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How Will People React To Sharks On The Beach?
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As the BP oil spill continues more marine animals are fleeing the contaminated areas in search of cleaner waters closer to shore. Sharks, dolphins and turtles are showing up in droves near the beaches and piers of the Gulf coast where people frequent. Could this increased interaction between humans and animals cause a new set of problems in the coming months?
The oil spill is depleting tens of thousands of square miles of habitat for sharks and dolphins and killing off their sources of food. The oil and leaking methane are also eating away at life sustaining oxygen. It is literally driving large marine animals to shallow, healthier waters closer to shore.
One marine biologist compared the situation to animals fleeing from a forest fire.
The Gulf of Mexico typically has oxygen levels of nearly eight parts per million and now even the shallow areas are down to two parts per million.
Larry Crowder, a Duke University marine biologist told New York Daily News, “There will be a lot of fish, sharks, and turtles trying to get out of this water they detect is not suitable.”
This week sharks, crabs, sting rays, birds and dolphins all started to crowd the piers from Panama Beach, Florida, to the beaches of Louisiana. And as they arrive people are getting a firsthand look at how each of the species behaves in the wild.
For instance, it is common for sharks to have violent “feeding frenzies” in the ocean. But will that behavior be acceptable to people who are able to watch a shark thrashing around a local beach?
Biologists worry how sharks and other marine animals will co-habitat with their new human neighbors. They are concerned that the animals’ natural behaviors will seem threatening to people and will put the animals in as great a risk as the oil spill.
This interaction cost the lives of a group of sea turtles, earlier this week. Ed Clark, co-founder and president of the Wildlife Center of Virginia was with a group of scientists and wildlife experts from the U.S. and Canada as they watched what happened when the turtles got in the way of the oil clean up effort.
“There was an effort under way to rescue sea turtles from the thick floating beds of seaweed that provide cover and habitat. Two shrimp boats towing a large boom filled with oil chased the rescuers off, and – with turtles still in the water – encircled the oil-covered seaweed beds and set fire to it all,” Clark wrote in his daily blog.
Human and marine animal interaction is entering uncharted territory because of the BP spill. And if the levels of oxygen continue to be depleted and the algae under the water dies off, the sharks, dolphins and turtles may never be able to return to the deep waters of the Gulf.
Bob Shipp, marine biologist told ABC News, “What we’re really witnessing may be a shift in the whole ecosystem feeding structure, the food web. It also may be altered permanently—as we’ve seen in other parts of the world where these things happen.”
How do you think people will react to sharing their beaches and piers with sharks and other marine animals?
