SharkArchives.com

Uncategorized

Source: surf.transworld.net

Great White

Source: smh.com.au

Monster fright . . . a great white shark circles two kayakers and nudges the tinnie about a kilometre off Sydney's Long Reef yesterday.

THIS is the horrifying moment when a giant shark menaced kayakers off Sydney yesterday.

White pointers caused terror on opposite sides of Australia yesterday, with snorkeller Brian Guest killed as he swam with his son at a beach near Perth.

Sydney paddlers Justin Stanger and Steve Kulscar were lucky to survive, with Mr Kulscar falling from his craft as the four-metre white pointer circled them about a kilometre off Long Reef.

Fisherman Glenn Morgan was in a runabout nearby when he saw a large fin break the water near the kayakers about 11am.

“All of a sudden I saw one bloke topple off his kayak, so we cut our anchor rope and went straight over to him and got him in the boat,” Mr Morgan toldThe Sun-Herald last night.

The shark came perilously close as the two kayakers fastened their craft to the tinnie.

It circled for at least another 10minutes before leaving.

“The adrenalin was just pumping,” Mr Morgan said. “I reckon they would have died if we weren’t out there - the shark was pretty hungry.”

“I might get him a case of beer - that’s the least I can do,” one of the men told the Seven Network.

Mr Guest, 51, and his son, Daniel, 24, were diving for crabs off their local beach near Rockingham, 30 kilometres south of Perth, when the former suddenly disappeared about 7am.

Daniel had heard his father cry out and had seen the shark and a “heap of blood” in the water.

“Something very traumatic and pretty violent has happened there and we are treating it as a probable shark attack,” acting police inspector Mark Valentine said.

Police, marine rescue patrols and three helicopters searched unsuccessfully for Mr Guest.

“[Daniel] was on the beach shaking and looked really white, and he was just really shocked,” resident Luke Tubbs said.

Family spokesman and policeman Steve Kent said Mr Guest, a banker, was a devoted husband and father who knew the dangers of the ocean.

“[He was] an avid fisherman, an avid diver and a loving husband and father,” Sergeant Kent said.

Mr Guest had campaigned to protect sharks from hunting.

“Our place on earth is not so sacred that we remove every threat that exists,” he said in a forum about sharks on the Western Angler website.

“Every surfer, fisherman and diver has far more chance of being killed by bees, drunk drivers, teenage car thieves and lightning.”

Uncategorized

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: daijiworld.com

Mangalore: Jumbo Catch - Fishermen Land 1200 kg Tiger Shark

Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje 
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (RD/CN)

Mangalore, Dec 22: The local fishermen caught a tiger shark weighing around 1,200 kgs when they ventured into the Arabian Sea, off New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), here on the afternoon of Monday December 22.

The poor whale shark

Shark Caught, Whale Shark

Source: TMZ

Reef shark going down the slide

There’s nothing quite like taking a cool trip down the water slide at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas, plunging into the refreshing pool at the end, and … HOLY CRAP!! THAT’S A SHARK!

But it was all too real when hotel staff saw that one of the sharks from the famous resort aquarium had somehow jumped out of its tank and onto a nearby water slide — where it managed to slide down into the pool. 

It all went down before the pool opened Tuesday — so nobody was in the water — but here’s where it gets tragic: A rep for the Atlantis tells TMZ the shark died a short time after swimming in the chlorinated water. Here’s the heartbreaking statement: 

“Yesterday morning at around 9:30 AM, prior to the resort’s waterscape opening to guests, a 12+-year-old female reef shark jumped over an 18 inch wide and 1 foot high sustaining structure into the resort’s Leap of Faith water slide. 

The Atlantis Aquarists believe the shark was startled by an unusual circumstance that we have no way of defining completely. In the over ten years guests have experienced the Leap of Faith, the reef shark itself, harmless to humans as it is fed regularly by our staff, had shown no previous incidences of leaping out of the water in the marine habitat …

… The habitat itself is part of the resort’s open system which filters water from the Atlantic Ocean and is completely separated from the chlorinated water system on the slides. Once the shark fell onto the slide and into the chlorinated water, it was in significant distress. 

The Marine Aquarium Operations team responded immediately and was able to retrieve the animal at the bottom of the slide and return the animal to the main marine habitat in an attempt to resuscitate her. Despite the team’s best efforts to recover the animal, it died shortly after the occurrence. 

There was no danger to our guests or staff, both of whom interact with these sharks daily in our various interactive programs (we have guests enter the shark habitat to swim and interact with the sharks in bathing attire only). 

In fact, our concern was for the animal itself who defied nature to take this leap. The entire team at Atlantis is truly saddened by the loss of this animal who had resided in the Atlantis marine habitat for over ten years.”

