The sharks are a constant obstacle for Louie, Phil, and Mac. Even a couple of weeks of being on the rafts, they are still tormented by the sharks. Luckily, they "were able to keep the sharks away long enough" (Hillenbrand 159). It seems unrealistic that with all the sharks circling the rafts none of them are attacked or even injured. I had thought it was in a shark's nature to attack people. It still does not seem believable that out of all the sharks they were forced to deal with not one injured one of the members on the raft. Why did none of the sharks injure Louie, Phil, or Mac? Did their knowledge of sharks and fending them off save their lives?
On page 167, they did finally have a dangerous encounter with the sharks. As the two sharks finally made moves on attacking the raft. However, nobody was injured as the three boys fought them off with an oar. I know from previous knowledge that sharks do not hunt people. They usually mistake us for their typical meals like a seal. I found an article that also says they are even more scared of us and they have been around much longer, therefore we are not in their diets. Sometimes it is just curiosity. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sharkseat.html
ReplyDeleteI also know that if you hit the sharks in the eyes or the nose it causes the shark to back off. This is in a video I found on ways to survive a shark attack. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/survival-guide/survival-guide-shark-attack
I would assume Mac hit the shark in one of these places with the oar causing the shark to swim away and not keep trying to attack Louie.
I agree with Kazi and I was going to use the same evidence she had (insert laughing emoji here). I also think the sharks were well fed with the hundreds of fish that were around them so they probably were not that hungry, just curious. In addition, I know that their first instinct is not to attack. Sharks typically attack humans when they are extremely hungry or mistake them for their food. With the men in connecting rafts it would have been unlikely for the sharks to attack them because they thought they were food. The combination of their knowledge on how to fend off sharks and they plentiful food is why I think the sharks did not attack.
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