Shark attack bite on a left foot, in Mexico 19 June 2005 : photo Dr German Valenzuela.

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Shark attack kills teenage bodyboarder in Florida

Surfersvillage Global Surf News; -- Destin, Fla., June 25 - A 14-year-old girl was killed Saturday in a shark attack in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle. Authorities say the girl was from Gonzales, Louisiana, but her identity wasn't released. Officials say the girl and another teen were swimming on boogie boards about 100 yards offshore when they noticed a dark shadow in the water. The other swimmer wasn't injured.
     
A surfer heard a scream and found the girl in the center of a bloody circle of water. He says much of her thigh was missing, revealing the bone. He says the shark, which was trying to attack again, appeared to be a bull shark about eight feet long.
     
Along with two other swimmers, the man towed the girl to shore. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. (AP)

Source WTHR.com
Contributed by K38 Rescue 

Shark attacks & critically injures teen off florida, two days after fatal attack

PENSACOLA, Fla. Jun 27, 2005 — A shark attacked and critically injured a teenage boy off Florida's Panhandle on Monday, two days after a 14-year-old Louisiana girl died after a shark bit her leg. The boy, whose age and name wasn't immediately released, was bitten off Cape San Blas and was taken to Bay Medical Center in Panama City on Monday morning, hospital spokeswoman Christa Hild said. The boy was listed in critical condition with severe injuries, but the nature of the injuries were not yet being released, Hild said.

Cape San Blas is a narrow spit of land protruding into the Gulf of Mexico from Gulf County, about 80 miles southwest of Tallahassee. READ  MORE

Source ABC News
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Surfer punches shark that kills 14-year-old girl in Florida

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) - A 14-year-old girl died Saturday after a shark attacked her while she and a companion were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle. The teenagers were swimming on boogie boards about 100 yards offshore. The other swimmer was not injured, Walton County Sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Shank said.

Tim Dicus, 54, who had been surfing when he heard a scream from the water, found the girl in the center of a bloody circle of water and said much of her thigh was missing, revealing the bone. The girl's friend had begun swimming toward shore. ``I immediately paddled over and found her floating face down in the center of the blood pool,'Dicus told The Associated Press. ``And right next to her was the shark, about to come up and attack her again.'' Dicus said he put the girl on his surf board and the shark - which he said appeared to be a bull shark about 8 feet long - went after her hand. ``He just followed us right to the beach,'' Dicus said, adding that he punched the shark on the nose when it tried to attack him. ``He was determined to finish lunch. I hate to put it that way, but that was what he was trying to do.''

Two other swimmers came with a raft and helped tow the girl to shore. The girl was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, Shank said. She was on vacation from Gonzales, La., but her name was not immediately released. The attack happened near the Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park, about 45 miles east of Pensacola.

Source Canada.com
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Shark attacks surfer in Baha Mexico

Surfersvillage Global Surf News; June 22, 2005 -- SAN JOSE DEL CABO, MEXICO – Mexican naval authorities were patrolling the beaches along Baja California's southern tip after a shark bit a 34-year-old Colorado man, officials said Wednesday. The man was surfing Tuesday at San Luis beach, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of San Jose del Cabo on the Gulf of California, when he felt something bite his left foot, emergency official Francisco Cota said. The man shouted to his friends, who helped him out of the water.

Cota said sharks have been seen in the region since April, but that municipal police officers stationed on the beach have begun warning visitors that they may be lurking in the area. Since the attack, other local officials have begun monitoring the area and warning people to stay out of the water. Naval officials have also started patrolling deeper waters just off the coast, searching for sharks.

Officials said they had no reports of sharks at the popular tourist beaches of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. However, authorities have warned people away from the beaches of San Luis, Santa Elena and Zacatitos, popular with residents of nearby areas as well as tourists interested in adventure excursions and water sports.

Source Sign on San Diego
Contributed by K38 Rescue 

New Zealand girl dies in Vanuatu shark attack

Surfersvillage Global Surf News; June 23, 2005 -- A young New Zealand girl has been killed by a shark while swimming during a holiday in Vanuatu on an island known for such attacks.Seven-year-old Alysha Margaret Webster was swimming off a beach with other people on Malekula Island in the north of the South Pacific island group when the attack occurred on Wednesday afternoon.Alysha was on a yachting holiday with her parents Grant and Sheree Webster, from Whitianga on New Zealand's North Island.T

hey had sailed to Malekula from the Vanuatu capital Port Vila.A plane chartered on Thursday by the New Zealand High Commission flew the Websters and Alysha's body back to Port Vila.Malekula is well known for shark attacks and a number of local children have been killed over the years in similar circumstances, Port Vila Presse reported.High Commissioner Paul Willis said it was customary to check with a local chief or village to see if it was safe to swim in nearby waters."In this case, I understand there were local people around, so clearly the family might have had some reason to expect that it wasn't going to be too dangerous," Willis told Radio New Zealand.AdvertisementAdvertisement

