Good or bad?
July 21, 2011 (Thursday)
Do you like to go fishing? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could get into your boat, sail out to the middle of a huge harbor, let down the anchor and just watch the fish as they jump into your boat?
Over in South Africa the other day, a fish jumped into a boat. A big fish. A really big fish: a Great White Shark! The people on board were not really fishing; they were doing research (on the Great White Sharks). This was an extremely rare event. No one knew exactly what to do, because the shark was partially in the boat, entangled in the onboard equipment, and partially in the water. The shark was about 10 feet long and weighed about 1100 pounds.
I remember when I was a kid my dad and I would fish off the jetties at Freeport. We caught a lot of sharks–baby sharks about a foot long or shorter. I stepped on one once and the dorsal fin went right up through my shoe, proving itself to be razor sharp. They were fun to catch because they hit the bait at full speed and tried to take it across the channel.
The Great White Shark, however, is five feet long when it is born. It is called a “pup.” Some pup, huh? Strange, when I think of “pup” I think of cute and cuddly. Besides looking for something to eat, shark pups spend their days escaping from bigger fish, including sharks. When grown, they will take life easier, because then they will be at the top of the food chain. Fortunately for the seals and sea lions, etc., the Great Whites eat a big meal only every month or two.
Back to the folks with the shark in their boat. After considerable effort, they got him back into the water, but he was so discombobulated that he beached himself. They used ropes and got him back into the water, and when he was recovered from his ordeal, he swam swiftly away to sea.
Speaking of swimming swiftly, the big guy is swimming around 43 mph when he grasps a seal on the water’s surface. The momentum carries him into the air as he breaches. That must be quite a sight (see it here).
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Newspaper article about the Great White in the boat in South Africa