Reef Shark

Source: stuff.co.nz

Mako

Shark attacks are the stuff of nightmares and horror movies. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws has a lot to answer for. 

It’s probably the thought of something menacing watching us from below - razor sharp teeth bared and soulless eyes masking an insatiable hunger for flesh. If Spielberg is to be believed, from the moment we set foot in the water, our life span can be measured in moments.

Yet history shows us the chances of being attackedare extremely unlikely - you are far more likely to drown or be killed in a car smash on your way to the beach.

Each year, over summer, reports of shark sightingsdominate the news and old fears are raised anew.

This year is bound to be the same. As the weather heats up, Kiwis flock to the beaches in their thousands and, with more eyes at the beach, shark sightings are inevitable.

Already a half-tonne mako has been caught off Nelson and a 2.4 metre thresher shark scared swimmers out of the water in the Bay of Plenty. Kite surfers on their way across the Cook Strait also recently reported surfing past a two-metre shark.

Few creatures capture the imagination or instil such a sense of fear as the shark, but scientists believe that fear is unreasonable.

New Zealand has around 66 different sharks species and very few of them are dangerous to humans.

NIWA shark expert Malcolm Francis tries to put the threat of an attack into context:

“Humans are a top predator ourselves and we don’t like the idea that there is another predator out there that is bigger and stronger than we are and might eat us.

“But, having said, that there’s a lot more people killed every year by tigers, lions, hippos round the world than there are by sharks and yet we seem to have this real fear of sharks and what they might do to us.”

He points to the fact millions of people are in the water over summer, surrounded by sharks, yet the attack rate is incredibly low.

According to the Conservation Department, there have been 13 fatal shark attacks recorded in New Zealand in the last 170 years - the last was 40 years ago.

“That just indicates to me that they’re not really considering us as food at all,” he said.

Francis says that, if sharks wanted to eat us, we would never be able to go in the water.

“They are out there in numbers and they are all around the coast … it’s extremely likely that when we have been in the water, there has been a shark there that’s ignored us.”

Francis likens shark attacks to plane crashes: “When they happen they’re horrifying and particularly nasty but the chances of them happening is extremely low,” he said.

A diver for over 30 years himself, Francis says he has only ever seen three sharks while in the water - none of them dangerous.

Scientists have identified most attacks happen during daylight on adult males aged between 18 and 30 - the group that happens to spend the most time in the water and the time-of-day they tend to be there.

The only places Francis says to avoid swimming are near seal colonies, and dead animals. Spear-fisherman should also get speared fish out of the water straight away, or at least keep them as far away from their bodies as possible.

People should also try to swim in groups and not too far from shore, to ensure help is at hand should they be bitten.

Most attack fatalities are the result of blood loss from a bite, rather than the shark eating its victim, he says. They will attack, bite their victim, and back away for up to 15 minutes - a defence mechanism he says they have built up to protect themselves from the teeth of seals, their main source of food.

This often allowed the victims’ companions time to get them out of the water and do first aid.

SHARK NUMBERS SWELL

Though more eyes at the beach inevitably mean more sightings, Francis says it’s true there are more sharks around over summer.

Populations in coastal areas increase as sharks come in to breed and feed, though most will be small and harmless.

The chances of bumping into a big, dangerous shark are remote - but if you see one, it pays to get out of the water, Francis says.

It appears a lot of the fear and misinformation about sharks comes from a startling lack of scientific information.

The shark which the general public know most about - the great white - scientists actually know very little about.

New Zealand is recognised as one of the world’s hot spots for the apex predator, along with the waters off California, in the United States, and South Africa, Australia and Japan.

However, Francis says that, despite their fearsome reputation, great whites are extremely cautious. When Francis and his team tried to attract sharks with blood and bait in the water, some would circle the boat for hours, deciding whether or not to take the bait.

This suggests they are curious but selective when choosing their prey, he says.

NIWA, the Conservation Department and Dr Ramon Bonfil from Shark Tracker/NABU in Germany, have been tagging great whites with satellite tags since 2005.

Though the data is still sparse, the research has yielded some surprising results and Francis believes they are making progress.

After analysing the data from 10 tags, scientists were surprised to find great whites were leaving New Zealand and heading from the Chatham Islands to Tonga - a journey of over 3000km.

Scientists can only guess why the sharks undertake this epic journey, but believe it must be to chase food - probably humpback whales.

What science has told us is that shark numbers are drastically low. Nineteen of the world’s shark species are listed as vulnerable, 17 endangered, and four critically endangered.

Humans kill more than 100 million sharks worldwide each year, in recreational and commercial fishing.

