If It's Sharks Then This Must Be November
...or at least very close to November. Because, in the course of the twelve month news cycle, that's when the shark stories get trotted out.
It's a given at this time of year; like reports the 'state is a tinderbox' heralding the coming bushfire season and the obligatory drama surrounding Ricky Ponting. The newspaper headlines are as predictable as the calendar, and now the shark stories have begun we can expect an armada of emotive articles to grace the papers.
Today it's Sydney's Daily Terrorgraph with a headline proclaiming 'Giant sharks stalking nation's favourite beaches'. This on the back of the Fairfax papers recent article 'Swimmers warned of monster shark'.
Stay scared people, and what about Ponting's offside field placement?
Comments
How about if a shark ate Ricky Ponting. would that be newsworthy?
Gawd, the 'related stories' on that Telegraph link tells a story. 'Young sharks swarm teh coast', 'shark monster not a hoax' 'Just when you thought it was safe'.
Whilst the papers would like nothing more than a page 1 shark attack in the shallows at packed Bondi - there appears to be some truth / correlation between the proximity of sharks to the coast and this time of year...........
The recent pilchard migration / spawn event on the east coast served to show what lurks - the footage of packs of bronzies and tigers gorging them selves on the schooling pilchards within a stones of the coast is a regular event for this time of year......
In South Oz the Snapper root themselves silly on the shallow reefs and ol bitey makes special effort to come inshore for the show......ask any surfer in SA when they become a bit jumpier than usual and I bet they say the Sept to Nov period - in fact most attacks in SA seem to occur in this period....
So there is a bit of truth to the media beat-up - so beware - be very aware.........always surf with a mate to halve the odds during the feeding period..........
PL
Where does one get a Punter eating shark ?? This sounds like a valid and worthy cause.....of couse the media would reserve the right to ask for it's opinion on the NBN...
Biologically speaking, spring is the action time of year in the ocean. After a winter of deep convective mixing, the surface layer is charged with nutrients. A warming atmosphere during spring will result in the stratification of the upper-mixed layer, and the no longer light limited phytoplankton community will explode (the Spring Bloom). Not surprisingly, this increase in primary production during spring will flow up the food web to apex predators.
Interestingly, days of offshore wind and quality ground swells attract sharks inshore*. It is recommended that you sit those days out on land…or even avoid surfing during the months of spring all together ;).
*this statement cannot be backed up with any scientific evidence.