clearing-the-waters-of-sharks-so-ocean-swimming-is-safe/#.Va0iEG7QGPA.facebook

A champion surfer, Mick Fanning, was attacked by what is thought to be a great white shark while surfing off the South Africa coast. He fended off the attack and was rescued.

Still, Kilmeade pondered aloud: “You would think that they would have a way of clearing the waters before a competition of this level,” he opined. “But I guess they don’t.”

I rather like the response from a shark expert, George Burgess, who told The New York Post: “We’re basically flooding them out of their own home. It’s a function of how many people we’ve got,” Burgess pointed out. “You get this unholy mix of bait fish, sharks and humans together. When you have that, you’re going to have some bites.”

So, is the problem that we have too many human beings swimming in shark habitat? I get what Scripture says about humans having “dominion” over the animals.

Let’s be reasonable about this. Why would you stage a surfing competition in a coastal region where it is known to be populated by predators, such as great white sharks?

The oceans are vast and so are the beaches that surround them. How about looking elsewhere for those monster waves?