Four New Zealand sharks - including the basking, spiny dogfish, whale and great white - are listed as vulnerable.

Though Great Whites have been protected in New Zealand since 2007, many are still caught in nets and on long lines by commercial fisherman.

There is no penalty for accidentally catching sharks, but fishermen must report it to the conservation department within 24 hours.

SPECIES’ SURVIVAL

Knowledge is essential in order to ensure their survival. Francis believes that, if we can identify when and where sharks are, we can design management measures to reduce shark by-catch in fisheries.

“[Sharks] don’t really have the reproductive capacity to bounce back very quickly so unless we take the pressure right off, it’s going to be hard for the populations to increase back up to normal.”

Scientists believe the shark population is going down, but don’t know the rate of decline.

One thing is certain: sharks across the globe are in danger of being wiped out. There are already vast areas of the ocean where sharks have been fished out, Francis says.

Francis believes people have a moral imperative to protect sharks. But only further research and policy change will save them.

Mako

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

A commercial fisherman reccently caught a 663-pound hammerhead off the Coast of Volusia County, Florida. The shark measures more than twelve feet long.

Hammerhead

Source: globalnation.inquirer.net

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — He needed a miracle to survive the cold and choppy waters, and he got it in the form of dolphins and whales.

Tuna fisherman Ronnie Dabal was fishing in Puerto Princesa Bay early on Dec. 8 when a squall turned his small, motorized boat upside down. It was about 8 a.m.

He clambered atop a small Styrofoam board and battled the punishing waves for hours, growing desperate as the day wore on. How could he imagine then that he would survive in the most astonishing manner?

Dabal, 35, spoke with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Dec. 9 in the company of his wife and representatives of nongovernmental organizations who authenticated his story.

“I began to pray when I felt my strength draining away. I couldn’t continue paddling with my hands because I was getting so tired, and I was about to pass out,” he said.

The fisherman recalled floating at sea all that Monday, paddling against the tide in a vain effort to get to shore, and feeling his arms and legs growing soggy.

Soon, a swarm of tiny crustaceans locally called bugto began nibbling on his softened flesh. “There were so many of them and I couldn’t cope because I was very weak,” he said, showing the bite marks on his limbs. “I started to bleed. I became afraid that sharks would smell my blood and appear at any time.”

To the rescue

Dabal’s hopes of reaching dry land slowly vanished as darkness fell, blanketing him. And then, from out of nowhere, a pod of around 30 dolphins appeared: “Dumating ‘yung mga dolphins. Ang dami nila!” [Dolphins came. There were so many of them!]

A pair of whales about 10 meters long also appeared and flanked him: “Tapos, may lumapit na dalawang balyena. Dun sila sa tigkabilang tabi ko lumalangoy.” [Then, two whales approached. They swam with me, one on each side.]

Dabal, a father of two, swore it was not his mind playing tricks on him as he lay weak and still atop his tiny life raft, which the dolphins alternately nudged with their fins to shore.

As this was happening, the rest of the pod stayed close, around a meter away, apparently trying to make sure no harm would come to him, Dabal said.

He said the whales kept to his side, swimming along with the dolphins.

“Based on his description of the animals, the dolphins were probably spinners and the whales were most likely pilot whales,” Dr. Terry Aquino, a local cetacean specialist, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Saved by his wards

Dabal said he passed out while the dolphins were performing their slow chore of nudging him toward land.

At dawn on Dec. 9, he came to on the beach of Luzviminda village, where the local folk came to his assistance.

Dabal’s unique experience is made more special by the fact that he is a deputized part-time dolphin warden. He was trained by the Palawan NGO Network and ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan Foundation, which are helping the city government in promoting dolphin- and whale shark watching as a tourist attraction in Puerto Princesa City.

The foundation’s Dr. Gerry Ortega described Dabal as “a warden and a spotter whom we tap to locate the presence of dolphins whenever there are guests on dolphin-watching tours.

“He is also involved mainly in collecting garbage in the areas frequented by dolphins, to prevent the animals from eating these and being poisoned by the plastics floating around,” Ortega said.

Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn was so elated by Dabal’s experience that he promised to strengthen his administration’s support for the fishing folk who are helping promote dolphin and whale tourism through volunteer work as wardens and spotters.

“Ronnie’s experience is the greatest proof that what we are doing to protect our marine environment is worth all the effort that we are putting into it. I’d like to think this is the animals’ way of also thanking us for helping protect their habitat,” the mayor said.

Social creatures

Aquino said Dabal’s experience occurred in the very area where dolphin-watching tours were being held, and that it was possible that the fisherman’s “saviors” were the same dolphins seen there.

