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Shark bite victim happy to be alive

Gymnut

Gymnut

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 18, 2003
1,887
28
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/21/shark.attack.ap/index.html

Here in Hawaii the majority of sharks attacks on humans are by tiger sharks. They love the warm ocean currents and have such a wide variety in diet. I used to paddle outrigger canoes and we'd be about a mile off of Waikiki beach and see some pretty big tiger sharks swimming around us. I don't think there was ever a time when I would pray that our canoe not huli(flip over) but those times when we'd come across a tiger shark. Just thought I'd share this as Shark Week approaches on the Discovery Channel. I believe it's kicked off with the retelling of the U.S.S. Indianapolis; a U.S. cruiser that was sunk by a Japanese submarine and its crew was set adrift for four days in shark infested waters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
 
I've snorkeled and spearfished with lots of sharks (black and white tips, lemon sharks, small to medium) around and I can understand the fear of dying this way he speaks about... It's quite an impressive animal. Although the first "free" shark I ever saw in nature (not in an aquarium), was being eaten alive by a bunch of hungry dogs! :p So much for the king of the oceans! :D
 
Juan Moro said:
I've snorkeled and spearfished with lots of sharks (black and white tips, lemon sharks, small to medium) around and I can understand the fear of dying this way he speaks about... It's quite an impressive animal. Although the first "free" shark I ever saw in nature (not in an aquarium), was being eaten alive by a bunch of hungry dogs! :p So much for the king of the oceans! :D
Click to expand...


What were a bunch of dogs doing in the middle of the ocean? :confused: ;) :D
 
Lucky guy.

As a scuba diver I follow these things reasonably closely. From what I have gleaned over the years, it seems that sharks are much more likely to bite surfers or snorkelers than divers because they mistake them for turtles or seals who need to surface in order to breathe. Most attacks usually consist of only one bite because then the shark realizes its mistake.

The only times that I'm aware of divers being attacked is when they swim with seals, great whites, or are spearfishing.

To keep things in perspective, one is far more likely to to be struck by lightening or die in a car accident than to be killed by a shark. Personally, I'm much more afraid of land sharks than the ocean variety.
 
dmw007 said:
What were a bunch of dogs doing in the middle of the ocean? :confused: ;) :D
Click to expand...

At high tide, small sharks would enter in a semi-closed shallow water reef strip along the beach, (20"/50 cm deep) and sometimes got stuck inside it when the tide went low. Then, the dogs would start chasing them, and often succeeded.

Seems logical now? ;)

There were so many sharks, that once, in Nuku hiva (the island of "Survivors", if you're in the US), I saw a pretty big shark (2-2,5m) being thrown onto the shore by a wave. He had to wait on the sand for another wave big enough to bring it back to the sea!

About the snorkellers being more prone to shark attacks, it's completely true, according to my experience, and they even completly change their behavior depending on whether you scuba or not, let alone if you're spearfishing! Usally, we used to have fun, watching the fishes, freediving for a few hours, and only at the end, when we started being cold and were thinking about going out of the water, we would kill a fish, so the sharks wouldn't be such problem. Try staying away from sharks for five minutes with a bleeding fish in your hands! They really get very excited as soon as the spear leaves the gun, let alone when you don't miss the fish! :D
 
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