More on Shark Week

I can’t help it – there is something appealing (and at the same time, repulsive) about Shark Week.  Last night, there was a special where someone investigated the reasons great white sharks jump out of the water after prey around a small island, called Seal Island, south of South Africa.  The research was interesting, to say the least, but one incident is burned in my mind. 

A whale washed up on a beach on the mainland.  The authorities were concerned about the decomposition, as well as the smell, and that the carcass would draw sharks.  So they towed the whale out near Seal Island, to get rid of it, and to keep the sharks away from people near the beach.  The sharks had a feeding frenzy, and provided the researchers some dramatic footage.  Considering that no one had ever had an opportunity to observe (or record) great whites in this kind of situation, it was most impressive. 

The next day, there was nothing left of the whale except for a sac containing the vital organs.  The smell was putrid, and there was not a great deal of interest from the local sharks.  However, the main researcher decided this was a prospect too great to pass up; despite the horrible smell and the slippery surface, he eased himself out onto the floating remains in order to get up close and personal with any sharks that might come back for more.  The surface area was about the size of a small rowboat, and he is literally an arm’s length away from all edges.  When a great white feeds, they often shake their prey from side to side.  On smaller animals, like the seals they seem so fond of, this quickly disables their lunch.  On larger animals, like the whale carcass, this allows them to tear off a huge portion of meat.  No surprise when a great white approached the remains and began to shake and tear off a portion.  It was only by the sheerest luck the researcher was not dumped in the ocean.  He got some pictures from less than two feet away, but for me the risk far outweighed those pictures.  (I would have been on the boat, several feet away, with a telephoto lens, but that might be why I have not been asked to do a special for shark week.)

Despite many warnings throughout the evening from the TV station, the researchers, the photographers, and anyone else connected with Shark Week, who all said, “DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR OWN…IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!”  – I bet there is someone, somewhere who is thinking, “If they can do that – maybe I can too…then I could have my OWN special on shark week.”  My fear is they may wind up as a statistic on a show about shark attack fatalities.

I am convinced that I am not going to do anything really stupid when it comes to sharks.  I’m not going to go swimming where I know there have been attacks.  I’m not going to try to get “just a little closer” to a shark.  I’m not going to risk body parts or my life to get a “once in lifetime picture.”  If only I could have had the same sense when it came to obesity and to food.  I played “Russian Roulette” with my health, because of my obesity.  I didn’t win…there ARE no winners in obesity.