Sharks and Shark Attacks
The world of sharks really came to our attention when we saw the movie Jaws. This movie, based on a Peter Benchley novel, sparked a fear of sharks that was real, even for us who lived a safe 100 km from the sea and never swam in anything more dangerous than the Marine Club swimming pool. Sharks have sparked fears, but mainly in Western societies for the past hundred years at least. However the Polynesian and Indian Ocean communities who have lived with sharks for thousands of years had no problems with them during all this while, looking upon them as their ancestors or as protectors of fishermen. Once the Westerners began to encroach on tropical waters as a prelude to their predatory raids on Eastern lands, they began to become familiar with sharks. One of the oldest stories of shark attacks on a Western sailor was recorded in 1580 when a seaman on a ship travelling from Portugal to Goa fell abroad. As recorded ‘There appeared from below the surface of the sea a large monster … it ...