Almost all of us like the idea of clean air, clean water, saving endangered species, saving the trees, etc.; however, we don’t always think things through when we mess with Mother Nature.
On Thursday, The New York Post reported the following:
Sharks are treating New York waters like a restaurant — and the state government is the maître d’.
Great whites and other sharks have been coming close to Long Island beaches this year to feast on a particular kind of bait fish that has been flourishing in New York waters ever since the state legislature voted unanimously to preserve it three years ago.
With the population of Atlantic menhaden booming, sharks are swimming into shore like tourists bellying up to a buffet, and in the process, they are coming close to bathers — with disastrous results, experts told The Post.
“The reason why people are interacting with sharks more often this year and more than last year is because of conservation efforts over the years [that] has protected a food source known as the Atlantic menhaden,” Frank Quevedo, executive director of the South Fork Natural History Museum Shark Research and Education Program, told The Post.
The article notes:
However, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who sponsored the bill along with state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, said he didn’t consider the possibility it would lead to increased shark activity.
“I’m not sure that one could have predicted there would be the seriousness that this has become.”
Six beachgoers have been bitten by sharks and there have been a slew of shark sightings from Rockaway Beach to the Hamptons, just in the past three weeks. On Wednesday, the corpse of a 6- to 8-year-old shark washed up on the beach in Quogue.
A similar thing has happened in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, because the seal population has increased due to fishing regulations. Bathers are now warned to stay out of the water if they see a group of seals swimming because seals are the preferred diet of the great white sharks that now inhabit the area.
The bottom line in both cases is that actions have consequences, and those consequences should be fully investigated before making laws that impact various species.