Shark Attacks Down in 2005 but Up Over Long Term

Worldwide shark-attack numbers fell in 2005 for the fifth year in a row.

Last year 58 confirmed "unprovoked" shark attacks occurred in natural ocean habitat, according to a report from the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), an organization based at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

That's down from 78 in 2000 and 65 in 2004.

Incidents in which the animals are provoked—such as during shark-feeding operations, in aquariums, or when fishers try to remove sharks from a net—aren't counted in ISAF's annual survey.

Four people were killed in unprovoked attacks last year, down from seven in 2004 and a bit below the 2001-to-2005 five-year average of 4.4 per year.

Last year's deaths included two in Australian waters, one in Florida, and one from the South Pacific island of Vanuatu.

Shark-attack fatality rates continue to drop decade by decade as improving medical treatments help boost the odds of survival in the rare event of an attack.

More from National Geographic...

ALL SHARK ATTACKS since 1880

The Global Shark Attack File has an Excel sheet listing all shark attacks on record starting around 1883. A fascinating record. A bit sketchy in the early days, but now full of all reported incidents. Most attacks appear to take place in USA, Australia and South Africa.

Download here -- 1.5MB file.
http://www.sharkattackfile.net/GSAF5.xls

Unprovoked Incidents = Tan
• Provoked Incidents = Orange
• Attacks on Boats = Green
• Air / Sea Disasters = Yellow
• Questionable Incidents = Blue

The Global Shark Attack File

INJURED - 13 February 2006 - Golden Beach, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia - swimmer attacked

Early newspaper reports in Australia say:

A shark has bitten an 18-year-old man in shallow water on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Fisheries Minister Tim Mulherin said the man was wading in 30cm of water at Golden Beach at Caloundra on the morning of 13 February when he was bitten.

The wound required 11 stitches, Mulherin said.

More details are expected later.

Sources:
The Courier Mail

INJURED - 8 February 2006 - Nahoon Beach, East London, South Africa - surfer attacked

Fifteen-year-old Jason Noades was bitten on the right calf while surfing at Nahoon Beach, East London, South Africa on Wednesday afternoon, 8 February 2006.

He escaped the shark's jaws by kicking it with his left foot.

He told the Daily Dispatch newspaper: “I was surfing when I fell and the wave took me down. I felt something grab me on my right leg.

"Then I saw the fin, which was about 15 centimetres long, as the shark was taking me."

Noades said he kicked out with his other leg and then "I paddled faster...without even looking back."

Noades suffered two minor wounds to his right calf. He wetsuit also bore puncture marks where the shark bit his leg.

There were seven other surfers in the vicinity at the time of the attack according to Jason.

The newspaper said that experts were yet to determine the size and species of the shark.

Sources: Daily Dispatch

Scientists trace origin of shark's electric sense

Sharks are known for their almost uncanny ability to detect electrical signals while hunting and navigating.
Now researchers have traced the origin of those electrosensory powers to the same type of embryonic cells that gives rise to many head and facial features in humans.
The discovery, reported by University of Florida scientists in the current edition of Evolution & Development, identifies neural crest cells, which are common in vertebrate development, as a source of sharks’ electrical ESP.
It also fortifies the idea that before our early ancestors emerged from the sea, they too had the ability to detect electric fields.
“Sharks have a network of electrosensory cells that allows them to hunt by detecting electrical signals generated by prey,” said Martin Cohn, a developmental biologist with the departments of zoology and anatomy and cell biology and the UF Genetics Institute. “That doesn’t mean they can only detect electric fish. They can sense electricity generated by a muscle twitch, even if it’s the weak signal of a flounder buried under sand.”
Likewise, sharks are widely thought to use the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation, enabling them to swim in precise paths across large expanses of featureless ocean, Cohn said.

More from the University of Florida...

FATAL - 1 February 2006 - Neiafu jetty, Vava’u island, Tonga - swimmer attacked

Tessa Horan, 24, from New Mexico, was killed by a shark after it tore off her leg while she was swimming near Neiafu jetty, Vava’u island, Tonga at 6pm local time on 1 February 2006.

According to Pacific magazine she had recently arrived on the island on 18 January to work as a volunteer for the US Peace Corps.

