-Caveat Lector-
Source:
http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20010830-7635056
Shark-fishing limits blamed for rash of attacks
Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published 8/30/01
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commercial fishermen, the Libertarian Party and others concerned
about government interference are accusing a federal program to protect
sharks of contributing to a rise in shark attacks off the Florida coast in
recent years.
"I think shark populations are growing in the United States. I think
conservation measures are working. And if you have more sharks interacting
with people, it stands to reason you're going to have more people being
hit," said Russell Hudson, spokesman for the Directed Shark Fishery
Association.
Mr. Hudson also is a plaintiff in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the
National Marine Fisheries Service from imposing the second major reduction
in shark fishing since 1993.
"As amazing as it sounds, politicians appear to have created a
federal program that increases the likelihood of shark attacks," said Steve
Dasbach, national director of the Libertarian Party. "In an effort to
protect one species, politicians have endangered another one -- human beings."
But the National Marine Fisheries Service denies both that shark
populations are increasing and that its efforts to curtail shark fishing
are responsible for more shark attacks on humans. The service blames humans
for encroaching on shark habitat.
"The single most important factor to which we can attribute this
perceived rise [in attacks] is that there is more interaction between
sharks and people as a result of more aquatic recreation and more coastal
growth," said Chris Smith, a spokesman for the service in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Karyl Brewster-Geisz, a spokeswoman for the fisheries service,
portrays sharks as the true victims in most encounters with humans.
"Thousands or millions of sharks are killed by people every year. But
very few people are killed by sharks," she said.
There have been at least 28 shark attacks off New Smyrna Beach, Fla.,
this year -- nearly two-thirds of the total reported worldwide. Sharks
attacked nine persons off New Smyrna Beach last week alone.
In July, an 8-year-old Mississippi boy's arm was severed, and he lost
nearly all his blood in an attack by a bull shark in Pensacola on Florida's
Gulf Coast. The child survived, and his arm was reattached.
Sean Paige, a Warren Brookes Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, suggests "more than happenstance" may account for the rash of
shark attacks off the Florida coast.
In an article titled "The Jaws of Government," published on National
Review Online, Mr. Paige wonders if the "sudden, shocking return of the
shark" might not be linked to the government's program to "rebuild" shark
populations.
Using data from the International Shark Attack File, he noted that
unprovoked "shark attacks last year reached record levels in the world
(79), in the U.S. (49), and in Florida (34 documented cases)."
That's happening, he said, "even as scientists and government
officials are claiming that the animals are being chased toward extinction
by fishermen looking for thrill kills."
Florida's shark-bite total in 2000 is well on its way to being broken
this year in the waters off New Smyrna Beach alone. However, Mr. Smith of
the fisheries service says: "Scientists tell me this year will probably be
nothing worse than an average year. Attacks have just been more widely
publicized."
As for shark populations, a federal report says the stock of sandbar,
blacktip, great hammerhead, tiger and other large coastal sharks plunged
from nearly 9 million to 1.4 million in the waters off the eastern United
States from 1974 to 1998. The same report identifies three sharks -- grey
nurse sharks, dusky sharks and night sharks -- as candidates for the
endangered species list.
The National Marine Fisheries Service says the dwindling populations
of sharks cannot recover without further quota reductions.
Further reductions in permissible shark fishing are in the offing, if
an independent peer-review panel upholds the recommendations of a National
Marine Fisheries Service consulting panel.
But Bob Spaeth, executive director of the Southern Offshore Fishing
Association and the owner of four fishing boats that work the Gulf of
Mexico, says many shark fishermen would already be out of business had a
court injunction not blocked implementation of the panel's 1998 "stock
assessment."
Mr. Spaeth also doesn't buy that shark populations are dwindling.
"Shrimpers out of Texas and Georgia say their nets are getting eaten
by sharks" going after their catches, "and shark fishermen say they are
seeing more sharks," he said in a telephone interview yesterday from
Madeira Beach, Fla.
Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Edward ><+>
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and
conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King, Jr
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