The news has been assaulted with tales of shark attacks over the past couple of weeks, from Oahu to Santa Barbara County to Volusia County and back to the Big Island (twice!). Activity seems to be unusually brisk – we are currently at a ‘High’ Alert Level, triggered by back-to-back shark attacks in Hawaii and California.
Some speculate that there are more people in the water, others posture that the shark’s natural prey may be depleted, forcing them to seeking out alternative food sources. Or might we blame the controversial “mistaken identity theory?” – recent attacks have taken place in the murky waters of river mouths (for example, The Ponce Inlet.)
Perhaps it is all just hogwash, and no one’s being attacked more than usual, the world is just more connected and has faster distribution of information. We’ll let you come to your own conclusions, while we continue to stir the pot.
Whatever the reason, the amount of life-threatening human/ shark activity appears to have reached record highs (are we biased?) Some of the stories that The Fear Beneath has covered lately include:
9/9 Surfer Attacked and a “Fairly Massive Injury” at Crouching Lion on Windward Oahu
9/7 Surfer Dragged By Large Shark At Clarke’s Beach, Australia
9/6 Volusia County Goes For Record Shark Attacks In One Year (and they might just get there!)
9/2 Stinson Beach, San Francisco, Reopens Amid Shark Fears
Many Dates: A Preponderance of Decapitated/ Mauled Pinnipeds