“She was believed to have joined village youth in games of netball and soccer before a swim in the harbour.

“A Tongan youth that accompanied Ms Horan for a swim said she was pulled underwater and attacked by the shark,” the magazine reported.

Details of the size and species of the shark were not mentioned in the report.

Sources:
Pacific magazine

KNITTED - the art of a shark attack

How's this for gory knitting!

More here....

FRIGHTENED - Atlantic Ocean - 29 January 2006 - rowers' boat attacked

IC Wales reports:

LIKE something out of Jaws" - Welsh ocean rower Andrew Barnett describes the terrifying moment when, hungry and exhausted, he became the target of a frenzied shark attack in the middle of the Atlantic.

Tossed about on the rough sea like "clothes in a washing machine", the 46-year-old Monmouth adventurer hid helplessly in the cramped cabin of his tiny two-man boat as the 12ft predator repeatedly rammed it in a bid to sink him and his crewmate.

"We'd watched it circle us for a long time," said the seasoned rower, whose boat MayaBrit was approaching the final stretch of the Woodvale Challenge - a gruelling 2,950-mile, non-stop trans-Atlantic race.

"Then suddenly it came swimming right at us at a rate of knots, repeatedly hammering itself into us and all we could do was just pray the hull would hold," added Andrew, who, along with Guatemalan oarsman Juan Carlos Sagastume, had already braved torrential tropical storms, food poisoning, sleep deprivation and broken ribs on their epic voyage.

Each time the shark battered their fragile 22ft vessel, it brought a huge, ominous-sounding crack and, with huge swells lashing the sides, the final finishing line 300 miles away in Antigua seemed to grow ever more distant.

"We were terrified, particularly as five other boats in the challenge have capsized or sunk in the last two weeks," said the medical rep and dad-of-two via satellite phone.

"My biggest fear was that the shark would come over the side and capsize us.

"If we'd have gone in to the water there's no way we have stood a chance with that thing."

More...

INJURED - Hole in the wall, Wild Coast, South Africa - 25 January 2006 - spearfisherman attacked

Michael Vriese, 35, was attacked by a shark while spearfishing near Hole in the Wall, Wild Coast, South Africa on 25 January.

While he was pulling in a fish he had speared, the shark (size and species not mentioned) attacked the dead fish and in the process mauled his right arm severing two arteries and damaging muscles and nerves on his wrist and forearm.

"By the time I had swum back to the beach, I was getting pretty weak and my friends had to support me by both shoulders to get me to a car," Vriese told media.

Vriese said “there was blood everywhere. I don't know how much I lost, but I'm told that I got a transfusion of at least four units in Durban.”

His diving companion Neil Abel drove him to a clinic near Hole in the Wall and they told him to rush for Mthatha.

Vriese was stabilised at Mthatha hospital before being airlifted to Durban where he underwent further surgery to repair the damaged arteries and tendons.

"I could have ended up dead," Vriese told media. "I'm lucky that Neil and I both know a bit about first aid and I was able to stop some of the blood loss myself by tying a tourniquet around my arm, and loosening it every few minutes to allow some blood to get through."

Sources:
The Herald
IOL

FRIGHTENED...

This pic taken in False Bay, Cape Town has been doing the rounds on email. I wonder if it's been doctored? Tho there are sharks that size and bigger in the Bay. A famous one about 7 metres long fishermen fondly refered to as the "Sub" back in the shark hunting days (Great Whites are now protected in South African waters) when it surfaced next to their fishing boats and was longer than them.

DESCRIBED - Perth diver describes how he hid after shark attack

Bernie Williams, the scuba diver attacked by a shark in Perth on Sunday 15 January, tells The Sydney Morning Herald about the attack and how he hid in a crevice to escape the shark when it returned to attack him a second time.

A scuba diver injured in a shark attack off Perth says he wrenched his bleeding arm from the predator's jaws and hid in a crevice on the ocean floor until he was rescued.

Despite his brush with a 3.5m white pointer (or Great White) yesterday (Sunday 15 January) Bernie Williams, of the northern Perth beachside suburb of Sorrento, vowed today to continue diving - with a shark repellant.

He believes it was the arrival of a diving companion with a shark repellant (shark pod) that chased away the great white.

More...