The High Commission will also assist the family with their return home.A popular tourist destination for Australians and New Zealanders, Vanuatu is located east of Australia between New Caledonia and Fiji.© 2005 AAP

Source SMH.com
Contributed by K38 Rescue 

Shark danger prompts delay of surfing contest

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 24 June, 2005 : - - Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Surfing Association (KZNSA) announced on Friday that they had taken a decision to postpone Sunday's hugely popular Surf Eyes surfing competition. This was due to the fact that the Natal Sharks Board has lifted the shark nets along the coast from Salt Rock to Port Edward because of the sardine run.

The contest was due to be held at Addington Beach and according to eye witnesses as many as 40 sharks had been spotted off Ansteys Beach a few days ago. "It is a huge decision to make as hundreds of people involved are affected" said Julie de Vries contest organiser.

"The competition is designed for youngsters who have just started surfing and we don't want to put them at risk. The chairman of KZNSA, Chris Baum, informed me today that he and his committee had made the decision, after consultations with Robin de Kock, General Manager of Surfing South Africa (SSA) and the series sponsors Surf Eyes.

"We have a record field for any novice competition in South Africa and even though it takes a lot to move something like this - it is the right decision," she said. And the sponsors, Surf Eyes, fully back the decision made. "As sponsors, we are very happy with the decision. The series is a huge success and we do not want anything untoward to happen" said Jonathan David, General Manager of Surf Eyes.

The new date for the competition, the 2nd leg of the Surf Eyes series, is Sunday July 24. The 3rd and final leg will take place over two days August 21 and 22.

Source IOL
Sharks - Surfersvillage

More sharks sighted off Maui - (Honolua & Mokule'ia Bays)

Surfersvillage Global Surf News; June 18, 2005 -- Three beaches were expected to remain closed today as sharks continue to linger along a stretch of Maui's northwestern shoreline, attracted by dead akule left behind by a fisherman.  Up to six blacktip sharks and tiger sharks have been spotted about 50 to 100 feet from shore at Honolua Bay since Wednesday, and a shark was sighted yesterday afternoon at nearby D.T. Fleming Beach Park. Honolua and Mokule'ia bays — about 10 miles north of Lahaina — have been closed to swimmers and snorkelers since Thursday, and the ban was extended to D.T. Fleming Beach Park after the shark sighting by ocean safety officers patrolling the offshore area on personal watercraft. Maui County supervising ocean safety officer Archie Kalepa said he expected the beaches to remain closed today as a precaution. He said that in addition to the water patrols, staff from the county and the Department of Land and Natural Resources have been checking the beaches from 7 a.m. to sunset to advise people to stay out of the water.

Kalepa also reported difficulty in posting cardboard shark-sighting signs, which have been repeatedly stolen by souvenir hunters. "They are important tools that we use to warn people because we can't be at 20 places at the same time," Kalepa said. "It's important for people to respect those signs and not steal them because it could be a matter of life and death." DLNR enforcement officers believe they have identified the Maui fisherman who left more than 100 dead and dying akule in Honolua Bay sometime Wednesday, but they have not been able to locate him yet. Randy Awo, Maui branch chief of the state Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, said the fisherman has a commercial fishing license and appears to have done nothing illegal, but officials would like to speak with the man about what happened and remind him about responsible fishing methods. Awo said akule fishermen are exempt from state laws prohibiting fishing within the 45-acre Honolua-Mokule'ia Marine Life Conservation District, where the fish kill was found.

John Naughton of the National Marine Fisheries Service said it is unusual to see predators linger in an area for several days, especially in instances when there are numbers of small dead fish. He also was surprised to hear that tiger sharks were present. "Normally the reef sharks clean them up pretty fast," he said. Tiger sharks, which are believed to be responsible for most of the Hawai'i shark attacks involving humans, are more likely to scavenge larger carcasses of turtles, dolphins and whales, he said. With a small fish kill, the food would be gone by the time the tigers showed up, Naughton said. "We recommend that when there are any dead animals of any type in the water, people should stay out of the water for a while to let Mother Nature have a chance to clean things up," he said. "It's going to attract sharks, no question. That's their job."

Sharks normally do not prey on akule, which are fast swimmers that move in dense schools of thousands of individuals. Akule, or bigeye scad, grow to about 15 inches and a half-pound in size, and are a year-round commercial and recreational catch. They are a popular fish for eating — mostly prepared by frying or by salting and drying. A commercial marine license is required to take akule using a bag net that surrounds the schools of fish. Fishermen usually take only what they know they can market, releasing the rest or splitting the bag net into a separate enclosure that is left in the ocean for a day or two until the boat returns to retrieve the fresh catch.

