More Bitches with the Media

Damn. I thought yesterday when I was talking with Lily K. that I was off the record. I've know Lilly since she was a little kid, just starting off surfing. Now she's a wold class surfer, and a sponsored one at that. She also works for the Port Isabel free press as a journalist. I've talked to her a couple of times in the past, as a matter of good relations, but this is about the second or third time that she's blindsided me with commentary. In the above article, she quotes me as saying that "it probably was a shark"...what I actually said was "it might've, it could've been a shark", there's just no way to tell, but the chances are fairly decent, since they are one of the primary large fish which inhabit our nearshore waters. From now on I guess I'll have to refer her to the director on all matters. It was my fault anyway.

I learned of the alleged shark attack on Satrurday when my son alerted me to it through the coconut telegraph, and that Lilly had first hand information, so I told him to have her call me since we try and keep record here at the lab to furnish the International Shark Files, maybe we could get in touch with the guy and have him come in and fill out a report. So Lily called me yesterday, and I figured we were speaking off record. Dummy me.

This is the first documented shark attack here in lots of years, and I suspect that it was (and she quoted me OK on this one) a case of mistaken identity. I'm certainly no shark expert, but I have read enough concerning their behavior, (and I watch Discovery channel too) so I am guessing that his foot looked like a mullet, Judging from the bite radius, it certainly looks like a shark. However, my own area of expertise lies in Marine ecology, specifically micro-organisms, and mostly these days I am involved in things like seagrass surveys, algae culture and tunicates, a far cry from apex predators....

Hope that I can slide through this media faux-pas without stirring up too big a wave. I realize that the county wants to downplay an event like this (and I hope it is an isolated one), and I certainly don't want to heap any fuel on the reactionary fire.

Guess I'm goning to have to talk with Lily.