Shark attacks upon humans correlate with the existence of toxic blue green algae in the Indian River Lagoon that caused the deaths of dolphins, manatees, and fish in that area. My thought is that if the toxic blue green algae were to disappear, then the sharks would go back to hunting in the deeper water instead of desperately searching for healthy, non-contaminated prey which are humans. My current thought is that the dolphins, manatees, and fish who were in the Lagoon at their time of death stayed because of the large amount of food that the algae presented itself as. How are shellfish affected by the algae? Can they be of any help with filtration despite their own contamination?
Mosquito Lagoon August 13, 2013 w/ brown tide | |||
| Shark attacks heighten from 1994-2012 |
( http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/trends2.htm)
Regarding your first statement, do you think there is a correlation between the shark attacks and the toxic blue algae because the algae increased around the same time frame as the shark attacks (1994 per the graph)?
ReplyDeleteSomething else to consider is whether those shark attacks were "little nips" because the shark mistook a foot for a fish or were the sharks really preying on humans. Maybe tourism went up in 1994 and thus more surfers equals more reported bites?
Maybe you could set up two tanks, each containing some form of shellfish, and fill one tank with "healthy" water and the other with the toxic blue algae to study the effects.
Well, Angela--not sure we can get our hands on toxic blue-green algae--not even sure we'd be allowed to have that in the lab. But might be a good study in another venue!
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in learning more about your scientific question...what would it be and how would you answer it?