State law prohibits fishermen from keeping akule in a bag net in the ocean for more than three days without notifying DLNR. Maui boater Sid Medeiros said fishermen use akule and 'opelu for bait, and might dump the fish overboard if they spoil, but probably not in the large numbers found at Honolua Bay. He said it's also possible the Honolua fisherman's bag net was attacked by sharks. Reach

Source  Honolulu Advertiser
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South African Shark Tourism Booms Amid Lure of Cape Town Attack

Surfersvillage Global Surf News; June 21 (Bloomberg) -- South African medical student Henri Murray was spear fishing off the coast of Cape Town, the country's main tourism center, when a 5-meter (16-foot) great white shark seized him from below and dragged him away. The June 4 attack, the third this year, drew banner headlines and newspaper stories across the country suggesting sharks have started targeting bathers, just like in the Jaws movie in 1975.

It's also fueling a niche industry in South Africa, where British and German tourists line up to see the predators close up. ``When there is an attack, we get even more people phoning,'' said Kim MacLean, who has run shark diving trips near Cape Town since 1992, in an interview. ``It seems to boost interest.'' The center of the shark tourism industry is Shark Alley, a stretch of ocean between Dyer and Gyser islands, about 100 kilometers southeast of Cape Town, where eight companies offer day trips costing about 1,000 rand ($149) each.

It is part of a booming tourism trade that attracts more than 190,000 overseas visitors to South Africa each month and employs 1.2 million people. In peak season, more than 200 shark watchers, mainly from Britain and Germany, sign up daily for trips costing about 1,000 rand, said Dave Caravias, who runs a central booking agency in the town of Gansbaai, where the Shark Alley boats are based.

Feeding the Sharks Operators throw sardines, pilchards and fish heads into the water, a technique known as chumming, to lure the sharks closer to their boats. Customers can then descend into a floating steel cage wearing scuba or snorkel gear for a closer encounter with the predators, which can measure up to six meters and weigh more than 3 metric tons. Not everyone approves. ``The local diving and surfing community has rightfully become increasingly concerned about shark attacks,'' the Shark Concern Group, whose members include a shark attack victim and environmentalists, said in a statement.

The risk of attacks may be increasing ``as a result of how humans are interacting with sharks, for example, using shark cage diving and chumming.'' In June last year a shark tour operator's boat caught fire in a Cape Town harbor and police said they suspected an arsonist was responsible. Regulators and shark experts say there is no causal link between the attacks and the proliferation of the shark tourism industry. ``For the most part, sharks won't attack humans,'' said Len Compagno, a shark expert based at Cape Town's Iziko Museum, who served as a technical adviser on the original Stephen Spielberg movie Jaws about a great white that hunted humans.

``If people were sharks' natural prey a lot more people would be taken. Occasionally you do get an attack but it's rare.'' Sharks vs Bees Just 46 attacks occurred off South Africa's coastline between 1960 and 2004, eight of them fatal, according to the International Shark Attack file. More people die as a result of bites from bees, wasps or snakes than in shark attacks, according to the Florida- based institute.

South Africa's last fatal shark attack before this month occurred in November, when 77-year-old swimmer Tyna Web was seized by a great white off Cape Town's Fishhoek beach, about 15 kilometers from where Murray, 22, was killed. While no-one has died cage diving, a British tourist narrowly escaped injury in March when a great white attacked the cage he was in. The government's Marine and Coastal Management department is overseeing new research to tag and monitor sharks in a bid to assess what may influence their movements. It has ruled out revoking a 1991 ban on killing great whites.

``If we had any figures saying we are interfering with the great whites and are changing their behavior, I would shut my business,'' MacLean said. Craig Ferriera, another tour operator, says that the amount of chum thrown into the water by the handful of operators is miniscule compared with that used by hundreds of commercial fishing boats. Compagno expects occasional shark attacks to occur as long as humans stray into their natural hunting ground. ``There just are a certain number of incidences that will happen,'' he said ``If you want absolute safety, don't go in the water.''

Source Bloomberg
Contributed by K38 Rescue 

Writer turns fascination with sharks into educational novel

Surfersvillage Global Surf News; June 21 --  In December 1981, a day after surfer Lewis Boren went missing in waters north of Pebble Beach, his yellow surfboard was found with a huge, half-circle bitten out of it.What was left of his body was found later, with most of the chest torn away.Investigators surmised that the great white shark responsible — 20 feet long or more — had chomped through the board and Boren in a single bite as the surfer was paddling.While stories like this are often grist for the front page, shark attacks on human populations are not common occurrences.Between 1950 and 2000, for example, there were only 106 shark attacks in California.And as Peter Benchley, author of "Jaws," has pointed out, "for every human being killed by a shark, roughly 10 million sharks are killed by humans."If you talk with shark researchers — like those at the Farallon Islands profiled in Susan Casey’s new book "The Devil’s Teeth" (Henry Holt, $25) — many of them will tell you that sharks can also be predictable, quiet, even gentle. These attributes that have convinced some that surfing in shark-infested waters might not be an impossible feat.

