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Here's a Shocker: Gov't to Blame for Increased Shark Attacks

"Curious about the seemingly inexplicable increase in shark attacks in recent years?  So was Sean Paige, Warren Brookes Fellow at Washington's Competitive Enterprise Institute, who has discovered that since 1993, the federal government has been ordering deep cuts in the number of sharks that can be caught by commercial and recreational fisherman off U.S. coasts. ...
In Florida, he says, where the majority of attacks occur, federal and state protections for sharks have led to a more than 80 percent decrease in sharks taken during the 1990s.  At the same time, state restrictions have created de facto shark sanctuaries in waters closest to shore, where human-shark interactions are most likely to occur and where one of the sharks most often implicated in attacks on man -- the bull shark -- is known to frequent."

- John McCaslin's "Inside the Beltway, 8/9/01