European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 31, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse 7 feet of water. After the shark s first pass Only the woman s Torso from the Waist up was visible to rescuers. A moment later the shark returned and grabbed the rest of the woman. The attacks on humans May be a Case of mistaken identity. A stubby surfboard when paddled along the surface of the water May appear to a shark below to be Trie outline of an invitingly Large Seal. The same May be True for divers in dark wetsuits who swim near the surface. Sharks also May attack in defense of heir territory. As appears to be the Case with Gray reel Sharks in the Pacific. Or they May be attacking for other behavioural reasons an analysis of the bites on shark attack victims shows that As Many As 60 percent of the wounds Are caused Only by the Teeth of the upper jaw. Slashes of the upper jaw Are typical of the courting advances of. Some male Sharks according to Sanford a. Moss a shark specialist. For this reason it would be useful to know if the attacking Sharks Are male or female. Whatever the shark s motivation researchers believe that they Are drawn to their victims principally by smells and sounds. A scuba diver with a line of speared and bleeding fish presents As Moss puts it a Rich olfactory More Subtle secretions such As human sweat urine mucus or menstrual blood May draw Sharks. There is even evidence that they respond to the weak electrical Fields that surround All living animals. The splashing of swimmers result in pulsed Low frequency sounds that seem to attract Sharks. As a shark draws closer to its victim the animal s vision becomes a Factor. Tests suggest that some Sharks respond More often to lighter brighter objects. The highly visible survival yellow of life vests was so attractive that the experimenters dubbed it Yum Yum there also Are some studies suggesting that Sharks Are attracted to Light skinned bathers. But whether the shark attacks out of hunger sexual excitement or territorial defense the experts agree tha fewer than 30 of the 350 known shark species Are dangerous to humans. The Navy withdrew funding for the data collection Effort after Baldridge presented his analysis to the Pentagon. Baldridge found that most of the attacks involved recreational swimmers and non Navy personnel and recommended that the research Effort be funded by non government sources. The american Elasmobranch society a professional society for shark experts has been trying to obtain private funding for the shark attack file and Hopes to move the records to the Florida stats museum in Gainsville. But even As the file languished scientists were starting to learn More about Sharks from other sources. Researchers have been using tagging methods to track the migration of Sharks. Each year 2,500 fishermen cooperate with Casey in efforts to tag Sharks. Casey and his colleagues have recorded More than 57,000 shark lagging since 1961. In recent years his Diligence has started to pay off As Sharks tagged Many years before Are being caught by shark anglers in Distant locales. It was 12 years after the tagging program began before researchers got their first proof that Blue Sharks travel across the Atlantic. Now such reports Are routine. A Blue shark tagged off Long Island s Shinn Ecock Inlet was caught last year near the Canary islands 2,888 nautical Miles away. It had been at Liberty 28 months. A tagged Lemale Sandbar shark was recaptured after 17 years at Liberty and found to be still immature an indication of How slowly some shark species grow. The slow growth and the Lew numbers of Young commonly six or fewer baby Sharks Par pregnant female leave shark populations susceptible to Quick declines in they Are Over fished Casey said. Researchers remain largely in the dark about the numbers of Sharks in a Given area and whether they May pose a danger to humans. More systematic studies of shark attacks would complement the scientific studies on shark movement and behaviour according to Casey and others. There is not really any understanding of Why. Sharks come close to Shore said Guido Dingerkus a shark specialist for the american museum of natural history in new York. Sharks Are very sensitive to even minor changes in the Marine now Vok Tutti photo an Alligator in the Okefenokee swamp in Georgia when the water level is much lower than Normal. The drought hat caused alligators to Mova to Molster areas such a residential atom drains and sewer pipes. Southeast drought a calamity for wildlife by David Treadwell los Angeles times ill Croft does not Bat an Eye any More when anglers return to his fish Camp on the Altamaha River in Georgia with tales about the shark that got away. Sharks Are usually rare so far upstream from their natural Home in the Atlantic Ocean about eight Miles East of Darien a. But the drought that has parched much of the american Southeast has Cut the flow of the meandering Altamaha so much that Saltwater is penetrating farther and farther Inland bringing Sand Sharks stingrays Blue crabs and other Saltwater species into the murky Depths where the Catfish is usually King. There was a Fella Here just the other Day who caught a 30-Inch-Long Sand shark while he was out fishing for cats said Croft 40, the co owner of the two Way fish Camp just South of Darien. For a while he thought he had the biggest fish in the at the boy scout Camp in Hinesville just North of Darien three alligators moved into a Pond about the size of a football Field. A Pond that size does t have enough food to keep three alligators satisfied said Bill Corbett an environmentalist with the Hinesville health department. They probably stayed in the Pond because of the drought instead of moving to a better feeding ground so they ate cats and dogs to make up for the Sharks and alligators Are the More unusual scenes in what is turning out to be a remarkable sideshow to the devastating Southeast drought. While most attention has been focused on parched farmlands and industries starved for water there has been a parallel calamity among the fish and wildlife of the Region. As Flowers and plants Wither streams and Ponds shrink and Marshlands and Bays turn saltier in is Clear that the torrid temperatures and largely painless skies have created disastrous conditions Lor some species and merely Adverse times for most others. Climatologists say that in May be years Beloe the Region s record rainfall deficit is made up meanwhile the Fauna and Flora continue to suffer. In Virginia and Maryland Lor instance Marine biologists Are worried by the threat to Oyster Beds from High Salt Levels in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays two deadly internal parasites known by the names of Max and Dermo thrive when the ratio of sail to water rises and spread rapidly within the Oyster population for reasons still unexplained Max and Dermo became prevalent in the mid-1950s and Devastey the Oyster fisheries in the lower Delaware and Chesapeake Bays said Roger Newell a University of Maryland Marine biologist. Now the last remaining areas of substantial Oyster populations in the sanctuaries of the upper Bays Are being threatened because of the increased salinity " Oyster Beds along Alabama s Gulf coast face a similar threat. There the danger comes chiefly from Snail like predators known As Oyster drills that thrive in Salty water. In Northern Georgia Trout in hatcheries that depend on cold water from Mountain streams to raise the fish Are imperilled because of the reduced Stream flows and higher water temperatures. We have had to move All the big fish out As quickly As we could said Don Pfitzer an Atlanta based spokesman or the . Fish and wildlife service which operates the Chattahoochee Forest National fish hatchery. The lower volume of water How and the increased temperatures Are putting stress on the fish increasing parasite problems and diseases he said. Some Days we were losing 4,000 to 5.000 fish a Day among the fingerlings the Small fish anywhere from two to four inches Long. Fish in their natural habitat also Are suffering several fish kills have been reported in North Carolina while the drought has not had a noticeable Impact on wildlife yet said Jim Howard of the National Parks service s Southeast regional office in Atlanta our resource managers can speculate that come the fall months these animals will be wondering. Where is our food who in the Heck got into our stuff " sunday August 31, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17
