So after years and years of people being told to "Don't feed the animals", there are these jackasses in Florida and numerous other places trying to make money by feeding the sharks. They do this so the sharks, which would normally be too scared of humans, will come up to them and allow their customers to pet them and see them up close. They've been doing this for some time now (years)

Turn the clock forward... now we have sharks that are coming up into shallow water and attacking humans. What the hell is the big suprise? These idiots have been teaching sharks to not fear humans for years. Well guess what,,, they aren't so afraid anymore.

What a bunch of morons. Well I'm done ranting now, for the moment.

Guess I'll cancel my trip to the keys for this fall.

Subject: What REALLY happened with the shark attack on Pensacola Beach ?

To All my buddies and friends that have called me (at the Pensacola News
Journal)  about the truth on the shark attack here on Pensacola Beach,
the truth is coming out!  There is a reason that the "hero" of the attack
that wrestled that 7 foot shark to shore is not giving any interviews, and
is hard to find.  There is a reason that this 7 foot shark was in 2 feet
of
water, and there is a reason that the family is
"acting funny" about taking money from those that want to help....here it
is.....hard truth...Sit down....

THE UNCLE THAT WRESTLED THE SHARK ASHORE WAS FISHING FOR SHARKS, HAD IT
ON A LINE AND HAD BEEN FIGHTING IT FOR TWO HOURS PLUS.

The unidentified stranger that helped him also helped him fight the fish
to shore.  When the shark got into two feet of water, the kids all ran
into
the water in jubilation and the shark lunged from off the ground and hit
Jessie Arbogast twice, took his arm off and bit into his leg.

The man had CHUM in the water, and heavy tackle built to fish for sharks.
His nephew got bit because the entire family went into the water trying to
wrestle the fish to land.  There is big money on a shark that size.

THIS IS THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
The press has suppressed the real truth, because they are afraid that it
will effect the contributions for Jessie and the uncle is so filled with
guilt, he has tried to commit suicide once already....Now it all makes
sense.  NO MAN is going to wrestle a shark that large to shore in two
feet of water.  That is one powerful animal, and they had cut the cable,
and
hid the rods by the time the Medic's got there.

The ranger that shot the shark testified that the shark still had the
hook in his mouth and "put up a big fight because his mouth was all bloody
and torn up"....(that is why the shark had blood all over it's mouth in
the
TV photo's, it was it's own blood !!)

I am not lessening the horror of the event. Jessie did get an arm bit
off and is going to recover, but I am tired of Pensacola Beach taking it
in
the shorts because of the "whole truth not being told"....The money, in my
opinion would still come in, and the uncle will have to accept that it was
a
tragic accident and a mistake.

Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service, Inc.
2871 Southwest 69th Court  *  Miami, Florida  33155-2829
Tel:(800) 677-7633/(305) 262-8336  *  Fax:(305)265-9077
World Wide Web:  www.roffs.com  *  Email:[email protected] >>

[b]These people are complete as*holes to be feeding sharks for any purpose. I do not see the big deal with these shark attacks this year. It's all media hype, this time last were the same amount of shark attacks. I could see the coverage if there was an major increase in attacks but.........come on![/b]

Sorry for my ranting. It just seems like a stupid thing to do.

Let me branch out for a moment. How many times have we heard a news report about someone being attacked by a bear, lion, tiger, cougar, etc. and then the apparent expert is there to assure us that people are not a normal source of food for that animal and it was most likely just a mistake or had young to protect or something.

Well the truth is slightly different. First of all it is true that we aren't a normal part of their diet but only for one primary reason: Throughout history, when one of these critters kills a human (and gets the taste) we procede to track it down and kill it before it can tell any of its friends how good we taste and how easy we are to eat. Yeah, that sounds a little ridiculous but it's truer than you want to believe. If we let the man killers live then they would train their young and then pretty soon (eventually) the word would get around and we would be their #1 diet. But we have tools and don't let that happen.

So while we are the top of the food chain for the land based animals the oceans are a little more difficult to control. And when one of these fishy monsters kills they are usually tough/impossible to find and remove from the food chain. So we put on wet suits and go into the water and feed them. Now they get the shape of a human correlated to a fish dinner. So eventually they swim up to a human and there is no fish so instead of biting those things hanging in your hands, they just go ahead and taste test your hand or leg or whatever. Don't take it personal, that's how they check things out. If it tastes good well then it's dinner time. Hey, you're dinner. Yikes!!!

Getting the #1 predator of the deep used to humans as a source of food is just stupid. That's all.