EVIDENCE of the fascination sharks can exert on humans can be found in cyberspace, where a number of sites are dedicated to them.
South Africa’s own is, of course, the site of the Natal Sharks Board, at http://goofy.iafrica.com/carch/ (carch being short for Carcharodon, the creatures’ Latin name). The board supplies statistics and research information, as well as funkier bits of shark history.
One of these is an picture of the old Durban beachfront, showing people swimming in a fenced-off enclosure for protection. An invention called the shark POD (Protective Oceanic Device) is also featured, with diagrams showing how it repels sharks by emitting an electrical field.
The sharks board offers links to lots of other sites, from the serious and research- oriented to the quirky.
The Museum of Natural History in Florida, the United States, keeps an international shark attack file, with statistics and maps (see the one above) of attacks all over the world. Its address is http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/ichthyology/
research.htm
Then there’s “Fiona’s shark mania”: one woman’s enthusiasm for these sharp-toothed beasts writ large on the Internet. Pictures, graphics, stories and jokes abound, all available at http://www.oceanstar.com/shark