Sharks

By: Ruby Miller

A lot of people are afraid of the ocean because of sharks but I find them very interesting creatures. For instance, I like to watch documentaries about shark attacks where scientists explain why the attacks happen especially when there are many attacks in a short time period. Some reasons sharks may attack people are if food resources are limited, changes in habitat, or if there are more people in the water. Sharks are naturally curious animals so if they do not know what something is they will “taste test” to find out.
Sharks are actually relatively calm creatures but people are still afraid of them.  Each year, more people are killed by fireworks, lightning, and the flu than by sharks, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. Some attacks are people’s fault. In tourist locations scuba divers will feed sharks by hand and this conditions the sharks to think that people mean that they will get food. This is legal in many places because sharks have learned that people equal a meal. Most of the shark bits are on the limbs because the scuba divers hold out their arms to feed the sharks.