Is it true that the migration patterns of sharks was affected by the slave trade ( being thrown overboard)?

Answer 1

No. Because liberals have little knowledge of how business operates they continue to try and sell this myth. The liberal black GA. congressman that first came up with this claimed over 100,000,000 slaves were thrown overboard by slavers trying to avoid capture by British navel ships that were enforcing the empires ban on slavery. 1) Slave traders were in the trade to make a buck. 2) does it make sense to engage in a business that has a one in 50 chance of success (only about 2 million slave were exported to the new world over a 300 year period) 3) all the sharks that were alive during that time are dead now.4) animals(like sharks) go where the food is, they do not hang around because of some genetic memory passed on hundreds of years ago. 5) Who cares, the US fought a war to end slavery over 100 years ago, unless those who now engage in the African slave trade are able to establish a US market today the sharks will be OK.

Answer 2

First, although the original House resolution is vague about the number of Africans who made the Middle Passage (“millions”), and historians do not all agree, 25–50 million is two to four times larger than what is generally accepted. David Eltis, in his Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (2010), suggests that between 1500 and 1866 about 12.5 million Africans were loaded onto ships bound for the New World, with about 1.8 million of them dying along the way (for a mortality rate of about 15 percent). Shark's migratory patters were changed because these predators followed the ships in the Middle Passage because when a slave died they were thrown overboard, or if they were killed because they were protesting or if they committed suicide, the sharks knew that they could follow the ships, and it changed the migratory patterns of sharks during this period of time.

In the meantime, additional information on sharks and the slave trade can be found in The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007) by Marcus Rediker. He writes how the predators fed on crew and slave alike. And while they were especially dangerous in the warm waters of Africa, sharks also sometimes “followed the slavers all the way across the Atlantic into American ports, as suggested by a notice from Kingston, Jamaica, that appeared in various newspapers in 1785:

“The many Guineamen [slave ships] lately arrived here have introduced such a number of overgrown sharks. (The constant attendants on the vessels from the coasts) that bathing in the river is become extremely dangerous, even above town. A very large one was taken on Sunday, along side the Hibberts, Capt. Boyd.” Abolitionists would do much to publicize the terror of sharks in the slave trade, but this evidence comes from a slave society, before the rise of the abolitionist movement. More came from Captain Hugh Crow, who made ten slaving voyages and wrote from personal observation that sharks “have been known to follow vessels across the ocean, that they might devour the bodies of the dead when thrown overboard.”

Answer 3

Even if it were, the change would not be permanent, as it would only last as long as the food source were available to promote the behavior. Deep ocean sharks aren't going to be where there is no food, so any "trained" behavior from a few hundred years past isn't going to effect their behavior today.

It's true that dolphins and sharks shadow ships in today's shipping lanes, but that has little to do with what happened back then. Current food sources effect current behaviors.

Answer 4

At first glance, maybe.

But when you think more on the subject.....think how many slaves would have to be thrown overboard consistently for the sharks to adapt to this new food beind in certain areas.

Answer 5

Very unlikely as a slave was a very valuable piece of property costing as much as $1000 when delivered.

Answer 6

NO and anyone suggesting that has no clue what they are talking about, I really can't beleive certain people actually consider this a possibiliy..... the world is full of morons and I really hope the people who actually think this is possible should be ashamed to think of yourself as intelligent.

Answer 7

That's a stupid thing said by some congressman. he's an idiot so i would say no.

Answer 8

You can't be serious.