Shark Stories

Dangerous sharks to be tracked off Qld
GABRIELLE DUNLEVY
October 28, 2009

SMH

Australia's most dangerous sharks will be monitored and shark netting improved, as the Queensland government tries to reduce the risk of attacks.

The government will spend $125,000 on a five-year program to monitor bull, tiger and white sharks, to learn more about their behaviour.

It will also invest in new acoustic alarms to alert whales and dolphins to the presence of shark nets off Queensland beaches.

Alarms are already in place but the new devices will sound a longer and louder noise at a lower pitch to make the creatures aware of the nets sooner.

Premier Anna Bligh said although the program would help scientists learn more about sharks, the government would keep using shark nets and drum lines because human safety came first.

Five whales have become entangled in shark nets off the Gold Coast this year but Ms Bligh said it was a relatively small number considering up to 13,000 whales were migrating back to southern waters.

"There's no guarantees that this will make any big difference but we need to trial it and see," she told reporters.

"We do need to keep people safe on our beaches but anything we can do to keep whales safe as well is worth trying."

Shark control program manager Tony Ham said he hoped the program would lead to improvements in shark management.

"If, for instance, we were to find that some species of sharks no longer interact with the gear as they do now, it might be that we do change some of that equipment - perhaps a net for a drum line," Mr Ham told reporters.

"That might then further refine the species that we trap."

Acoustic tags would be inserted surgically into sharks that were caught and would provide data for up to seven years, Mr Ham said.

Monitoring stations would record data from the sharks when they were close by, and may also get data from sharks tagged in other projects.

The funding announcement comes after a great white shark caught in a drum line off Stradbroke Island was hauled in with a massive bite taken out of it, probably by another shark up to six metres long.

Mr Ham said it was rare evidence of the large sharks that lived off Queensland's coast.

"I don't see that it's a need for more fear, if you like, but it is a pointer to people to remind them that they need to be very discerning about where and when they swim, particularly in Queensland's waters," he said.

About 150 sharks are expected to be tagged in three years.

what a freak!!! - Not my idea of fun.

f-ing retard has a death wish

I went to mige point for a kitesurf and found this

I have seen one or two but not 20 at the same spot !!!

Probably something like this
' ')

Doesn't eat people, nothing to worry about

www.heraldsun.com.au/nocookies?a=A.flavipes

THIS great white shark photographed cruising in Port Phillip Bay has raised fears of our worst shark season yet.
Two fishermen were frozen with fear as the 4m monster circled their boat off Altona for about 10 minutes.

"He came and touched the boat about three times," Ray Theuma said.

Have you snapped a big shark? To send us your pics, click here

"He was going around and around and around for about 10 minutes. He was very hungry, mate."

Experts say conditions are perfect for a big shark season, with ideal water temperatures and an abundance of bait fish.

Melbourne Aquarium's Nick Kirby said an increase in fish populations after the tightening of fishing permits could attract more sharks into the bay.

"What you've got is a temperature in the bay which is a great temperature for a cold-water animal if it wants to speed up its metabolism and have a feed," he said.

"I would suggest it's going to be a long summer given how early the temperatures have peaked."

Mr Theuma, 56, was fishing with his nephew Brian Bell about 7km off shore when they were stalked by the great white shark.

"My boat is 4.6m and the great white was approximately the same size as the boat," he said.

Mr Bell, 47, from England, took some amazing photos of the shark as it circled.

Mr Theuma, who has fished in Port Phillip for 20 years, said he feared the shark would venture closer to shore.

He was also concerned about inexperienced young people taking boats out and swimming in deep water.

"There's a lot of young people who are new to boating," said Mr Theuma, who is a member of the Altona Boating and Angling Club.

Life Saving Victoria's Guy Britt said the Westpac rescue helicopter was already patrolling on weekends.

It will be on duty daily after Christmas until Australia Day, when beachgoer numbers peak and sightings are more likely.

Mr Britt urged swimmers to take care.

Surfwatch Australia founder Michael Brown said conditions were attracting many more bait fish along the east coast, which in turn brought sharks close to shore.

He said swimmers should avoid areas with schools of fish that could attract sharks, which often sat just behind breakers.

