Word: biologists
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...Jaws today." After 25 years of research, the demonization of sharks doesn't hold, he says. "It used to be believed that great white sharks did target humans; now we know that except in the rarest of instances, great white shark attacks are mistakes." Dr. Robert Lea, a marine biologist working for the state of California, goes further: "I used to call them shark attacks--now I call them incidents. It is not a case of sharks preying on humans. It is just humans sharing a spot in the ocean with sharks--at the wrong time...
Researchers who have been observing great whites off the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco think they know why sharks mistake humans for seals. Peter Pyle, a biologist for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, notes that the majority of great whites that attack humans are in the 8-to-12-ft. range--inexperienced juveniles making the diet transition from fish to bigger, more nourishing seals. "They are learning a new hunting technique and may mistake surfers for seals," says Pyle. Once the sharks get bigger and more experienced, they appear better able to differentiate between seals and humans...
...tiger shark generally hunts at night. It is an indiscriminate eater, "willing to try anything for food," says Rocky Strong, a shark biologist associated with the Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute. Not just fish, turtles and sea mammals but also dogs, boots, beer bottles and unopened cans of beans. Its teeth are serrated, with a notch to catch and cut through ligament or shell tissue...
...bull is the only shark that prowls regularly in water shallow enough for humans to walk in--and it may be territorial. Australian shark biologist Ian Gordon has been getting into the water off Florida beaches and deliberately agitating bull sharks to observe their reaction. He says his research so far suggests that underwater geography and a sense of territory can provoke an attack. "Even if you don't know it's there, the shark will feel like it is being cornered...
...ABORTED FETUSES John Gearhart, above right, the Johns Hopkins biologist credited, along with Thomson, with first culturing stem cells, extracted his from fetuses donated by women at a nearby abortion clinic...