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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2001: article | |
| Shark expert is center of media attention while at Penn State | ||||||
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George H. Burgess, renowned shark expert, received more attention than usual while presenting his research during the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, held in July at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. As the conference was under way, major news media organizations tracked Burgess down to get his insights on shark attacks, including an attack on an 8-year-old boy, whose right arm was bitten off by a seven-foot, 200-pound bull shark. The boy was playing in knee-deep water at a beach in Pensacola, Fla., when the attack occurred. His arm was recovered, and surgeons reattached it during an 11-hour operation. “Shark attacks are relatively uncommon,” Burgess said. “About 100 such interactions occur each year worldwide, resulting in 10 deaths. Despite the rarity of such incidents, shark attacks draw great interest from humans, probably because it is one of only a few natural phenomena — along with lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes — that humans cannot control. You are more likely to win the Florida lottery than be attacked by a shark. What happened in Pensacola is quite unfortunate and rare.” Penn State Public Broadcasting used its satellite uplink facilities to enable the national news media to interview Burgess while he was attending the conference. Burgess is coordinator of museum operations for the Florida Museum of Natural History, housed at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and an ichthyologist and fishery biologist. He also directs the International Shark Attack File, a compilation of information on all known shark/human incidents worldwide. During the joint meeting, Burgess presented talks on “Bycatch Data for the Southeastern United States Commercial Shark Fishery,” “Overview of the Commercial Shark Fishery Observer Program” and “The Shark in Modern Culture: Beauty and the Beast.” He also served on the Program Committee for the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH). Five hundred researchers from 18 countries and 44 states reported on their research on species of fishes, sharks, snakes, amphibians and reptiles during the joint meeting of ASIH and the American Elasmobranch Society. Dr. Jay R. Stauffer Jr., professor of ichthyology in the School of Forest Resources at Penn State, chaired the local organizing committee for the joint meeting. The School of Forest Resources and the College of Agricultural Sciences sponsored the event. Staff members from the Division of Continuing Education’s Conferences and Institutes and the Outreach Office of Marketing Communications assisted with planning and promotion for the meeting. These scientific organizations previously held their annual meetings at Penn State in 1999. An outreach program of the School of Forest Resources in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Conferences and Institutes | |||||
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