Man eating sharks in Recife

Recife has been a port since colonial times, but, as everywhere, a deep water port was needed to cope with modern container traffic. This was built some way from the city and the old port., with its rundown streets, customs house and red light district. Unfortunately the new port was built in the feeding grounds of the local sharks. So they moved down the coast to the golden, palm fringed beach right in the heart of the city, Boa Viagem. Now right outside the biggest hotels, the streaming traffic and under the bright arc lights illuminating the beach, the sharks hang around just beyond a low reef not far out from the beach. At high tide they can get over the reef and there are one or two breaks in the reef which hungry baby sharks can get through. The only food available is bathing human beings so every now and again they attack one of those with a view to eating them. But human beings are not tasty, so they generally just spit the flesh out and move on, still hungry. A lorry driver, desperate for a pee, went into the sea and relieved himself. That was a bad mistake. The smell attracted the sharks and one of them took a big bite out of his leg. So the moral of the tale is don't pee in the sea if there are sharks about.