“There are at least three similar incidents that happened here in Palawan. But overall, these phenomena have not been studied, and the accounts are mostly narratives of the survivors,” she said, adding:

“Dolphins are very social creatures and they are known to be intelligent beings. Some scientists even believe they are capable of emotion.”

Aquino said Dabal could have been rescued by spinner dolphins, the type that like to show off their speed and grace in swimming.

In The Know: Dolphins to the rescue

On Oct. 30, 2004, a pod of dolphins saved a group of lifeguards from being mauled by a shark in New Zealand.

According to reports by the New Zealand Herald and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Rob Howes and three women lifeguards (who included his 15-year-old daughter) were on a training swim off Ocean Beach when seven bottlenose dolphins swam toward them and circled them.

When an opening in the circle occurred, Howes and one of the women drifted away from the group. One large dolphin detached itself from the circle and dove a few meters away from them. Howes turned, waiting to see where the dolphin would surface.

That’s when he saw the three-meter-long great white shark. Per Howes’ account, the shark started moving toward the two other women and the dolphins “went into hyperdrive.”

They herded the swimmers together, circling four to eight centimeters from them, and slapping the water with their tails for about 40 minutes. The shark left when a rescue boat neared.

California

A pod of bottlenose dolphins also saved the life of a surfer in California, according to TODAYShow.com.

On Aug. 28, 2007, Todd Endris was sitting on his surfboard at Marina State Park off Monterey when a great white, estimated at four to five meters long, hit him but failed to bite.

On its second try, the shark clamped down on Endris’ torso, peeling the skin off his back. It then tried to swallow his right leg, biting the limb to the bone. Endris used his left leg to kick at the shark until it let go.

That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins showed up and circled him, protecting him from further attacks from the shark.
Endris got back on his board and caught a wave that brought him back to shore. He was able to surf again after nearly four months.

Marine mammals

Dolphins are marine mammals related to whales and can be found worldwide. They feed on fish, squid, crab, shrimp and lobster.

Dolphins

Source: goldcoast.com.au

A 3M hammerhead shark and a 1.6m bull shark were caught off Broadbeach yesterday, prompting warnings about a seasonal surge in the number of man-eaters prowling the surf.

Holiday crowds have been told to leave the water immediately if they see schools of baitfish which attract larger fish — the sharks’ prey.

Tony Ham, manager of the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries’ shark control program, said eight sharks had been caught off Gold Coast beaches this month.

The contractor, who checks the sharks nets and drum lines every second day, found the hammerhead in a net and the bull shark on a line. Both were dead.

“The hammerhead and the bull shark were pulled onboard the boat where they were measured, the contents of their stomachs checked and the carcasses were dumped back into the ocean,” said Mr Ham.

“Both sharks were male.”

Mr Ham said it was important that swimmers knew the dangers lurking in the water.

“Summer means an increase in the activity of baitfish in Gold Coast waters,” he said.

“This also means that we see an increase in sharks, from hammerheads to tiger sharks.

“Swimmers should take caution when swimming this summer. If they see a large school of baitfish they should leave the water immediately.”

Mr Ham said the Gold Coast had 11 sharks nets and 35 drum lines spread from Main Beach to Point Danger.

Gold Coast Bulletin fishing writer Paul Burt said the measures were not a guaranteed deterrent.

Of the 40km of local beaches, Mr Burt said only a few kilometres had nets — but they were not anchored to the sea floor and sharks could swim under or around them.

“They’re not anchored to the sea bottom, they’re only about six to eight metres deep and they’re only a (total of) few kilometres (long),” he said.

“They should be there but don’t think they’re a 100 per cent deterrent. Take heed of the warnings.”

Mr Burt said the sharks were chasing fish such as mackerel which in turn were chasing schools of baitfish.

Three hammerheads were caught in nets off Tallebudgera Beach last week. All three were a metre long.

On Sunday, lifeguards spotted a pack of about 20 hammerhead sharks about 400m off North Kirra.

Grant’s Guide to Fishes says hammerheads are ‘proven man-killers’ although have not been implicated in any Australian attack.

National Geographic says the sharks’ oddly-shaped head helps them find food.

Their wide-set eyes give them a better visual range than most other sharks and by spreading their highly specialised sensory organs over their wide, mallet-shaped head, they can more thoroughly scan the ocean.

Bull sharks are particularly aggressive and are believed to have been responsible for fatal attacks on Beau Martin in a Burleigh Waters canal in 2002 and Bob Purcell in Burleigh Lake in 2003.

Gold Coast Bulletin records show there have been at least 28 shark attacks on the Gold Coast since 1934, including eight fatalities.

Hammerhead, Shark Caught