Playing With Sharks ... Not Always Model Behavior

Holy. Crap. This is almost my thesis, sent in by "Soft Spot," whom I think you'll be hearing more from--this reader seems as keen on the SSH25 as I am. As I scour the news for space, sharks, helicopters, and most importantly Spacesharkhelicopter news, I think he'll be an ally. In fact, I think I'm going to invite him to post some here. SSH25 readers: Welcome Soft Spot. Look for his byline from now on.

Soft Spot says he's from Florida originally, but he lives in Budapest now. A likely story. I'll go with it, though. Gives SSH25 a kind fo cosmopolitan feel. Anyway, his Florida connection got me thinking (I'm from Florida, and I've had my own shark close encounters there--and I don't mean at Sea World, but more on that later). In Florida, rednecks have a bad habit of feeding alligators. This is horrible for several reasons, mostly because it erases the gators' fear of humans. This sounds like a sweet thing if you don't know any better, but they have that fear for a reason--so they don't mess with humans, so they instinctively keep to themselves and don't eat any cheeeldren. It's bad when they eat cheeeldren. So, some doofus or Kletus feeds them thinking he'll one-up his trailer trash buddy with the face-eating pitbull by taming a pet gator, then one day, he lets the reptile get too close and WHAM! His arm's lost. Sure, he gets to tell his story to the paper--if he lives. Sure he gets to go on disability and never work again. Sure he gets sweet prescription Vicodin. Actually, for the guy in this particular example it's a good thing. But, as is so often the case, the thing that is good for redneck heroes in Florida stories is not a thing that is good for humanity as a whole, for if local trappers fail to catch the arm-eating gator, he'll move on to something more ... whole. That's when the family pet or family member gets in trouble.

Anyway, all of that got me thinking about this story out of Hawaii, where they're considering banning shark tours where tourists can watch Hawaii's version of rednecks feed sharks. It can't be good. Especially for surfers.