the corner office : Big-ass shark attacks! Run!

Big-ass shark attacks! Run!

I heard this on the radio this morning, and I just saw Cherryflava blog about it too: a 6 metre Great White shark attacked an old lady at Fish Hoek in the Cape this morning. "All that was left was a little red bathing cap."

If this poor lady had been killed by muggers on the beach, it'd barely have gotten a mention in the local newspapers.

This kind of stuff freaks us out because we have a primal response to the thought of being devoured by huge monstrous creatures so it makes good news, and there's bound to be Jaws paranoia and radio and TV coverage and all sorts of sensationalisation going on. Yet hundreds of thousands of people still regularly go sploshing around in shark-infested waters each year. Shark attacks are so statistically negligible that people don't regard them as a real danger, but when the inevitable happens, then everyone's talking about it. Even me.

That's a bloody big shark, though.

{2004.11.15 13:42}

Comments:

1. Ben Langhinrichs (2004.11.15 - 23:19) #

Things must be more exciting down there than up here in Cleveland, OH, USA. Here, if muggers killed a little old lady on the beach and left nothing but a little red bathing cap, I'm fairly sure it would be big news for a while. We're pretty sensitive about our muggings, what few there are. Then again, I guess we don't see many Great White sharks around the Great Lakes, so maybe that would be an even bigger story.

2. Senkwe (2004.11.16 - 14:26) #

With all due respect to the old lady, I tend to take the side of animals in cases like this. On the news I saw plenty of signs and warnings about sharks in the water. So it's a case of human...well I can't find the right word. If I were the shark however, I'd definitely be feeling pretty satisfied with myself. That's his domain afterall.