Sunday, October 26, 2014

Red Sea Shark Attacks - Paper!

The Mako- source.

So there.

My backlog is nearly cleared.
Have you read the post about Collier's demented dog like I suggested?
If not, please do - and then please refresh your memory by reading, in chronological order, this and this post, and links, about those 2010 Shark attacks in the Red Sea.

And now, read this.

Well what can I say.
In general terms, it's probably the worst anti Shark feeding piece of pseudo-scientific rubbish I've read, ever. Considering the caliber of three first authors, this is hardly surprising - but it's a real shame to witness that they've managed to rope in Vincent, a generally smart guy who happens to make a living by taking customers diving with OWTs in baited conditions and regularly hand feeds large predatory Sharks!
Buddy - what the fuck?

But by all means, let's look at that shit.
There is actually one aspect I do like, and that is the evidence collection.
We now dispose of a good time line, good descriptions of the attacks and the injuries, have a good overview of the locality and of possible (albeit not always plausible, see below) factors contributing to the attacks and dispose of credible evidence linking an individual Mako and an individual OWT to the first two pairs of attacks.
But having said that - why does the paper assert that victim 2 was bitten in the buttock when the description of the attack states nothing of the kind? And where, please, is the evidence that the perpetrator of attack 5 is an OWT, let alone the same OWT as in 1 and 2?

And the interpretation?
Generally speaking, nothing I read leads me to differ from what I speculated back then, so no need to elaborate: agree about the contribution of the unique topography and the elevated numbers of water users, and that those were predatory events = attacks; skeptical about the Sheep and the Fish feeding; strongly dispute that the elevated temperature was causing a "need to feed" in the homeothermic Mako - rather the exact contrary! Or not?
But I notice that both the Mako and especially the OWT look emaciated which may be lending some creed to the argument about the overfishing of prey - but then, should the Sheep not have provided sufficient nourishment? Or may those Sharks have been sick?
And I'm still baffled by the fact that both Sharks were not coastal but epipelagic, and that they and at least one more OWT had quasi simultaneously found their way into the Gulf of Aqaba, well north of their usual reported range! Were they following a vessel or more likely, following prey that had been displaced north due to the heat wave?

Leaves Collier's demented dog.
Those folks continue to assert that an OWT that was being fed Fish by divers was thus conditioned to go and eat not divers but snorkelers. And that it bit them in the hands and in the ass because it had been hand fed, and the bait was being kept in a fanny pack. Like Collier's demented family dog!
What a load of crap!

This is what really happened.
Two, possibly three (additional Carcharhinid in attack 4) or even four (Carcharhinid in attack 5) Sharks attacked snorkelers and swimmers = people that emit noise/vibrations and are thus routinely the targets of Shark strikes. All Sharks and not only the hand-fed one struck the extremities (both legs and arms) because the principal vibrations originated there and because the victims used them to fend off the attacks.  The buttocks of victims 1 and 5 were never primary targets - instead, the injuries to the buttocks happened as the Sharks bit the victims in the upper legs and torso.

That simple - even an idiot like me can see it.
Any other interpretation is nothing but unsubstantiated anti-feeding propaganda, totally speculative pseudo-scientific horse shit. After literally thousands upon thousands of hand feeds of numerous species, we observe absolutely nothing of the kind those folks assert and on the contrary, are actually astonished at the continued shyness of the very same animals in un-baited conditions - and this corresponds to what everybody else in the industry is witnessing as well. Again: with the possible exception of SA, there is no geographical correlation between baited Shark dives and Shark strikes! Think Florida, California, WA, Reunion, Recife etc etc - there is no Shark feeding at any of those locations!

Like I said, not surprised,
When it comes to Levine and Collier under the academic leadership of Dr. Hopalot, it just reinforces my contempt for those people and their fake research institute. As per the link above, Collier is somebody who knows something about something and now has taken it upon himself to bloviate about Shark-related topics he hasn't gotten the faintest clue about. Ritter and Levine, barf - but considering that they regularly sell and partake in provisioned Shark dives, this moronic filth is just the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
Fouda was likely their host in Egypt and likely doesn't know better. Special H/T to Jennifer V. Schmidt and to all the other reviewers for their glaring failure in discerning the egregious faults of this stupidity. And finally, congratulations to Burgess, normally an anti hand feeding advocate, for not having partaken in this fiasco - likely more out of distaste for the individuals, but well done none-the less!

And Vincent.
Stop being a sucker - that affiliation will end up biting you in the ass big time!
Pun intended!

Oh and...  oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharinus longimanus (first paragraph). Really. If that doesn't say it all...
  

11 comments:

Melvin Beer Belly Morgan Jr said...

Dang Dude - you are so darn synikal.

I just got goddam attakked by a goddam shark on a goddam day out.

Just a nice kinda mellow day trip in a nice boat with lots of nice folks eating ice creams and frankburgers and hamfurters.

Turned into a goddam nitemare.

Damn I swear I never been so goddam scared. Not since our Pastor looked under my bed and found thoze magazeenes that I swore Id burned. But he sayd I was lookin at eternal hellfire and I said I was lookin at art. And he took my whole collectshion and said as I wasnt to be trusted hed just have to burn them himself. Havent seen him round these parts for six months.

