Beachgoers shouldn’t be afraid to go into the water despite the fatal shark attack on a Romoland teen near Lompoc, oceanographers and biologists said.

Lucas Ransom, 19, was killed Oct. 22 by a great white shark while bodyboarding with his roommate, about 100 yards off shore from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

His UC Santa Barbara roommate, Matt Garcia, reported Ransom was swimming when Ransom was pulled under the water. His bodyboard popped back to the surface with a 13-inch chomp taken out of it, and the water filled with blood. Ransom’s left leg was severed. He was pronounced dead on the shore.

Such attacks are rare, and sharks don’t prefer humans as their prey, experts said. In Ransom’s case, and similar shark attacks, the sharks usually mistake humans for other ocean mammals such as seals or sea lions. State Fish and Game officials said they believe that confusion occurred when Ransom was lying on his bodyboard with his feet hanging off the end.

Beachgoers just need to be aware of sharks’ presence and avoid coves and areas where seals and sea lions may congregate, Fish and Game officials said.

“More people are in the water up and down the coast and we know the sharks are out there looking for food,” Fish and Game Marine Biologist Carrie Wilson said. “Every once in a blue moon we have these things occur. When you look at the number of people in the water, (the number of attacks is) pretty small. The shark wasn’t doing anything sharks don’t do. It was just looking for prey.”

Wilson said the attack was likely a great white, based on the aggressive behavior and the reported length of the shark, estimated at 14 to16 feet.

“These sharks really don’t have much interest in humans. We’re too skinny compared to seals and sea lions,” Wilson said. “They want the blubber and high meat content.”

“The behavior is what you’d expect from a great white,” Wilson added. “The typical mode of hunt is an ambush predator. They like to take their prey by surprise and come from underneath.”

There have been 95 attacks on humans off the California coast in the past 50 years, Wilson said.

There have been four fatal great white shark attacks in the past decade, compared to eight others in the 50 years before, according to Fish and Game. Before Ransom, the most recent came in April 2008, when a man was killed off Solana Beach.

More sharks have moved closer to California beaches since the state banned fishery gillnets off the coast within three miles, Wilson said. That has lead to an increase in seal populations and a rise in great white sharks. The sharks tend to prefer the coastline’s temperate waters.

After the attack, Lucas’ father, Matt Ransom, e-mailed friends and family members, thanking them for their support and condolences.

Ransom and Garcia both swam competitively at Perris High School.

“He lived real well and he died real well. He was in the water for about 45 minutes before the shark got him and his buddy told us he was getting the rides of his young life, on a day with big swells,” the e-mail read.

“He and his brothers have always been an inspiration for me as their father. A big part of him will remain with me until we meet up again. All you parents should enjoy and hold close your sons and daughters. They are only on loan from God.”

via Beaches are safe despite shark attack, experts say | Local News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California.

A COURAGEOUS man has been hailed a hero after he pulled the tail of a shark as it savaged a young tour guide on a snorkelling expedition near Rockingham.

Rescuers praised the man’s brave actions, saying he saved the woman from further injury from the jaws of the ocean predator, believed to be a 3m great white shark.

Do you know who this unsung hero is? If you can shed light on the identity of this fearless lifesaver -  so we can nominate him for Australia’s highest award for heroism – please contact us on: staff@perthnow.com.au

Nineteen-year-old Elyse Frankcom had been hosting a swim-with-the-dolphins tour for Rockingham Wild Encounters when the shark attacked – biting into her hip and left buttock at 12.30pm.

Last night (Saturday), Miss Frankcom was in a stable condition in Royal Perth Hospital following surgery to repair the damage.

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The attack happened off Garden Island Naval Base, at the northern end.

It came just 10 weeks after Busselton surfer Nick Edwards was killed by a monster great white off Gracetown in the South-West.

And it took place just 35km north of  Port Kennedy, where father-of-three Brian Guest was mauled to death by a big great white while snorkelling with his son in December 2008.

The unnamed hero calmly walked off the tour boat when it returned to shore and was too modest to stop for a media interview.

“All I want is the girl to be OK,” he said.

Recovering in Royal Perth Hospital

Concerned family and friends of Ms Frankcom kept vigil at Royal Perth Hospital.

