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NEWS > SCIENCE > FLYING SHARKS NOT REAL, TOWN BREATHES SIGH OF RELIEF

FLYING SHARKS NOT REAL, TOWN BREATHES SIGH OF RELIEF

Feb 12 2008

Hollywood, FL – Though not the centre of the entertainment world, this Hollywood is recovering from a little excitement of its own. For weeks the city was consumed by reports of flying sharks after a local man reported seeing a strange object fly over his house.

“I was sitting in my yard and saw this thing fly past the house. It was a shark. It didn’t have no wings or nothing but it was definitely a shark,” said Homer Hapson, as reported in the Hollywood informer. And what might ordinarily have started and ended there became a ubiquitous urban legend over the next few weeks, seemingly consuming this coastal city.

Reports of flying sharks continued over the next few weeks, spread not only from the neighbourhood of the original spotting, but spread across nearly the entire city. Reports of flying sharks of all sizes and shapes took over the local papers, newscasts, blogs, and all the chatter around the water cooler. All this despite the fact that it is obvious to most people that there is no such thing as flying sharks.

“It got to the point of being absolutely ridiculous. People were approaching me saying that there were sharks flying over playgrounds. One woman even claimed to have been attacked by one of them,” said the city’s Mayor Dale Walters. “It was becoming a real issue. People were clogging up the emergency channels with these reports. The newspapers and TV channels weren’t helping either; they were just feeding into the stupidity. Got them ratings I guess.”

The phenomenon went on for weeks, even after one local station began broadcasting an interview with a area marine biologist stating categorically that no such animal existed now or ever.

“It’s beyond the pall really. I can’t imagine how people could have thought this was real,” said the biologist Dr. David White. “Sharks simply cannot live outside the water. They have no lungs; they are unable to breathe outside the water. They are also unable to fly. Even the smallest sharks are far too heavy to take flight. Birds have hollow bones and feathers. Sharks are cartilage and muscle. Plus, none of these sharks apparently had wings. Did they have jet rockets attached to their feet? It’s ridiculous.”

A local psychiatrist, Edwin Harvey, also weighed in on the issue. “It seems totally irrational but this type of occurrence isn’t completely un-documented. The happenings of mass delusion are quite common. Usually they occur with more mundane things, more believable things, which allows the idea to gain a stronger foothold, but extreme situations like this tend to happen. I also believe the stories were principally reported from more depressed area. In most of these types of situations that tends to be the case.” 

“I’m glad this is behind us,” Said Mayor Walters. “It makes us look like a bunch of dumb hicks. I just want to forget about all of it.”

As for the original complainant, he’s not resting on the word from experts. “Scientists think they know everything but that just ain’t true. I know I saw something and sure maybe it wasn’t a shark. Mighta been a UFO or something. I for sure saw something and no doctor or scientist is going to tell me different.”

Anna Phillips, Science Correspondent

NEWS > SCIENCE > FLYING SHARKS NOT REAL, TOWN BREATHES SIGH OF RELIEF