^^^ that looks like a shovel nose shark. they get to about 3 metres but are completely harmless.

Giant shark killed man in shallow water

www.theage.com.au/world/giant-shark-kills-man-in-shallow-water-20100115-mahq.html

January 15, 2010 - 12:17AM
JOHANNESBURG: Witnesses have described their horror at seeing a tourist being eaten by a ''gigantic'' shark in South Africa's most popular holiday spot.

Lloyd Skinner was pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by the shark, believed to be a great white, off Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. His diving goggles and a dark patch of blood were all that remained in the water.

''Holy ****. We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house,'' Gregg Coppen posted on Twitter. ''That shark was huge. Like dinosaur huge.''

The attack on Tuesday afternoon came after an increase in shark sightings and led to calls for an electronic warning system to alert swimmers.

Mr Skinner, 37, a Zimbabwean who lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was standing chest-deep 100 metres from the shore and adjusting his goggles when the shark struck. It was seen approaching him twice before he disappeared in a flurry of thrashing.

Disaster management services had issued a warning hours earlier that sharks had been spotted in the water, but the shark flag was not flying.

The shark was ''longer than a minibus'', Mr Coppen told the Cape Times. ''It was this giant shadow heading to something colourful. Then it sort of came out [of] the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see its whole jaw wrap around the thing, which turned out to be a person.''

Mr Skinner was reportedly on holiday to attend the wedding of his partner's daughter. His partner was at the beach with him.

Four rescue boats and a helicopter searched in vain for him on Tuesday and Wednesday. Ian Klopper, a spokesman for the National Sea Rescue Institute, said: ''You can rule out any chance of finding him alive. Whether we find body parts, it's very unlikely. We think the shark took everything.''

Great white shark near miss off Rockingham W.A. this week...

http://www.wadivers.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3766&start=15

Kiter killed by sharks in Florida USA

www.abc.net.au/news/2010-02-04/kite-boarder-killed-by-sharks-reports/322062

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Feb 4, 8:10 PM EST

Man is killed in shark attack in Florida

By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer


AP Photo/Chris Shultz

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After the Attack
STUART, Fla. (AP) -- There was blood in the water, the sharks were circling and a grievously hurt Stephen Schafer - his thigh gashed and his hand mauled - was screaming in pain by the time the lifeguard reached him.

The lifeguard pulled Schafer onto his rescue board, but his cries quieted as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

He would soon be dead, marking the first deadly shark attack in Florida in five years, and perhaps a rare instance of a lethal attack by a swarm of sharks.

Schafer, 38, was attacked Wednesday afternoon a quarter-mile off South Florida's Atlantic Coast while he was out kiteboarding - using a large kite-like sail to pull him along the surface on a board strapped to his feet. When the winds lightened and his sail dropped, the Stuart man found himself in the water, surrounded by sharks.

Lifeguard Daniel Lund, 46, spotted Schafer as he scanned the ocean with binoculars from the beach about 100 miles north of Miami. He said Schafer appeared to be in distress but wasn't flailing around. Instead, he seemed to be floating on his kite in the choppy water.

Lund paddled out, struggling through 6-foot waves. As he got close, he said, the normally turquoise-green ocean was red with blood, and he could see the shadows of perhaps two or three sharks circling Schafer, churning the crimson water, occasionally breaking the surface.

"The one thing he said is he'd been bitten by a shark," the lifeguard said

Afraid the blood would set off a feeding frenzy, Lund cradled the man's head and with one arm, began paddling back to shore as fast as he could, fighting the current and wind.

About 20 minutes later, they were on the beach with paramedics performing CPR on a badly bleeding Schafer. He died a short time later at a hospital.

Schafer, an artist and graphic designer with a lifelong love of the water, had a 10-inch gash in his right thigh and numerous teeth marks on his buttocks. Authorities said his right hand was mauled in an apparent attempt to fight off the animal - or animals.

Authorities are investigating what types of sharks were involved and whether more than one shark bit Schafer. Beaches remained open Thursday.

The International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida's Museum of Natural History lists 1,032 documented shark attacks in the U.S. since 1690. Fifty of them were fatal.