Her older sister, Samantha, said Ms Frankcom was in good hands and would not likely be deterred from returning to the water.

“Elyse is in high spirits. She should be okay to leave hospital tomorrow,” she said.

Samantha said her younger sister would definitely return to the water, despite the brush with death.

“She loves the water. You can’t tear her away from it,” she told The Sunday Times.

“This won’t scare her away. She will definitely go back. It’s been a passion for her since she was a child.”

The 19-year-old diver recently commented on shark attacks on her Facebook page.

“If I get attacked or die, at least I die happy and doin (sic) the thing I love,” she said.

Her parents formerly operated a scuba diving business in Mandurah.

“My sister was training to become a `dolphin girl’ for the dive tours,” Samantha Frankcom said.

“Her job would be to find the dolphins and bring them to the surface for people to swim with.”

Rescuer praised ‘hero’ who grabbed shark’s tail

Fremantle Sea Rescue senior skipper Frank Pisani, one of the first rescuers on scene, said Ms Frankcom would not likely have survived the vicious attack had one of the passengers not bravely intervened.

“As the shark bit her, it brushed aside a fairly large male who grabbed hold of the tail of the shark, which then made it let go,” Mr Pisani said.

“The girl then started to sink to the bottom and he grabbed her and brought her to the surface and got her back on board the boat. He certainly was instrumental in making this a good outcome.”

Mr Pisani said there was a paramedic on the boat, but no first-aid equipment, so sea rescue volunteers worked to stabilise the badly bleeding victim.

“We used all our first-aid equipment and did all we could to stem the bleeding before the RAC rescue helicopter arrived,” he said.

“There were very deep puncture wounds, quite wide but there was no actual loss of flesh.”

Ms Frankcom was taken to HMAS Stirling base, where she was treated by naval medics before being airlifted to RPH.

Rescuers said Ms Frankcom, who remained conscious after the attack, told dive boat operators and first-aiders that she believed the shark was a great white.

It is understood Ms Frankcom is a videographer and tour guide with Rockingham Wild Encounters, which operates the Apollo 3 charter.

Rockingham Wild Encounters operations director Aaron Heath said Ms Frankcom was one of two crew members who were wearing shark shields, which are designed to repel attacks using electronic impulses.

She had recently praised the shields on her Facebook page, saying: “The ocean is a beautiful place and you feel so much safer knowing one genius was able to invent an incredible piece of technology to help enjoy it with more peace.”

via Hero snorkeller grabs shark to save attack victim | Perth Now.

PORTLAND, Maine — A scuba diver who came face-to-teeth with a shark used a camera to fend off the animal when it came at him with its teeth bared — and he has the frightening video to prove it.

Scott MacNichol, 30, was shaken up but uninjured after a porbeagle shark apparently mistook his camera equipment for food Saturday while diving near Eastport, off the eastern tip of Maine.

He estimated the shark was 8 feet long and weighed about 300 pounds.

MacNichol saw the shark swimming above him while he was filming the ocean floor under empty salmon pens as part of an environmental assessment for Cooke Aquaculture Inc. The animal then came at him, jabbing at the camera with its snout. In the video, its sharp teeth fill the frame before it swims off.

“He took a couple of bites at the camera. When he did that I was pretty much petrified,”MacNichol said Wednesday. “If you watch the video, you can hear me screaming underwater.”

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Porbeagles are coldwater sharks that have a similar body shape and tail to mako and great white sharks. Their diet is primarily herring, mackerel and other bony fish.

The shark was probably drawn to MacNichol from the camera’s light, batteries and silver casing, said Chris Heinig, owner of MER Assessment Corp., who was on the dive boat on the surface when the shark lunged at MacNichol.

“I think it came up and bumped the camera to see what it was,” Heinig said. “But I honestly don’t think the shark attacked Scott.”

While hundreds of shark attacks have occurred in Florida, California and other warm-water states, they are rare in New England. The last fatal shark attack in New England was in 1936, when a boy died after being attacked in Massachusetts, according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida’s Museum of Natural History, which tracks shark attacks.

MacNichol, who has been diving commercially since 1998, took a day off from diving after the attack but doesn’t plan to give it up for good.

“People get in car accidents every day and that doesn’t keep them from driving,” he said.

via FoxNews.com – Maine Diver Has Face-to-Teeth Encounter with Shark.

