SharkArchives.com

Source: orangecountry.com

Two boaters cruising around about 1.5 miles off the coast of Newport Beach last night made a new friend.
A large shark about 18-feet in length came up to the side of their 29-foot boat, swimming about 5 knots alongside the vessel, said boater Steve Lockhart.
Lockhart and friend Aaron Hix just had some engine work done on their 1985 29-foot Carver and were burning off fuel offshore with plans to go fishing - when they got a bit distracted by the massive shark hanging out with them.
“The shark was a beast,” he said. “It was definitely curious.”

Great White

Source: surf.transworld.net

Great White

Source: guardian.co.uk

A snorkeller is believed to have been snatched by a shark as he swam last weekend with his son at a beach south of Perth. Witnesses reported seeing a dorsal fin and thrashing in the water before the sea turned red and the man vanished at the scene on Australia’s west coast.

Father-of three Brian Guest, 51, who had campaigned for many years for the protection of sharks, had been looking for crabs on yesterday morning with his 24-year-old son when he was attacked about 30 metres from the shore.

Luke Tubbs told how a witness ran to his house in shock and screaming for help: “He just saw a big splash and then the shark roll over in the water with the guy and then [he saw] no body or anything.”

Daniel Guest, who was swimming six metres away at the Port Kennedy beach, heard his father’s screams but did not see the attack. He raced to shore when he saw blood in the water. His father’s shredded wetsuit was found later, and aerial searches spotted a five-metre great white shark swimming in the area.

In Sydney, some hours later, a kayaker survived a terrifying ordeal after being knocked from his craft by a great white shark. That encounter, endured by 29-year-old Steve Kulcsar, occurred less than a mile off Australia’s east coast, at Long Reef, and was filmed by a fisherman in a small boat nearby. The video footage apparently showed the shark circling Kulcsar after bumping him off his kayak.

Kulcsar said: “I knew it was there, but my first thought was to just get back in the kayak as quick as possible.”

For 10 minutes, the shark is seen lurking around him and two other kayakers before losing interest and swimming away.

The two great white encounters sparked panic and closed a number of beaches across Australia.

Yesterday Bondi beach was closed yesterday after a shark was spotted close to shore. Swimmers were also evacuated from a Queensland holiday island after sharks were spotted in waist-deep water.

During an aerial search on the West Australian coastline for Guest’s body, sharks were spotted, forcing the closure of two beaches.

The attack on Guest was the second by sharks in Australia this year. A 16-year-old surfer, Peter Edmonds, died after being attacked by a shark near Byron bay, on the New South Wales coast, in April.

On average there are 15 shark attacks a year in Australia, with about one death each year. Swimmers are more likely to die of a lightning strike than be taken by a great white shark.

Yesterday Daniel Guest recalled how his father had spoken of the risks of sharks and how he had “loved and respected the ocean environment”.

Brian Guest wrote on the Western Angler website forum in 2004: “I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it, at least it was doing what I wanted. Every surfer, fisherman and diver has far more chance of being killed by bees, drunk drivers, teenage car thieves and lightning. Every death is a tragedy – regardless of the cause – but we have no greater claim to use of this earth than any of the other creatures [we] share it with.”

His son said he viewed his father’s death as a random event that should not make people fear the water, and said he would eventually go back into the sea. “When I’m ready … I’ll do that.”

Great White

Source: xtremesport4u

This video which comes from Apexpredator11 and was posted in December 2006, sometime ago now, but it made us think of what the statistics are for shark attacks on surfers. Here we should add the word ‘reported’ and this is what we found.

From the Times on line ‘ Last year the only fatal attack was in New Caledonia, in the southwest Pacific, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s international shark attack file.

There were 71 other reported attacks worldwide last year, up from 63 in 2006. Attacks on the Atlantic coast, particularly in Florida, are far more common than they are on the Pacific coast.

A study by the Harvard Centre for Risk Analysis showed that a person’s chances of being killed by a shark in any given year are about 1 in 280 million, compared with a 1 in 6,700 chance of being killed in a car accident.

This means you would have to swim in the ocean 112 times a day for it to become as dangerous as making a single car journey to the supermarket. 

As you are no doubt aware there are only four species of shark that are considered to be dangerous: the Great White shark, the Oceanic Whitetip shark, the Bull shark and the Tiger shark. Further research will quickly reveal that the Great White - the most feared of all the sharks, will ‘not deliberately hunt humans for food’.

While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year due to fishing activity, according to data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.

So shark attacks are rare and no doubt often caused by foolish behaviour from an individual  - take for example the Meditterranean where Europe holidays and yes, the Great White has been seen in the Med - some even suggest it is their breeding ground - since 1899  MEDSAF reports (the Mediterranean Shark Attack File) that only some 60 attacks have been reported - no doubt in this respect it is a good thing that the Med does not have any surf!

Great White, Shark Attack

Source: LAT

Dated: September 24, 2008

This is pretty old news but I jut saw this one so I  thought I’d post it anyway.

There I was surfing and sorting through websites, sipping a soft drink, when I stumbled upon a rather unsettling item on the Shark Research Committee site run by the renowned Ralph S. Collier.

The latest entry, under the Pacific Coast Shark News 2008 heading, was a brief account involving a woman identified as Gina S., and her husband, who while strolling along the Malibu coast late Sunday afternoon witnessed an attack by what they claim was a large shark on a sea lion.

It was about 5 p.m., sunny and breezy, somewhere between Paradise Cove and Pepperdine University. They noticed three sea lions 30 to 40 yards offshore, and a small pod of dolphins nearby.

And there was a lone sea lion 30 yards south of the others. (See where this is going?)

The rest, as described by Gina:

“While looking at the lone sea lion suddenly the huge head of a great white shark surfaced next to the seal and took a large bite out of the animal. The shark was dark gray and at least 10-12 feet in length with a dorsal fin 12-16 inches high.

“The attack occurred just beyond the forming waves and lasted only a minute or less. Following the initial bite, there was a lot of splashing and then all went quiet. Sea gulls began diving on the attack site as if they were feeding. The shark submerged and neither the shark nor the bitten sea lion were observed again.”

Collier urged those considering swimming or surfing in the area to exercise caution. That’s always good advice. White sharks do utilize Southland coastal waters but generally leave the area, most scientists believe, when they reach the size where they start feeding on seals and sea lions instead of fish.

– Pete Thomas

Photo: Adult great white shark photographed at Guadalupe Island, 160 miles west of Baja California, last October. Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times

Great White, Shark Sighting