When Sharks Attack - Articles - Zimbio

Shark Attack Leaves American Tourist Dead

Tue, 30 Apr 2008 22:56:15 GMT

posted by tatiana

A 24-year-old American tourist was attacked by a shark while surfing off the coast of Mexico's southern Pacific coast, officials announced Tuesday. Although the man was still alive when brought onto the beach, he died shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

It's believed that a gray shark bit the San Francisco, California man. The shark bit high on his right thigh, leaving a 15-inch would, that stretched front his hip to his knee, exposing his femur, authorities said.

The attack occurred at the Troncones beach, which is fairly isolated. It took so long for the ambulance to arrive, that a local bystander ended up driving the man to the hospital in his car.

Unfortunately the effort came to late, the man died from excessive loss of blood.

It's fairly uncommon for sharks to attack in general, and rare in Mexico. There is only one other shark attack on record for the region, and it was not fatal.

Shark Attack-Ahem, "Mistake" off Catalina

Tue, 25 Jun 2008 16:29:00 GMT

posted by sharkdiver
If there's one thing that we fail to understand here at Underwater Thrills are the new media savvy individuals in our industry who are attempting to re-categorize pretty straightforward shark events.

Case in point-"Shark attacks" vs "Shark mistakes".

When sharks attack people, vessels, man made objects, or anything that is not primary or secondary food sources these new media folks rush in and quickly brand the event as a "shark mistake".

Tragically, sometimes these "mistakes" end the lives of the "victims", a term we're pretty sure will be soon be changed to UPP's or "unwilling predatory participants".

This current school of thought goes as far as stating "if the shark fails to actually remove a part of its victim, then what you have is a "shark mistake". For the sake of reality, let's get back to basics here and recognize that sharks are first and foremost predators. In the same category as bears, wolves, tigers and crocodiles.

Yes, we know sharks are not actively hunting humans.

To suggest that sharks make "mistakes", is to suggest an intelligence far higher then they have been tested for. It is also done to lower the threshold for interactions with these animals. These animals do occasionally attack, they are predatory. Divers seeking encounters with them should first and foremost understand this and move away away from the notion of a "shark mistake". Encounters with these animals should always have safety as the foremost consideration.

99.9% of all commercial encounters with these animals are safe. That's an amazing statistic all things considered. One that proves sharks are for the most part uninterested in humans. But when they occasionally attack, they attack. Plain and simple.

Oh, and by the way-there was a "shark mistake" off Catalina last week involving a Kayak and a white shark. As far as we can tell from reports this latest "mistake" had enough power behind it to completely toss the unwitting kayaker out of her kayak.

Fortunately, she did not become a "unwilling predatory participant" and swam safely to shore.

Shark Attack

Sat, 27 Apr 2008 20:03:00 GMT

posted by clint13442
On Friday, news came out of San Diego that a bather died from a shark attack. The apex predator in question was thought to be a great white shark. I mention this because I've had a longtime fascination with sharks and the people they love to eat.

Not surprisingly, this was all triggered by 'Jaws'. I was eight when Spielberg's masterpiece was released, and my mother and sister took me along to see it. Needless to say, the film scared the living crap out of me. (Sidenote- Naturally, I repeated this parental bad judgment call years later when I took my five year old daughter to see Spielberg's terrifying remake of 'War of the Worlds.') Though I remain an avid swimmer, because of 'Jaws' to this day I cannot muster the courage to venture into the ocean, except for a fleeting dash through the surf. Ditto with lakes, rivers, and ponds (Don't you know that bull sharks are tolerant to fresh water!).

During that 1975 'Summer of the Shark' I even found myself imagining that a plane flying overhead would drop a shark into our family's swimming pool.

I still quite enjoy watching 'Jaws' whenever it is on the telly, though in most scenes Bruce the shark now looks incredibly phony. It is on my list of films that I would love to see remade, (I'll blog about that sometime) but for the love of God, please don't let Peter Jackson touch it. I never tire of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. And, I am planning a pilgrammage this summer to nearby Matawan NJ, site of the horrific 1916 shark attacks that inspired Peter Benchley to write the novel that started the whole 'Jaws' craze.

Whenever the traditional media comments on shark attacks, you can be assured that they will make a point of how rare shark attacks actually are. However, for me, this misses the point. You see, when it comes to the actual act of death, I am sure that most of us hope that it will occur painlessly, quickly, and preferably whilst unconscious.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I personally can't think of a more horrifying way to die than to be eaten alive by a big fish.

And while we are on the subject, I also feel the same way about plane crashes. I don't buy that flying is safer than driving rubbish. After all, there is a considerable degree of wiggle-room between a fender bender in the supermarket car-park and a head-on with a Mack truck. I've been in three car accidents where the car I was in was totaled, and I yet I walked away from each with nary a scratch. That simply does not happen in plane crashes. They almost always result in catastrophic loss of life. And as with a shark attack, I'd prefer that the last minutes of my life not be spent in a state of conscious terror.

So what about you, when your number is up, what death experience scares you?

Australian Escapes Shark Attack With Eye Poke

Tue, 14 May 2008 19:09:23 GMT

posted by tatiana

An Australian swimmer survived a shark attack by poking the deadly predator in the eye. The shark, described as 16 feet in length, is believed to be a great white.

So, news alert to Australian swimmers, if you see a pissed off one-eyed shark swimming around, get away quickly. But if it attacks you, poke it in the other eye.

The 37-year-old swimmer, Jason Cull, said he was swimming at Middleton Beach Saturday when he saw a shadow moving in the water. He mistook the creature for a dolphin, but realized it was a shark when it rammed him and grabbed Cull by the leg.

"I sort of punched it, and it grabbed me by the leg and dragged me under the water," he said. "I just remember being dragged backwards underwater. I felt along it, I found its eye and I poked it in the ye, and that's when it let go."

The shark that attacked Cull was one of three spotted by swimmers at the beach Saturday. Officials closed the beach after the attack. Maybe they should've closed it after the first shark sighting? Just a thought.

Cull is recovering at a local hospital. He was treated for deep lacerations as a result of a bite to his left leg.

Just last month, a 16-year-old surfer was killed by a shark off Australia's eastern coast.

Image Source Carl Roessler

Swimming With Shark Jesus

Mon, 14 Oct 2008 18:37:00 GMT

posted by disgrasian

After a prehistoric deep-sea frill shark, which traces back by fossils 50 million years (or six thousand years, in Sarah Palin-time), was discovered off the coast of Japan earlier this year, I've been convinced that sharks will be responsible for the most important, strange, mystical occurrences of our time.

Lo and behold, strange and mystical occurrences seem to be, uh, occurring! Scientists just confirmed the second "virgin birth," or parthenogenesis, of a hammerhead shark at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center this week. DNA testing showed no genetic material from a male, meaning that the female shark reproduced a pup entirely on her own (I knew we could do it!).

This is spectacularly fascinating news, but can everyone please avoid sharing this discovery with my parents? I fear that it'll give them too much juice to revive the ol' "stay a virgin until you die, or we'll kill you" mandate, and I just don't have the energy to figure out asexual reproduction right now. Or virginity reclamasian.

Source Source Source
Thanks, KP!

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