The token Shark Expert

You have to hand it to George, he always comes up with the answers.

Last year, he managed to link some Shark attacks in Mexico to the La Niña. Did anything useful eventuate from his subsequent fact-finding trip to the region, apart from free tickets and a vacation? Did anybody see a paper outlining his thus acquired insights?

This time, he's linking a drop in Shark attacks in 2008 to the economic downturn.

• is that because historically, the majority of victims have been tourists and not local surfers, swimmers and spearos?
• is that because the residents of, say, Florida, California, SA and Oz who couldn't afford a holiday didn't use their own beaches but locked themselves into their homes instead? In utter frustration?
  
• and when, exactly, did the economic downturn explode? Maybe very much at the end of last year, i.e. kinda late for having a noticeable effect on the statistics? But before the recent events in recession-plagued Oz?
  

Well, to his credit, he then manages to observe that there might be a lot less Sharks around - but then, why predict an increase in attacks in the long term?
Because there will be more Sharks? I wish!

Collecting Shark attack data may be related to Ichthyology - or not.
But it certainly doesn't qualify anybody to go dabbling in Meteorology, Sociology and Economics - that is, unless interviewed in a Discovery Channel special where obviously anything goes and bloviating is being elevated to an Art.

Or is this the new direction of Academia, to reach out to the masses by postulating ludicrous Correlations based on completely inadequate Sample Sizes and nonexistent Hypotheses Tests?
Remember the Scientific Method?

As Gaius Plinius Secundus said nearly 2000 years ago: sutor ne supra crepidam!

And: did you notice the statistics from Florida? Where they did ban Fish feeding in 2002?
Will somebody please start asking the question what may be attracting the Sharks to the beaches?
Yes, I know, I'm repeating myself.

Out there

"It could be the last thing you see...

A great beast - the size of a bus - and its ravenous appetite, savaging all it encounters with razor-sharp teeth and a crushing strength unknown to man. At first lurking in the distance - another shadow in an ocean full of dark nuances. Then it approaches - and strikes swiftly, without remorse - in a blink, it all ends. In these parts, the locals simply know it as... "

.... and-so-on and-so-forth...
And this in 2008 when scores of Conservationists are despairing at the world-wide demise of Sharks. Thank you for being biased, ignorant and unconcerned!

But granted, Shark incidents do happen and surfers and other aquatic recreationists are understandably concerned and anxious about not ending up at the receiving end of such encounters.
I for one would never, ever go surfing, spearfishing or swimming in Great White territory, ever!

Some simply gloat and try to exploit the ensuing news, e.g. by setting up idiotic websites.
Others, for whom staying high and dry is simply not an option, have gone to the trouble of trying to develop a list of reasonable recommendations.
Like with us Shark divers, it all boils down to being smart, responsible and hopefully, to minimizing the risk by displaying adequate behavior and following a sensible set of procedures.

I did like this post on a South African surfing blog for for its laudable intention to remain unbiased and to put things into perspective. As to the idea with the eye, well, I dunno.... As always in those cases, it will remain an interesting but untested Hypothesis.
Other sites worth consulting are the recommendations by the International Shark Attack File and the Global Shark Attack File. Most of it is nothing more than common sense - but as we all know, that is a rare commodity indeed!

And if everything fails, there is always this.
And this for gators (I don't go swimming in the Everglades, either...)
And this if you parachute should fail to open (yes, you're likely to break your arms! over my dead body....).

But better than starting to memorize - be smart!
Chances are very very very much in your favor and you're likely to have one helluva time out there!