Bull Sharks blamed for attacks in Florida

The past 10 days have seen three extraordinary incidents involving sharks in the waters of Florida.

The extreme western sector of Florida's Gulf Coast has seen two shark attacks on recreational swimmers, one fatal. In addition, a salt-water shark was found deep in the interior of the state, in a fresh-water lake far from the ocean coastlines.

The lake shark was a bull, and it is suspected that the animals involved in both of the attacks ( which took place in the Gulf of Mexico) were bull sharks as well.

The bull shark is known locally as a very aggressive and unusual species, stopping at nothing to fill its belly and indiscriminate in its appetites. The bull's willingness to devour anything, including the decaying animal carcasses that often make their way from interior waterways to ocean outlets, often results in bite victims developing severe infections from the bacterial colonies in the bull sharks' mouths.

These three events have begun to focus local divers' (and other aquatics enthusiasts') attention on the Florida bull shark population, with increasing concern that Federal regulations imposed during the 1990's to protect the inshore shark species may now be resulting in overpopulation pressures which induce the bulls to range farther, and hunt novel prey in search of nourishment.

Source: www.deeperblue.net