"Internationally, we've been averaging four fatalities per year, despite the fact that there are billions and billions of human hours spent in the sea every year," said George Burgess, who oversees the file. "Your chances of dying in the mouth of a shark are close to infinitesimal."

He said that it was too soon to say whether Schafer was bitten by more than one shark, but that once there is a lot of blood in the water, other sharks sometimes come and investigate and may attack.

Friends said Schafer always followed the buddy system while surfing, and they were surprised he was in the water alone. They said he knew sharks were out there this time of year.

"It's hard to believe that such an experienced waterman would make that one mistake," said Teague Taylor, a childhood friend who says Schafer taught him to surf.

Schafer surfed competitively and later started sailing, windsurfing and kiteboarding.

"He had to be around the water," said Taylor, who manages a local surf shop.

The last fatal shark attack in the state was in 2005 off the Panhandle, where a 14-year-old Louisiana girl was attacked while swimming about 100 yards off shore.

---

Associated Press Writer Kelli Kennedy contributed to this report from Fort Lauderdale.

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Shark attacks on the rise in Australia: study
March 02, 2010
Shark attacks in Australia are on the increase, according to new research.
The US led the world in 2009 with 28 attacks, followed by 20 in Australia and six in South Africa. Other attacks occurred in Egypt, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mozambique, New Caledonia and Vietnam.
Five people died from shark bites in 2009, compared with four the previous year, according to the University of Florida report released on Monday.
Except for a death in New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean, the fatalities occurred in South Africa, where white sharks congregate in cooler waters, said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.
One of the victims was body surfing and one was paddle boarding. The other three were surfing.
Attacks in Australia were up, according to Shark Attack File statistics.
In 2009, Australia had 20 attacks, compared with 12 in 2008 and 13 in 2007.
The same was true in South Africa which had six attacks in 2009, compared with zero in 2008 and two in 2007.
There has been an overall increase in the number shark attacks in the past two decades, although researchers attribute that to better reporting.
The report comes about a month after a 38-year-old kiteboarder was attacked and killed by a shark off the coast of Stuart, about 160 kilometres north of Miami.
It was the first deadly shark attack in Florida in five years.
According to the report, the number of shark attacks worldwide has stayed the about same, with 61 events in 2009 compared with 60 in the previous year,
The number of attacks reported in the US dropped from 41 in 2008 to 28 in 2009, said Burgess.
The number of attacks in the US has declined in each of the past three years, though Burgess said it's too soon to tell if that reflects a long-term trend.
More than half the attacks involved surfers, though the majority of shark-versus-human interactions are relatively minor.
"Most attacks are not of the 'Jaws' ilk, but more the equivalent of a dog bite," Burgess said, referring to the movie thriller about a killer shark.
The report also noted that fewer people die from the more serious shark attacks than a century ago, when about 60 per cent of shark attacks were deadly.
Only seven per cent of the attacks reported between 2000 and 2010 were deadly, likely because of advances in emergency medicine.
"We're doing a much better job of keeping people alive once they've been attacked," Burgess said.
The one thing beachgoers can do to avoid being bitten by sharks is to stay out of the water between dusk and dawn - and to stay in groups whenever possible.
"There's a reason why fish are in schools, birds are in flocks, and antelopes in herds," Burgess said.
"There's safety in numbers. It's the same thing in the water."
AP

"The clip shows two divers interacting with sharks as they feast on the floating carcass off Port Douglas recently.

Incredibly one of the divers pats a passing shark before grabbing its fin and riding the 3m killer for a few metres while filming the joy ride on its back.

Cairns travel agent manager Clint Carroll posted the footage on his travel blog and said the action was captured around the outer Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea about 60km north of Port Douglas.

The blogger said the men in the video were known among the diving fraternity but didn't want media publicity.

"It's exciting for a diver to be able to get so close to such fish and get up close and personal. I would've loved it," he said."

Dude without these beings you die in any case, they are one of the most important links in the circle of life in our oceans. I understand Kitesurfing would be better without the need to worry about them, but that is a bit selfish don't you think? We're in their territory, if the shark walks into your home, kill it. Same rules for all mate...