No need for paranoia

A documentary aired on National Geographic on 25 May stated that on average there are only 75 shark attacks a year and of those only 10 are fatal. There is no reason for shark attack paranoia. Even as a surfer, the most common victim of shark attacks around the world, your chances of being bitten are super slim, tho you’ve probably got less chance of winning the lottery.

There is a lot of hype surrounding shark attacks. They’re gory, bloody, sudden and unexpected. It’s the contrast of a wild, beastly attack on a person when they least expect it, when they are having fun in the sea. It always makes the news. And people love to read about them.

In the documentary “Naked Science - Shark Attack” the say that many attacks could be avoided if we had a better understanding of shark physiology and psychology. They say humans are not their preferred meal. mmmm that's food for thought for surfers!

INJURED - 21 May 2006 - Boa Viagem beach, Recife, Brazil - surfer attacked

Antonio Carvalho, 23, suffered injuries to his left calf and foot following a shark attack while surfing off Boa Viagem beach, Recife, Brazil. His life was not in danger, according to reports.

There was no mention of the type or size of the shark.

The report said shark attacks are common around Recife. According to media Carvalho was the 48th person to suffer a shark attack in Brazil’s Pernambuco state since 1992. Seventeen of those attacks were fatal.

Sources:
EITB 24

INJURED - 21 April 2006 - Sebastian Inlet, Florida, United States - surfer attacked

Surfer and author Davis Bunn was bitten on the feet while surfing at Sebastian Inlet, Florida, US on Saturday 21 April.

The brief report in Local 6 News said he received 100 stitches.

Bunn was quoted as saying: “Paddling out from a wave, I got hit from behind and never saw it. (There was) no warning, nothing."

No other details were available at the time of this blog.

Sources:
Local 6 News

INJURED - 11 April 2006 - Cowrie Hole, New South Wales, Australia - surfer attacked

Surfer Luke Egan, 15, was bitten on the left foot while paddling his board in white water at the Cowrie Hole surf spot near Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia at 1.30pm on 11 April.

His injuries were minor. Surgeons had to remove a tooth from his big toe.

The size and type of shark were not known.

Luke told the press from his hospital bed: "I could feel my foot inside its mouth, his whole mouth was around my foot, and I just knew it was some sort of shark.

“Then I hit it and it let go and I didn't see anything."

Luke paddled the 40 metres back to shore thinking the shark would return. He made it to shore and hailed a lifeguard who applied pressure bandages while they waited for an ambulance.

Source:
Sydney Morning Herald

INJURED - 3 April 2006 - Tigertail Beach, Marco Island, Florida, USA - swimmer attacked

An 11-year-old boy (name withheld) was bitten on the right hand and thigh after he reportedly dived into a school of fish at Tigertail Beach, Marco Island, Florida, on Monday 3 April.

He was being treated at Marco Urgent Care, according to media.

No other details were available at the time of publishing this blog.

Sources:
Naples News

INJURED - 23 March 2006 - Leftovers, Oahu, Hawaii, - surfer attacked

Liz Dunn, 28, suffered minor injuries after being bitten on the left calf while surfing at a spot called Leftovers, about one mile south of Waimea Bay on Oahu, Hawaii, around 11.40am on Thursday 23 March.

Done had caught a wave, which she described as one of the best in her life, a long ride which took her into the channel. The channel was muddy and murky because of run-off from recent heavy rains.

While paddling back out she felt a bump on her board. “I thought it was a rock or a turtle,” she said. Then she felt the bite on her calf.

"The bite was almost not the scariest part - it was seeing the fin," a jagged dorsal fin a foot and a half wide at its base, Dunn told media. "I knew it was a big, serious shark."

Dunn was visiting Hawaii from Vancouver, Canada.

Hawaii’s Star Bulletin quoted National Marine Fisheries Service biologist John Naughton as saying: "People are absolutely crazy to be surfing in these conditions."

"I'm almost surprised it hasn't happened earlier with all the debris and mud in the water.”

The gray shark kept circling her, with the large fin above, then below the water, and Dunn feared the worst.

"It felt like it took a taster bite," she said.

The bite left three puncture wounds near her shin. The largest was 2 1/2 inches wide and went to the bone.

Two local men with whom she was surfing heard her screams and rushed to her aid.

They pulled her to shore on her 7-foot board and later washed her wounds at a private home with soap and water, and wrapped it in paper towels and blue packing tape.

Dunn thinks her wet suit protected her leg and might have prevented a serious bite.

Her boyfriend, Chris Smith, drove her to Kahuku Hospital, where she received a tetanus shot and intravenous antibiotics and her leg was bandaged.

Sources:
Star Bulletin

INJURED - 18 March 2006 - Sigatoka River mouth, Fiji - surfer attacked

Surfer, Paul Chong Sue, 21, was bitten on the arm while padding out to catch a wave at Sigatoka River mouth, Fiji, at about 6pm local time on Saturday 18 March.

Fellow surfer, Ratu Naiqama told the Fiji Times: "The shark came from below his board and bit his right arm,

"It tried to pull him under but Paul fought back and managed to free his arm from the sharks grip."

After he freed his arm from the shark he called to the other surfers. There were around 15 surfers in the water at the time and they came to his aid.

There were about 15 of us out at sea with him. We all surrounded him and started making our way back to the beach,

"After the attack, the shark kept circling the area. Even though we thought that it was going to strike again, we did not pay much attention because we were rushing to get Paul onto the beach," Naiqama said.

An Australian nurse, who was also there to surf, was on the beach at the time and help treat the wound before Chong Sue was taken to Lautoka Hospital.

He was expected to make a full recovery.

Sources
Fiji Times

INJURED - 27 February 2006 - Big Beach, Maui, Hawaii - swimmer attacked

Nicolette Raleigh, 15, was bitten on the right calf in two foot of water by an eight-foot grey shark. She was standing in the water off Big Beach, Maui, Hawaii on 27 February with her boyfriend Shane Wilds. They were celebrating his 17th birthday. Shane was knocked down by the shark as it came in for the attack and latched on to Nicolette’s leg.

Media report that another friend, Jessy Larson, pulled her to safety and Nicolette was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where surgery was performed to fix a 10-inch long gash on her calf.

"I just started screaming. I was like, 'Get him off me.' Then I kicked him with my foot," Raleigh told reporters.

"Everything got pretty messed up. My muscles are all torn and everything, but I got really lucky, because the only thing that happened was I'm missing part of my nerve."

She said: "We kind of joked about it 15 minutes before [going in the water], like, 'Don't get bitten by a shark!' And we're like, 'Yeah, yeah.' "

"And then, lucky me!"

Sources:
CBS News

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