Wednesday, February 13, 2013

An area the size of whales

"In South Africa, I was doing an aerial survey of Wales".

That is what I heard conservationist Mark Carwardine say on this morning’s Radio 4 programme In Living Memory.

But I was simply momentarily confused, my mind automatically linking the idea of surveys with areas of land, & thus with that well known unit of measurement, an area the size of Wales.

In reality it was whales of which he spoke, confusingly, in a programme which was actually about the disproportionate terror we have of sharks.

To prove that sharks  are really not that dangerous, he quoted some great stats. My favourite – an American is 25 times more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker than by a shark.

Links
BBC Radio 4: In Living Memory - Sharks
[PDF]Mark Carwardine
Mpumalanga