Bryan wrote:

"Nigel" wrote in message
...

As I recall, the stories I've read that included descriptions of dead
calms,
seem to have a common theme of an absence of hungry fish in the area as
well the absence of wind.

then I guess at least you could go for a swim without having to worry
about the locals



I was sailing back to Marina Del Rey with my buddy and his current
girlfriend. It was a beautiful day on the water. I asked the girlfriend if
she had ever been for a swim in the middle of the ocean. She said no. I
offered to stop the boat and let her hop in the water for a couple of
minutes. She declined, stating sharks as her reason. I told her there
weren't any sharks around. She still declined. With a shrug of my
shoulders I continued on. 2 minutes later I'm tapping my buddy on the
shoulder and quietly signalling to look over my right shoulder. Yep, a
shark swimming along fully visible. What a laugh (although she didn't think
it was very funny)!

I'm pretty sure sharks are around swimmers on a regular basis, never
seen, never caring about the humans nearby either. In addition, most
professional divers and such swim around sharks regularly with no
problems, both just ignore each other.

Shark attacks on humans almost always occur because an unusual shark
makes an unusual mistake. In other words, sharks around humans in the
water is not that rare, sharks attacking humans is rare.

Having said that I'll also admit I tend to get the heebee jeebeez when
*anything* bigger than me (sea turtles, seals) is nearby while I'm in
the water. Big eels? Big Manta rays? --See ya!




--
Stephen

-------

For any proposition there is always some sufficiently narrow
interpretation of its terms, such that it turns out true, and
some sufficiently wide interpretation such that it turns out
false...concept stretching will refute *any* statement, and will
leave no true statement whatsoever.
-- Imre Lakatos