Page 10 - (DK) Danger! Open with Extreme Caution!

Usual Suspects
SHARK ATTACK It’s a fact: of the 375 different species of sharks,

only about 15 percent live in coastal waters or
Do sharks deserve their status as serial killers shallow depths where people might encounter them. That
cuts the peril potential down quite a lot. Only four species
of the sea? Or are they simply confused and have been responsible for the vast majority (85 percent)
misunderstood creatures that don’t even like of attacks. They are the great white, tiger, bull, and
oceanic whitetip. Other sharks just aren’t big or powerful
the way we taste? Are they devastatingly deadly enough to kill us, although they certainly can bite!
hunters that plan every detail of their attacks? Or do
they just happen to be swimming near us with their
mouths open, then, whoops, chompfest? You decide!
Hey!
Stop snacking
on defenselesS
tourists! What do
you have to say
for yourselves?

SHARK SCHOOL

OKay, pups, this is how we
do it. Just watch and learn.

arRgh!

I say, this isn’t my
usual fish dinNer.
It tastes like chicken.

HELP!
imagine bumping into you!
Of alL the seas in the world, You just lie there,
you had to swim into mine. while I lie low… and then,
bang! I atTack. Sneaky!

Just evening out the odDs:
humans kilL 20–30 milLion
of us a year through
comMercial and
sportfishing.
three types of attacks
In a bump-and-bite offensive, the shark circles its victim (perhaps a survivor
of a plane crash or shipwreck), bumps into them with its sandpaper-rough skin, and
then takes a big bite. The shark may continue to bump and bite until it has bumped
the (former) survivor off. Hit-and-run attacks are common in shallow waters
near the shore. The shark, hunting for something else, zooms in and takes a chunk
out of a human leg or foot. It often decides that the human has no taste and swims
away. In deep waters, a shark can simply appear out of nowhere in a sneaky surprise!

10
(c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved.