[ricki]

Just spoke to Dr. Burgess, the head of the Ichthyology Department of the Florida Museum of Natural History. These are the folks that track shark attacks. He told me that the spinner or blacktip migration is largely temperature related. As the waters warm the sharks migrate northward pursuing a more ideal temperature range. Bait fish go along the same path for similar reasons, providing snacks for the sharks along the way. They travel en masse up to New England and head on back as the waters cool in the advancing year. So, the migration might be described as the "big yo yo" south to north and back again, into perpetuity or until we screw things up badly enough.

Sorry guys, he said your accident doesn't go into the shark attack records as "it was a provoked act of stupidity more than an actual attack." Better luck next time.