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Shark Travel: Climate Change Causing More Fatal Attacks

May 5, 2008 at 1:34 PM | 0 Comments

Al Gore never warned us about this: The scary rise in shark attacks--there have already been four fatal ones this year, compared to 1 in all of 2007--is due to global warming, scientists say.

It's not that the sharks get ornery when they have to put the A/C on. But as temperatures rise, more people head to the water, and thus put themselves at risk of being attacked by a shark. Dr. George Burgess of the University of Florida tells the Guardian:

As long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.

Other pressures on sharks include overfishing (which drives the predators to seek prey outside their normal hunting areas) and seal overpopulation.

Find out if your favorite beach is about to become the next "Jaws" movie with our Killer Beaches 2008 map.

Related Stories:
· Surge in Fatal Shark Attacks Blamed on Global Warming [Guardian]
· Killer Beaches 2008 coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: bsmif]