INJURED - 15 January 2006 - City Beach, Perth, Australia - diver attacked

Brian Williams, 52, was bitten on the left arm by a 3.5 metre Great White shark while diving with friends off City Beach, Perth, Australia. The attack took place at 11am local time. Williams fought off the attack by hitting the shark with a speargun.

Police inspector George Putland told media: "He was believed to be away from the other divers at the time of the attack and the shark attacked from behind, grabbing and biting his arm. He hit out at the shark with his spear gun and eventually the shark swam away."

Williams was taken to a Perth hospital where his wounds were treated. The full extent of his wounds was unclear from initial reports.

Sources:
The Australian
News24

FATAL – 7 January 2006 - Amity Point, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia – swimmer attacked

Sarah Whiley, 21, was attacked by three bull sharks while swimming with friends at Amity Point, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia. The sharks struck the victim at about 5.30pm local time.

Within seconds they had torn off both the woman's arms and savagely mauled her torso and legs.Two fishermen were the first to react, dragging her out of the water onto the beach.Frantic bystanders scrambled for towels to stem the bleeding before a helicopter rushed the stricken woman to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital where she died of shock and massive blood loss, The Australian reported.

Inspector Peter Harding told media Whiley had been swimming with three friends from a church group when she was attacked.

"She went down under the water ... after about five or six seconds the deceased came out of the water and screamed `Shark' and of course people at the time thought she was only joking ... until they saw the blood.

"She was bleeding quite heavily – I'm of the opinion of what I've seen and what I've been told, there was more than one shark involved, there could have been up to three," he said.

The Australian quoted Insp Harding as saying that after Friday night's storm – the water was very murky and dirty, in fact so much so one of the locals of there wouldn't go in and dive.

He added that the woman was swimming in water "anything from chest-deep to 30 feet".

Sources:
The Australian
The Mercury

INJURED – 1 January 2006 – Soetwater, Cape Peninsula, South Africa – free diver attacked

John Williams, 49, was bitten on his little finger by a 1.5 metre shark while free diving for crayfish 250 metres offshore of Soetwater near Kommetjie on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. The attack took place on New Year’s Day 2006.

He told rescue workers he was holding a crayfish when the shark lunged at him, biting him on the little finger. He managed to swim ashore.

He was admitted to False Bay Hospital and received stitches.

Source:
Cape Argus

INJURED - 24 December 2005 - Tillamook Head, Oregon, United States - surfer attacked

Brian Anderson, 36, was bitten on the ankle and calf while surfing at a popular surfing spot near Tillamook Head, south of the community of Seaside, about 80 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon, United States.

He said he fended off a Great White shark by punching it in the nose.

He told media: "It's like your worst nightmare, an adventure which has made life that much more precious and interesting.

"It felt like getting clamped in a bear trap," he said. "It was a piercing pain and then it went numb."

When the shark grabbed hold of he is leg he repeatedly punched it on the nose until it finally let go. He paddled back to shore and pulled himself up on to the rocks. Other surfers called 911. He was admitted to Providence Seaside Hospital, treated and released later that night.

Source:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

INJURED - 22 ? December 2005 - Keawakapu Beach, Maui, Hawaii - swimmer attacked

Jonathan Genant, 29, from Seattle, lost his left little finger and part of his ring finger when the shark bit into his hand while he was swimming at Keawakapu Beach, Maui, Hawaii.

Reports of the date of the attack are vague. A report on Wednesday 28 December 2005 claimed the attack happened “last week” putting it anywhere between the 18th and 25th.

Reports did not mention the type of shark responsible for the attack.

Genant told media: “You're in a panic mode. You're thinking, 'God -- OK, I'm bleeding all over the place,' and you just don't know if you're going to be hit again, you're so vulnerable. But if he hit me again, that would have been it. After about 20 seconds or so, I realised I've got a shot here to get back."

Genant said he gripped the wrist of his injured arm to slow the blood loss, flipped on his back and began to swim. But without the use of his arms, he said he could only drift.

When he realised that the shark could come back he began to yell for help.

Hal Bringeland, from Surrey, who was boogie boarding on Keawakapu Beach at the time went to the rescue when he heard the shouting.

He told media: "You know it's hard to tell exactly what was going on. It looked like he was holding up a red snorkel.

