In the first four months of 2008, four fatal shark attacks along with numerous non-fatal attacks worldwide.

The increasing numbers have alarmed beachgoers, and scientists and shark experts are looking for the reason behind the attacks.

Some theorize the cause may be global warming. Warmer waters could mean sharks will turn up in places they haven’t before. Al Gore never warned me about this. I’ll definitely be more diligent about my recycling now!

“As long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites,” says George Burgess, who maintains the International Shark Attack File.

Other factors, such as overfishing, may also be at play. If the sharks’ food supply is reduced, they’ll go looking elsewhere for food.

Do your part.

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Sammy the seal could face a death sentence for biting the hands that feeds him. The public has ignored pleas to stop feeding him and Sammy’s bitten several people at Stony Point, on Mornington Peninsula, AU.

Wildlife officer Glenn Sharp said the seal’s fate lay in the hands of those who continue to feed him bait and fish scraps.

Department of Sustainability and Environment said euthanasia would be considered as a “last resort”.

The DSE threat to put Sammy down angered RSPCA president Hugh Wirth, who said the seal should not be punished for human stupidity.

They’ve tried to relocate the year-old seal to a seal colony at Sorrento, but Sammy swims 44 miles back to Stony Point every time.

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A female seal was found beached in Ship Bottom on about a month ago, and an injured male turned up in

Toms River four days later. Then another seal was discovered on Wednesday… all with shark bite wounds.

Experts say warmer weather this winter may be driving the hungry sharks toward the coastline, and toward the seals (and swimmers).

The seals are being nursed back to health and will hopefully be released back into the wild over the next few months.

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It wasn’t a good weekend for two mammals on the northern Oregon coast – a seal and a sea lion both washed up with what appear to be major shark bites from a great white.

On Friday, a dead harbor seal drifted onto the beach at Seaside with a two-foot chunk taken out of its back. Apparently, the entire backbone is gone. Ew.

Meanwhile, an extremely unhappy California Sea Lion has been resting on a beach since Saturday with a foot-wide shark bite in it’s lower back.

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Signs have been posted on beaches near the mouth of northern California’s Russian River warning people to stay way from a stretch of the river where a rogue elephant seal has gone on a rampage in the past month, biting a surfer and a dog and killing several harbor seals.

The seal, nicknamed Nibbles, is an adolescent male who apparently lunges at its victims like a crocodile. Officials are cautioning people not to swim or wade in the area.

Male elephant seals are customarily aggressive, but this one’s behavior goes far beyond what is typical. It has crushed the skulls of female harbor seals and disemboweled male harbor seals. Dang!

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