In her riveting and colorful you-are-there adventure, Casey writes of one researcher who considered doing just that:"We were experiencing the season’s sweetest surf, and all over Northern California the big-name, big-wave surfers were out trolling around, looking for epic and undiscovered breaks. Mavericks ... was ‘kind of like old school now,’ Peter (Pyle) had concluded. ‘It’s done. It’s crowded. Let’s make sure we get our rides in before those guys get here.’ "But Pyle, who served as the Farallones’ head biologist for close to 20 years, and his compadres never did catch even one Farallon wave, Casey said."I don’t know if they really would have tried," she said, "but they’re comfortable around them. They felt part of a group and the sharks were part of the neighborhood."During the 15 years of the Shark Project’s tenure (it was discontinued in 2004), Pyle, researcher Kevin Anderson and their interns contributed greatly to the world’s knowledge of this ocean predator.One of the things they learned is that sharks are attracted to certain shapes more than others.A square object floating on the surface of the water, for example, will not necessarily incite a shark’s curiosity.On the other hand, a surfer paddling his board bears a strong resemblance to an elephant seal, one of the great white’s favorite snacks. This Thursday, Casey will read from her book at the Capitola Book Cafe.Shark tales

It was the 1995 BBC documentary about the Farallon Shark Project that turned Casey, a respected magazine journalist (Esquire, Fortune) and development director for Time Inc., into an obsessed shark fan.When the short magazine piece she planned to write on the Shark Project grew to 13,000 words, she pleaded with Pyle and Anderson to give her more access to the islands that lie 27 miles off the coast of San Francisco so she could write a book."The story just got under my skin the way no story ever has," she said. "I just couldn’t stop thinking about it."Not surprisingly, Casey’s anecdotes about the rugged island group are as ferociously atmospheric as the unsettled weather and surging waves that keep most tourists from visiting.An example:"... on October 4, 1997, two marauding orcas attacked a white shark in Maintop, flipping him onto his back, and working in efficient tandem, holding him there until he drowned.

The smaller of the two orcas swam around for a while with the shark sticking out of her mouth, toothpick-style, and then proceeded to eat him in front of a boatload of wide-eyed tourists on Superfish. When the showdown commenced, Mick had radioed Peter and told him he’d better get out there, and fast."... No one had ever seen the ocean’s two top predators battle it out in gladiatorial style. News outlets around the globe ran Peter’s underwater video of the aftermath, during which the orca cruised by the camera with a scrap of Jerry Garcia’s (the shark) liver hanging from her mouth."... Dan Rather ... inform(ed) viewers that ... ‘when push came to shove, it was no contest. It was brains and blubber over the lean, mean teeth machine."Casey’s exuberant book is marked by a plethora of insightful, apt metaphors.It’s also chock full of fresh data about sharks.Pyle and Anderson, for example, were the first to document the great white’s feeding habits, its behavior around other sharks and its hunting tricks, Casey writes.The two researchers also learned that great whites hunt by day, are visual predators, have distinct personalities, attack during high tide and spend the bulk of their lives roaming the open ocean rather than sticking close to home.Casey — a good student and a hardy adventurer who enjoys competitive swimming, samurai sword fighting and spear fishing — includes some other interesting facts about sharks in her book:

Sharks pre-date trees on the evolutionary scale.
Great whites are the only shark species that will lift its head out of the water to ogle its surroundings.
Sharks lose thousands of teeth in an average lifetime; when they do, "the one behind it simply rotates forward like a bag of chips in a vending machine."
Their skin is covered with sharp denticles which can draw blood.
The biggest shark fossil ever discovered indicated jaws big enough for a horse to stand in.

Although the Shark Project has closed down, the tags that Pyle and Anderson affixed each season to these sleek creatures are still recording data, Casey said.Barbara Block, for example, a marine scientist associated with Hopkins Marine Lab, continues with the work.And although research at the Farallon Islands has stopped for now, the island group remains, Casey writes, "the epicenter of the white shark world."Now back at home in New York, Casey spends her days planning the next magazine spread, mentoring talented authors and writing the occasional magazine article.But at night, she dreams of sharks."Sharks have invaded my subconscious," she said."I have a white shark dream every couple of weeks and I hope I always do.
Source Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contributed by K38 Rescue 

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