“Hyped-up” language wasn’t always the norm, Pepin-Neff said. Run-ins between people and the 400 million-year-old animals used to be called “shark accidents,” until a prominent surgeon in Sydney received correspondence from the United States urging him to warn the public of the possibility of “shark rabies.” The doctor then wrote a 1933 article concluding the “evidence that sharks will attack man is complete,” according to a study Pepin-Neff co-wrote in 2013 that was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Source: Washington Post July 16, 2021 10:52 UTC