Shark 'the size of a car' kills surfer in West Australia

[T-D-C]

The strange thing was that it was two sharks. One circled around the surfer while the other attacked. They say it looked like it was premeditated.

Scary Stuff.

But on a lighter note I can immagine JAWS rentals in the area would be going up.

[Blind_Prophet]

Damn I can't imagine how horrible that must of been for the guy......and for the people that witnessed it personally if I saw something like that I don't think you would catch me in the ocean much anymore.....not for awhile anyway.

[Aerich]

Yeah, it's a fact of life. We humans invade their territory all the time, and may be mistaken for prey.

One of my buddies grew up in the Yukon Territory (northwestern Canada) and he says the first thing he remembers being taught in kindergarten was what to do in case of a bear attack. To this day, he sleeps with an axe next to his sleeping bag whenever he goes camping.

Also, we had a 60-year old guy in our area get jumped by a cougar. He managed to kill it with his pocket knife, but he was clawed up a bit.

From sheer probability, it has to happen to someone, sometime. Sucks to be a statistic, however.

[Paladin2000]

Sad news indeed. We humans are always encroaching other predators' territories as we hunt and depleted their food source. It will be soon where they will turn on us and hunt us instead.

[T-D-C]

I must assume that they have Goverment permission to hunt this shark because if it is a great white then they are a protected species.

More and more of them have been seen recently because they are now able to breed without being hunted for sport.

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Harkoliar: to think it was only neck-deep .. *shudders*

I've seen grey nurse sharks and reef sharks when I've been swimming in waist deep water, but those ones are generally harmless, they look like they're stoned. Bull sharks are the worst because they've been known to attack people and small boats, and they live in shallow areas like rivers, inlets and beach areas (where there's no netting or where they get through). Bull sharks can go upstream into fresh water, as they do in places like the Georges River and Middle Harbour (I saw one when I was kayaking once but it was just swimming along beneath the water). Bronze whalers are also quite common. The ones that get most of the bad press, like white pointers and tigers, you don't really see all that often (I've never seen one swimming). Occasionally you'll see hammerheads - a 20-ft hammerhead shark was caught in Sydney Harbour a couple of years ago (I've never seen one either).

But the risk of running into a shark is not really that great in places like Bondi, Tamarama, Coogee, Narrabeen and some of the better known beaches as there's always netting in place and the sharks don't normally like swimming where there's a heap of people. If anything there's a bigger risk stepping on a stonefish (lethal venom) or getting stung by a bluebottle or box jellyfish (which has enough venom to kill three humans).

But this is reality in Sydney. If you live near the water, and do a lot of water stuff (kayaking, swimming, surfing, windsurfing, jetskiing, etc), you'll get used to the risk of these animals as you're effectively sharing their habitat, so you need to be careful. It's usually when you're at a surfing beach with no netting in the dead of winter, when there's hardly anyone there, and there's a lot of surf, that you're most at risk of a shark attack.

It's wise to STAY AWAY from any beach that has seals, particularly in September when they're whelping - you don't want to be mistaken for a seal.

[ 07-12-2004, 04:27 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

[Donut]

You don't see many of them on the Thames!

[Memnoch]

They don't live long on the Thames, do they?

[wellard]

Originally posted by johnny: The shape of a surfboard gives the sharks the impression it's a sealion, and we all know they are their favourite snack. I feel sorry for the guy, but the shark was only following it's instincts. personally, no matter how much i'd enjoy surfing, i'd never risk myself into shark infested waters, that's asking for trouble.

Trouble is most of mainland Australia (if not all) is a shark zone area, so you just take the risk. Safety is in numbers; they very rarely attack with large numbers of humans around.

I remember a holiday in the Northern territories a few years ago. I ended up swimming in a billabong with 'danger crocs' signs all around. When it's over 40c dry and dusty, the water fed from a double waterfall is sooooo inviting. The fact that there was 30 other people swimming or paddling around sort of made the odds worthwhile. It sounds dumb but I'm sure most others would have done the same.


Regarding the surfer/diver being mistaken for a seal. Why are wet suits black? The colour of a seal! Would it be better if they were a different colour?

[Oblivion437]

Originally posted by Memnoch: They don't live long on the Thames, do they?

Or in the East River...