"So I piled into the water and you know we were probably two thirds of the way out there, and then we could see this wasn't just a snorkel, and he confirmed it when we got there.

"He said that he had been bit by a shark. So we made it our priority to get out of the water."

Bringeland and the other rescuer helped Genant out of the water. He was taken to hospital for surgery.

Sources:
MSNBC
CBC California

New shark species found in Gulf of California

Practical Fishing magazine reports that

"Ichthyologists have described a new species of shark from the Gulf of California.

The new shark is a member of the Smoothhound shark group and has been named Mustelus hacat by a team of Mexican scientists who have recently reported their findings in the ichthyological journal Copeia."

More...

FRIGHTENED - Atlantic Ocean - 19 December 2005 - rowers boat attacked

A pair of rowers from New Zealand taking part in the Atlantic Rowing Race were frightened by three-metre shark which attacked their rowing boat, bumping it and biting parts of it for more than 15 minutes.

The team’s shore manager released this report:

Monday, 19 December 2005

At sea. Atlantic Rowing Race: Shark Attack Team Sun Latte

In the early hours of the morning New Zealand time Team Sun Latte was attacked by a shark. Tara said on the Tech Rentals phone this morning that it circled the boat for a short time before making its attack, bunting into the boat sending it rocking. Iain and Tara didn’t muck around and got into the well of the boat and tried to not move or make a sound. The unprecedented attack continued unabated over the next 15 minutes leaving the rowers shell shocked.

“We were really scared,” said Tara, “It was so aggressive and persistent, for a while we wondered if it would ever stop, it just kept hitting the boat, having a go at the rudder, the sea anchor and hull. We weren’t sure it wasn’t biting holes in the underside so we rang the support ship Aurora for advice and possible assistance.”

The ship made its way to the crew taking about six hours to get to them. Unfortunately, it was dark by the time it arrived so was unable to assess any possible damage. The support boat is currently staying close until dawn at which point a check will be done.

Tara estimated the beast to be 12 feet long, “because when it went under the boat which is 6 feet wide we could see both ends of it sticking out either side,” but she was not sure what type it was, they didn’t hang around long on deck to find out!

“The scary thing is I was in the water cleaning the hull for barnacles at exactly the same time yesterday and Iain did likewise the day before,” said Tara. “I haven’t bitten my nails for over a year now but in that time I chewed two nails right off.”

Iain said he considered taping a gas cooking canister to a flare and trying to shoot it ‘Jaws’ style but thought the better of it. He passed comment to Tara that, “In 20 years time you may not remember what happened yesterday but you sure as hell won’t forget today.”

Rob Hamill

Team Sunlatte is crewed by Tara Remington and Iain Rudkin from New Zealand
http://www.teamsunlatte.co.nz/
Event website http://www.atlanticrowingrace.co.uk

UPDATE - diver tells of attack in north Queensland Australia

In a later report the diver - Glen Simpson, 44, said he was spearfishing with his 15-year-old son Luke at a reef of Port Douglas when the attack happened.

Luke had just speared a trout when a few sharks appeared and a feeding frenzy began. One swam right up to Simpson’s face.

“I punched him with my left arm to get him out of my face,” Simpson told media.

"And as I did that I was thinking I got rid of him and another one came from behind and grabbed my right arm."

Simpson told his son to swim for the boat which was 60 metres away because he was bleeding a lot. But Luke refused and helped his father to the boat.

After Luke had speared the trout “they started harassing me and dad a bit," Luke said.

And then, "just out of nowhere, it was just like shark city," Simpson told media.

"It was like something out of a movie," he said.

"I consider myself very lucky, you know, especially with the mood the sharks were in."

Simpson required dozens of stitches to a badly gashed left arm.

They both said they would continue spearfishing, but be more cautious.

Sources:
The Sunday Mail

INJURED - Port Douglas, north Queensland, Australia - 11 December 2005 - diver attacked

A brief report on Australia’s ABC News online stated a 42-year-old man was bitten on the elbow by a shark while diving (presumably spearfishing) 20 nautical miles off Port Douglas in far north Queensland, Australia, on Sunday 11 December.

The report said he was in a satisfactory condition in Cairns Base Hospital.

No other information was available at the time of this web log.

Sources: ABC News online