Jumping the Shark

No, this is not about when Happy Days began to go downhill... It's about a REAL shark off the coast of New England. A 15-foot long Great White Shark, weighing in at 1 ton, was found in the waters off Woods Hole and was apparently having trouble getting back to the open ocean.

Here's a few fun facts, courtesy of the folks at the New England Aquarium:

1. Great white sharks are in New England waters every summer. They are a
normal part of the marine ecology of this area. They belong here.

2. Great whites are powerful predators and can be dangerous to humans. However, we are not on their regular lunch menu. Like most sharks and wild animals, they
have learned that avoiding human beings is in their best startegy
for self-preservation.

3. Most shark populations worldwide have declined by nearly 90% over the last twenty years.

4. The last human death caused by sharks in New England waters was nearly 70 years ago in 1936!
To put our often irrational fear of sharks in perspective:
-- In the last ten years, two beach goers have died of asphyxiation on Massachusetts
beaches when the sand pits that they were digging collapsed on them.
-- In the last seventy years in New England, hundreds of beach goers have drowned.
-- In the last seventy years, more than one hundred New Englanders have died from
severe allergic reactions due to bee stings.
-- In the last seventy years, dozens of New Englanders have been killed in dog maulings - most often very young children and most commonly by the family
pet.