{"id":44156,"date":"2021-10-19T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-governor-boasts-zero-shark-attacks-heres-the-story-of-new-mexicos-lone-incident\/"},"modified":"2021-10-19T17:23:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T17:23:00","slug":"colorado-governor-boasts-zero-shark-attacks-heres-the-story-of-new-mexicos-lone-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-governor-boasts-zero-shark-attacks-heres-the-story-of-new-mexicos-lone-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado governor boasts zero shark attacks; here\u2019s the story of New Mexico\u2019s lone incident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A sand tiger shark. (Courtesy of Jeff Kubina, via Wikimedia Commons and www.flickr.com\/people\/95118988@N00)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

New Mexico has had one shark attack since 1900, a glaring statistic considering it\u2019s one of the few landlocked states with an incident.<\/p>\n

It all started with a tweet.<\/p>\n

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis published the innocuous post last week <\/a> from his personal verified account that has more than 112,500 followers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>

His message is tongue-in-cheek. It\u2019s even missing a word to complete a full sentence and is accompanied by a data graphic showing shark attacks in each state. It reads, \u201cColorado is tied for state with the least shark attacks! (shark emoji).\u201d Colorado is one of 23 states with no reported shark attacks since 1900, according to the aptly named website sharkattackdata.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Mexico is not one of the 23.<\/p>\n

ABQ BioPark<\/a> Aquatic Conservation and Operations Manager Kathy Lang said New Mexico\u2019s ecosystem could never support a shark in the Rio Grande, or any lakes or acequias, meaning a shark attack could never happen here in the wild.<\/p>\n

\"A
A diver in the ABQ BioPark Aquarium on Thursday, Oct. 14. (Shaun Griswold\/Source NM)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But an attack could and did happen in the controlled environment at the city\u2019s aquarium on March 12, 2005.<\/p>\n

Diver Ken Pitts was wrapping up a feeding with the sand tiger sharks, and he was taking off his aquatic suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now he\u2019s not paying as much attention to what\u2019s beneath him,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n

One of the animals bumped into him causing two quarter-inch puncture wounds 5 inches above his wrist on the forearm. Pitts\u2019 wounds were minor, requiring six stitches, and he was back diving in the tank shortly after the incident.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why New Mexico doesn\u2019t show up on the map with a clean record for shark attacks.<\/p>\n

Sand tiger sharks commonly swim with their mouths slightly agape, exposing their prolonged teeth, Lang said. The one that nicked Pitts was no stranger to a human presence in his environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA resident of the tank for 11 years, he was used to divers being in the tank,\u201d a report of the incident from the BioPark says.<\/p>\n

\"A
A sand tiger shark in the ABQ BioPark Aquarium on Thursday, Oct. 14. (Shaun Griswold\/Source NM)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The sand tiger sharks are the only animals in the tank that have their teeth exposed outside their mouth so bumping into that area could incidentally cause harm, Lang said.<\/p>\n

Because the shark lived in the aquarium, it was considered captive, so any incident is considered a provoked attack even if it was an accident, Lang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shark did not bite the diver nor display any aggression,\u201d the report says. \u201cThe fish was apparently dozing and simply bumped into him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shark is no longer alive. Pitts has also passed. Neither loss is related to the run-in.<\/p>\n

The BioPark still has two sand tiger sharks, quite notable because their teeth give a somewhat unflattering appearance compared with every other fish in their tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe different species have different teeth,\u201d Lang said, \u201cso we can tell if it\u2019s a sand tiger by their teeth. Their teeth are actually quite pointy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lang said protocols for the dive teams did not change after the incident. The sharks are fed three times a week in a specific area in the tank. That\u2019s done to give them a trained response for dinner time. Divers never make direct contact with the sharks. They feed them mackerel with poles and wear dense gloves so their skin never goes under the surface in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing about these sharks in particular is that they\u2019re well-fed, honestly,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they\u2019re not going around hunting, looking for opportunity to go for something.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they were, they\u2019re not going to go for a human, as big as they are. Yeah, they\u2019re gonna go for something that\u2019s smaller, and maybe it looks weak for some reason,\u201d Lang said.<\/div>\n

Because they cull smaller, weaker fish from the schools, the sharks tend to keep the fish populations healthy, she said.<\/p>\n

Lang argues the negative reputation sharks have as being aggressive is unfounded. She says the misconception can even lead to inhumane poaching practices, because hunters treat sharks as aggressive beasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut most of the time, the shark\u2019s primary prey is not going to be a human,\u201d Lang said. \u201cThey\u2019re not that blood-thirsty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers back up what Lang\u2019s saying. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History\u2019s International Shark Attack File<\/a>, 129 instances of human-shark interactions were reported in 2020. Worldwide, 57 unprovoked attacks were reported, down from the five-year average of 80 attacks each year between 2015 and 2020. Unprovoked attacks happen in a shark\u2019s natural habitat when there is no effort on the human\u2019s end to entice a shark to attack.<\/p>\n

Ten people across the world died from shark attacks in 2020. By comparison, mosquito bites result in the death of 1 million people annually, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Source NM, visit https:\/\/sourcenm.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polis\u2019 joke raises questions about an encounter with a sand tiger\u2019s prolonged teeth in the high desert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[819,28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44156"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}