PERRIS, Calif. (KABC) — The father of a 19-year-old college student killed in a shark attack near Santa Barbara is opening up about his family’s tragic loss.

Luke Ransom, a graduate of Perris High School, was body boarding at Surf Beach on Friday when he was attacked.

Ransom was a junior at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“He was a water boy,” said Ransom’s father, Matt. “Seemed almost fitting that the lord would take him that way because he loved the water.”

The teen’s father told Eyewitness News that his son had called home that morning just before going into the water.

“He was really excited,” Ransom said. “He said, ‘Mom, I can’t believe these waves.’ She was apprehensive because he’d never been to that beach before, and she just told him to be careful and give her a call when he was finished.”

But the call that came was not from their son, but rather his friend telling the family that their son had been attacked and killed by a shark.

The family rushed to Santa Barbara still in shock over what had happened.

“A lot of his roommates were there,” the Ransom said. “Everybody was devastated. There wasn’t a lot of talking going on, to tell you the truth.”

Although Luke Ransom was just another guy on the Perris High School swim team, friends say they could always tell him apart.

“He’d always wear his sunscreen on his nose,” said one friend. “That’s how we know him.”

The Department of Fish and Game said Ransom was most likely killed by a great white shark, perhaps 20 feet long.

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Despite the shark attack, the beach has since reopened.

Ransom’s father says that’s as it should be.

“The ocean is such a beautiful place for surfers and scuba divers and beach goers,” Ransom said. “It’s a beautiful part of nature, so a few sharks here or there shouldn’t stop people from enjoying such a beautiful place on the Earth.”

via Shark attack victim’s father speaks out | abc7.com.

Friday morning’s fatal shark attack off Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Surf Beach that killed a UCSB student was the first in mainland Santa Barbara County’s history.

Lucas Ransom, 19, died of his injuries after a great white shark bit his left leg and pulled him off his boogie board. The Romoland native was a junior majoring in chemical engineering.

Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish & Game, told Noozhawk on Monday that it was the 13th California shark attack fatality since the DFG began keeping records 95 years ago.

He confirmed that the shark involved in the attack was a great white, estimated at 14 to 16 feet in length based on the bite marks and bite pattern on the boogie board and victim. Photographs of Ransom’s boogie board showed bite measuring about 13 inches wide at the largest part.

Hughan said great whites are “the perfect predator,” and they swiftly attack without warning. Though they have poor eyesight, movement attracts them, and a person on a board can easily be mistaken for a seal or other food source. He said they also maintain a bit of secrecy, as they can’t be kept in captivity for long and it’s not clear why.

Scuba divers and spear fishers are advised to keep their fish away from them — even if they aren’t bleeding — and anyone in the ocean should avoid wearing shiny objects or sharply contrasting colors, such as a wetsuit with a bright yellow stripe, he said. But he said none of those matter as much as luck.

“It’s really fate, unfortunately,” Hughan said.

Worldwide, there were 61 attacks in 2009, five of them fatal, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. California’s last fatal attack was in 2008, when a swimmer was killed off the coast of Solana Beach.

“We caution people to remember they’re in (sharks’) territory,” Hughan said. “They’re a wild animal.”

Great whites are suspected to have been involved in two other local incidents: A shark bit a man’s surfboard at Surf Beach in 2008, and a diver was fatally attacked off the coast of San Miguel Island in 1994.

Earlier this year, there were at least three instances of great whites attacking sea lions around Santa Barbara Island, prompting Channel Islands National Park officials to issue a warning to the public.

Shark attacks get a lot of attention for a reason — they’re rare. Dozens more people get killed by deer (through car crashes), snakes and dogs each year than sharks in the United States.

Surf Beach reopened to the public at 8 a.m. Monday, as there were no observed or reported shark sightings at any base beaches since being closed after the attack, VAFB said in a statement.

There are additional signs posted that warn of the recent attack, and Santa Barbara County officials have done the same for beaches in the Lompoc area. VAFB’s Minuteman and Wall beaches are not open to the public and remain closed for the base’s two-week inspection period, Lt. Ann Blodzinski said in a statement.

A memorial and paddle-out is planned for Thursday near Ransom’s hometown in Southern California.

