Did you know that even the Sharks are feeling the hard economic times. The global slowdown and recession have caused fewer and fewer people to be able to visit the beaches and so the shark attacks are down. In fact way down.

Scientists revealed recently that shark attacks for 2008 were the lowest in five years. And apparently the reason for the drop in shark attacks is the fact that with the global recession people are spending much less time at the beaches and so the yes even the sharks have hit on hard economic times. I wonder if the Republicans, Democrats, and Obama will offer to bail out the sharks.

Back on a serious note there were 59 confirmed shark attacks on humans in 2008 down from 71 confirmed shark attacks in 2007 and the fewest shark attacks on humans since 2003. Four of the 2008 shark attacks were unfortuntly fatal. Two in Mexico, One in Australia, and One in the USA. In the USA the one fatality was a 66 year old man swimming at Solana Beach California and in Australia a 16 year old boy was killed on the east coast of Australia.

And as in past years surfers accounted for 57 percent of all shark attacks worldwide in 2008. Sharks hunting along the surf line mistake the surfers for prey and attack. Many scientist also believe surfers on boards may be mistaken for turtles by the sharks and attacked.

And its almost a given that Shark attacks will be down in 2009 as fewer people will be taking beach vacations and so the sharks will have fewer chances in 2009 to prey on humans. And so shark attacks for 2009 should be down also.