Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for July 11, 2023

The rare swelledhead shark.

Well he does have the chops for it.

If Jay Leno were a shark.

One can see why,.

Jaws

Joe Bigmouth.

Now now, I think he should water down his drink on that subject.

He’s gonna need a bigger hat.

Are sharks amphibian? Didn’t know?

Kind of looks like a vacuum cleaner to me.

“I’m gonna give him a ‘Gotcha!’ he’ll never forget.”

Q Clearance?

Wasn’t he in a James Bond movie?

So, he’s celebrating being the one who raised humanity’s terror of Sharks to another level and made it that more Humans thought it a good idea to kill Sharks?

lame

Jaws – a silly movie.

I thought it was Flipper !

There are over 500 different species of sharks living everywhere from the deepest parts of the ocean [Portuguese dogfish, megamouth, Greenland shark, bluntnose sixgill, Pacific sleeper, goblin shark] to the brackish water of rivers and lakes [bull shark, spear tooth shark, Greenland shark (again), northern river shark, . . .]. The vast, vast majority are harmless to humans and even those few that are big enough to be harmful are really not interested. But, some species, like some humans, are grumpy and territorial and tend to bite when their space is invaded. Tiger and bull sharks cause the most bites. They prefer shallow waters where people are apt to wade and swim. The great white shark is more famous because its bites are more often extremely serious or deadly. Pups and juveniles tend to remain near-shore but mature ones prefer deeper waters. They tend to congregate (although they are solitary) wherever seals and sea lions are plentiful — that is their chosen diet [and probably why they sometimes attack swimmers].

Sharks are a keystone species, meaning they are critical to the ocean ecosystems. Not only do they help keep other species balance, but they also help maintain healthy seagrass beds and coral reef habitats. If there are no sharks to feed on groupers and other large carnivores, they expand and kill off the smaller fish which fed on the macro-algae. If the macro-algae is left to grow, it covers the coral, killing it; and the hundreds of species that lived in and around the reef disappear.

And they also impact our own food chain. In North Carolina, loss of sharks caused the ray population to explode and the rays ate all the bay scallops, causing the fisheries to close. With no scallops available, the rays have now moved on to bi-valves. All up and down the east coast, a lot of restaurants no longer can serve clam chowder.

Chins?

Sounds fishy to me.

Just a little nit: Jaws was a female great white. Very clearly stated and a major plot point of the book.

Except the shark in ’Jaws" was a female.

I seen some hammer head sharks in the Indian Ocean but never saw any nails.

Apparently, Great Whites live 50-70+ years, so this could technically work. (The novel was published in 1974.)

The book was named George?