Click here for tips for avoiding a shark attack, visit the National Parks Conservation Association’s website. Click here for more information about region-specific shark attack statistics.

via Fatal Attack by Great White Shark a First for Santa Barbara County – Noozhawk.com.

LOS ANGELES — A 19-year-old surfer was killed Friday in a rare shark attack a short distance off a California beach, when the animal pulled him under and inflicted a “massive wound,” police said.

Authorities closed local beaches for 72 hours after the attack by a shark described as up to 20 feet (6.1 meters) long.

The victim, identified as Lucas McKaine Ransom, “was boogie boarding on the break line about 100 yards off the beach with his friend when a shark suddenly pulled Ransom under the water,” said an updated statement.

“Ransom suffered a massive wound to his left leg and appeared to die shortly thereafter,” added the the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, noting that witnesses said the shark was between “14 and 20 feet (4.3-6.1 meters) long.”

The attack occurred at Surf Beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) near Santa Barbara, which is some 130 miles (215 kilometers) northwest up the Pacific coast from Los Angeles.

“Following standard protocol, VAFB has ordered the closure of all base beaches… for the next 72 hours,” while local authorities are posting warning signs at nearby beaches.

Earlier police had said the victim was in his early 20s and was in the water with a friend at the time of the attack. Officials were “working to identify the type of shark,” they added.

The last death of this kind involved a great white shark in California in 2008, when a 66-year-old man was attacked as he swam with friends off a beach in San Diego.

via AFP: California surfer killed in rare shark attack: officials.

COOS BAY — An Oregon man says a great white shark knocked him off his surfboard near Winchester Bay.

David Lowden told “The World” newspaper in Coos Bay that he was paddling his board last week near the south jetty of the Umpqua River when a shark he estimated at nearly 14 feet broke the surface behind him.

“As I’m flying off the board, I got a good look at the shape of the shark,” said Lowden, who was not injured in the encounter.

The shark emerged halfway from the water and broke the fins off his surfboard.

“That probably scared it a bit. It thrashed around a bit … and after that it disappeared,” he said.

Lowden, 29, and another man surfed to the beach while a third surfer, Lowden’s friend, Mark Lorincz, of North Bend, clambered onto the jetty and ditched his board.

Lowden phoned the U.S. Coast Guard to report the encounter, then contacted the Shark Research Committee, a private group that tracks shark attack data.

A release from that organization characterized it as an “unprovoked shark attack.” It was the only recorded attack this year in Oregon, and the fifth along the Pacific Coast.

Alan Shanks, a professor at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston, said the encounter described by Lowden is typical shark behavior.

Shanks said great white sharks often attack from below to stun seals, sea lions and other large prey.

“These guys are primarily big-thing eaters,” Shanks said. “A surfboard from below has a silhouette not unlike a marine mammal.”

Lowden said local surfers frequently see sharks. He has spotted six sharks while surfing on the Oregon coast, including one that bumped his board in 2006.

“I wasn’t that surprised, to tell you the truth,” Lowden said. “It’s not the first time I’ve had an encounter.”

via Oregon man reports encounter with great white shark | statesmanjournal.com | Statesman Journal.

COOS BAY, Ore. — An Oregon man says a great white shark knocked him off his surfboard near Winchester Bay.

The World newspaper in Coos Bay reported that 29-year-old David Lowden was paddling his board near the south jetty of the Umpqua River last week when a shark he estimated at nearly 14 feet broke the surface behind him and sent him flying.

Lowden said the shark emerged halfway from the water, broke the fins from his surfboard, and then thrashed around before it disappeared.

Lowden and another man surfed to the beach while a third surfer clambered onto the jetty and ditched his board. Lowden was not injured but he filled out a report.

Oregon Institute of Marine Biology professor Alan Shanks said the encounter was typical behavior for great white sharks. ——— Information from: The World, http://www.theworldlink.com

via SHARK ATTACK: Great white knocks Oregon man off surfboard – Breaking News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news.

Umpqua River Unprovoked Shark Attack

September 29, 2010

PRESS RELEASE

On September 27, 2010 David Lowden, was attacked by a Great White Shark, while surfing with Mark Lorincz, and Justin Martin at the South Jetty of the Umpqua River in Winchester Bay, Oregon. It was 4:00 PM and they had been on the water about 45 minutes. It was sunny with a light fog coming and going and an estimated air temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit. They were 80 – 100 yards from shore, in water 15 – 20 feet deep with a sandy ocean floor and 4 – 5 feet of water visibility.

