Word: sharked
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...people. Muzaffar's account appears to amplify other published reports - except in greater detail. He said Thai security forces first forcibly detained him and hundreds of other refugees offshore and then towed them back into international waters in a motorless barge, where they were at the mercy of the shark-infested sea. More than 300 people who were with Muzaffar are missing; they are all believed to be dead...
...Australia Shark Rampage! Maybe Are there more sharks, more swimmers, or is it all just a coincidence? Three nonfatal attacks in two days sparked panicky headlines in Australia, where shark attacks kill an average of one person a year. (The last fatality was on Dec. 27.) The assaults raised fears that warmer weather and protection policies might be increasing shark populations...
...McAuley acknowledges that the number of attacks may have increased lately. But he maintains this is not because shark numbers have increased dramatically due to successful preservation programs, as some have argued. White pointer sharks, for example, take 20 years to reach maturity, do not give birth every year, and have few offspring. "Any increase would take in the order of decades," McAuley says...
...Australian officials have taken what steps they can to minimize man-shark encounters. Queensland and New South Wales have strung nets off popular surfing beaches to keep sharks out. The Queensland government says there has not been a fatal attack on a netted beach since they were introduced in the 1960s, but critics say the nets kill turtles, dolphins and sometimes whales. In Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, authorities rely on aerial spotters and lifeguards who alert swimmers when a suspicious shape appears in the surf...
...attitude of many is: swim at your own risk - and leave the sharks alone. As Guest reportedly wrote on an anglers' website before he died: "[Sharks] got a right to be there, we've got a right to go there and there are risks associated with everything, but I don't believe the correct way of reducing our risk is to kill the shark." Luckily for the sharks, most Australians seem to think the same...