Shark plague, my arse!

For many of us (particularly the fellas) 'tis the fear that dare not speak its name; lest it should erode our sense of bravery. I'm sure that pilots have a similar attitude towards crashing or soldiers being shot. It is a calculated but not altogether controllable risk. I suppose that if we humans were particularly averse to such risks we would never have climbed down out of the tree or wandered out the cave, let alone entertain such dangerous pursuits as circumnavigating the globe or flying to the Moon.

If we analyse the risk of shark attack we can draw a couple of fairly comforting conclusions:

1. We are not on the menu. If sharks which have been around for nigh on 450 million years and we have been around in various incarnations for less than 3 million years; and popping in for a dip in significant numbers on a regular basis for only a hundred years. So if sharks, being creatures of habit were particularly dependant on the likes of us for a feed, they would have starved out of existence quite some time ago.

And;

2. There are many, many sharks out there and many, many types of sharks out there. Even though their numbers are dwindling due to reduced fish stocks and seal populations etc, there are still a lot more of them in the water all the time than us on any given sunny day. So once again, if they need to switch food sources in hurry to survive, methinks we're gonna sorely disappoint them into extinction.

The bottom line is that sharks, like spiders and snakes and all the other nasties are a lot less interested in us than we are in them. Yes, there have been horrible stories of shark attacks over the last century; some particularly frightful ones involving feeding frenzies on sailors awaiting rescue when their ships were sunk during wartime. But with rubber duckies buzzing around us and the watchful eye of the clubbies on the look out when we race, I reckon the risk is negligible. I certainly hope it never happens to any of us, but it may one day and there will probably be plenty of witnesses and possibly even TV coverage, and the proverbial excrement will certainly hit the fan.

It's a matter of personal choice, and I chose to swim. How about youz?

Davo.