Im sure it was a shark. Heres my video to goddam prove it-

Melvin Beer Belly Morgan Jr attacked by shark on nice day out

Im gonna send the video to thoze clever folks at SRI for them to explain with syense what happened.

Damn I miss my magazeens.

Wilhelm said...

This is the worst blog ever I read.

Who are you? Have you ever even seen a shark? Well I have. I am a graduate of Dr Erich's Shark School and proud of it.

And Dr Erich taught us how to swim safely with sharks. Where were u Mr Big Mouth Blog Poster when we were swimming with sharks?!?! And not just any sharks! NURSE SHARKS. Yes. You read it right. Swimming SAFELY with nurse sharks!!! Because Dr Erich had us doing his patented Shark School Synchronized Water Entry and Swim Methods (TM) that he perfected after spending 1,000,000 hours interacting with sharks and learning about sharks and never ever getting bit except one or twice because of someone else's fault.

This is us practicing:

Safe shark entry and swim practice and practice and practice

And only on the very last day did we leave the swimming pool after we got every move just right and Dr Erich let us get in the sea with those NURSE SHARKS. Some were over A METRE long!!! And it worked. Those nurse sharks took off like bats out of hell thanks to the Shark School Synchronized Water Entry and Swim Methods (TM) that remove all chance of accidents (though Boris got cramp and nearly drowned). They never saw another shark there for the rest of the season.

So next time Mr Big Mouth Blog Poster you want to criticize you go and try swimming with NURSE SHARKS without using the Shark School Synchronized Water Entry and Swim Methods (TM).

Megalobomb said...

Ah yes, published in the Open Journal of Animal Science (impact factor = 0.0) - part of Science Research Publishing (SCIRP), which is listed in Beall's 2014 List of Predatory Publishers. These predatory/fake journals will publish anything to make money off authors who pay steep publishing fees (OJAS's fees are currently $800 for a 10-page long manuscript, +$50 per additional page).

Still, it's hard to tell who is taking advantage of whom?

DaShark said...

Thanks for that - and again, totally not surprised!

Shark Industry Rubicon said...

Hey, lookee what I found on them Internets:

"Hypocrisy"

From Wikipedia

Hypocrisy is the pretense of holding beliefs, opinions, behaviors, virtues, motivations, or other characteristics that one does not in actual fact hold.

Like for example leading hand feeding shark tours with OWT's and Tigers and then appearing in a recent shark paper excoriating shark feeds - to wit:

"The hand feeding by divers of the oceanic whitetip shark was probably contributory to its assaults. Con- ditioning of sharks using food as a reward has been previously tested experimentally. The association, by sharks, of food (prey) and humans can have drastic and severe consequences as noted in these incidents."

To "Hypocrisy" let us add the not so kind, "fucking moron," and even less kind "industry sell out."

Of course those involved in "Hypocrisy" often blame the messenger saying things like, "I didn't know," or "they lied to me," or a perennial favorite,"I was misquoted."

So sad to see those who make a fine living from sharks turn so quickly when opportunity presents to jump on bandwagons commandeered by the drooling idiots of the shark world.

I had thought there were some lines that even the most cynical of shark tour operators would not cross.

Appears I was wrong, again.

OfficetoOcean said...

I agree with Willhelm entirely

DaShark said...

Rubicon, I wouldn't be so harsh - the SRI folks are crafty and have suckered in other legit ppl and operators in the past.
Case in point, ever the con artists, here they are mentioning poor Compagno, no doubt in order to add a weighty name to compensate for their academic insignificance.

Methinks that like with those other folks, this will be part of a learning process.

Cross The Rubicon said...

Hallowed Blog Manager, you have only been writing about this stuff for what?

Eons? #getaclue

How is it you seem to be the only one who understands?

Don't answer that #poxonstupidity

Shark Diver said...

I love it, when you so adoringly write about my favorite scientologist.

He will now point out that he has written another pear reviewed (is that when you compare pears to pears instead of apples to apples?) paper, the next time I point out that the 16ft white shark he identified as eating a seal, is really a baby dolphin, nursing on his mother.

I still remember the one, maybe only time, he's ever seen a white shark, when he came to lupe with us about 10-11 years ago. There was a big brown cloud coming out of his wetsuit and we had to charge him that extra cleaning deposit. ;-)

DaShark said...

Pear review huh.
Epic! :)

jsd said...

Note that the title of this atrocious paper is

'Shark Cognition and a Human Mediated Driver of a Spate of Shark Attacks'

and therein, we read

'Multiple bites, such as those sustained by 4 of the 5 victims, usually involve a strong trigger such as predation, or feeding behavior.'

- Pausing briefly to wonder what profound difference the SRI folk see between predation and feeding behavior, we can recall that Dr Hopalot has been telling us for years there are no such things as shark attacks, just shark accidents, and that sharks never, ever want to do us harm.

Meanwhile, if the SRI/GSAF shark attack (sorry, accident) experts would like to take themselves off to Logic 101, they might grasp the uselessness of their circular reasoning: they suggest that the sharks had been hand fed because of the victims' wounds, and they suggest that the victims' wounds are because the sharks had been hand fed. Confused? You should be. Gibberish is always confusing.