Erosion along the jetty wall created a trench deeper than the surrounding ocean floor. No unusual behavior of marine mammals, fish, or birds, was observed in the area prior to the attack.

Lowden reported;

“Surf conditions were good with a large swell, light winds, and good interval. Water temperature was much higher than normal, around 56 – 58 Fahrenheit. High tide was at 2:15 PM that day and the peak we were surfing was further out than normal due to the size of the swell. After surfing for about 45 minutes, and catching only two waves, the current pushed me towards the outside and wide of the peak that was breaking about 30 feet South of the jetty. I paddled hard to fight the current and regain position in the peak. During this effort I was struck from underneath by the unmistakable force of a shark, due to past experience being bumped by a Great White in September of 2006 at the same location. I knew right away from the hardness of the object that it was a shark. The shark was at full attack speed nailing the tail of my board ejecting me forward as the shark breached the surface of the water with most of its body. I got a pretty good look at the overall presence but it happened so fast I wasn’t able to pick out details. The shark turned on its side as it headed back down, thrashing its tail a couple times before disappearing somewhere underneath or behind me. Frantic, I pulled my board back toward me by the leash. I then began to paddle as fast as I could toward the jetty which seemed much closer than the beach. Luckily, during the encounter I had been pushed inside and toward the peak enough to grab the first wave in that came moments later. After regrouping on the beach, the other two surfers were able to fill in the blanks as to what really happened as both saw the entire incident take place. We came to the conclusion it was a Great White between 11 and 14 feet in length. I believe that it either miscalculated the attack or aborted at the last second clipping the tail of my board, striking the fins first which I think must have given it a bit of a shock and caused it to thrash about after the initial contact. My board sustained minimal damage considering, losing a fin and crushing a fin box and creasing the tail. No injuries occurred.”

This is the fifth authenticated unprovoked shark attack from the Pacific Coast of North America for this year and the first for Oregon.

via Umpqua River Unprovoked Shark Attack | SURFLINE.COM.

Khanyisile Momoza, 29, was attacked as he harvested valuable perlemoen shells in the waters near Gansbaai in South Africa.

The fisherman was among a group of 12 poachers who had tried to swim to safety after spotting the shark in shallow waters.

A friend of Mr Momoza, who witnessed the attack, said: “There was screaming and crying. We just swam, we didn’t look back.

“We were swimming in a group but he was a bit behind us.

“It jumped out of the water with him and then it took him down.”

The attack took place on Tuesday between Dyer Island and Pearly Beach, east of Cape Town.

In an interview with the Weekend Argus local newspaper, the victim’s friend told how the poaching group had left the beach at 6am and swum for two hours before reaching the island three miles offshore, where they began hunting for perlemoen shellfish.

The men were swimming back to shore with their catch when the great white approached.

The survivors admitted they had been too scared for their own lives to help the stricken swimmer and raced back to dry land.

Once ashore the group alerted authorities to the tragedy.

Illegal harvesting of perlemoen is big business in South Africa, where the valuable shellfish are common along coastal areas.

The molluscs’ fleshy insides are considered a delicacy similar to oysters, and either served raw or cooked in seafood dishes.

But widespread farming of the shells has sparked fears the population could plummet.

In 2007 South African authorities listed the species, also known as abalone, as endangered with the global wildlife protection body CITES.

The restrictions were loosened in July this year, although it remains illegal to harvest perlemeon without a licence.

However hundreds of local fishermen are believed to continue to work in the illegal trade.

Many poor workers risk arrest or injury to hunt for the wild shells, whose meat can be worth up to £25 a kilo.

The shark attack victim’s friend told the Argus his group went perlemoen fishing around once a week and needed the money to provide food for their families.

Gans Bay, known in Afrikaans as Gansbaai, is famously the centre of South Africa’s great white shark population.

In recent years some experts have warned the increase in commercial “shark dive tourism” has encouraged great whites to inhabit shallower waters.

Every day hundreds of tourists pay to experience a close encounter with the creatures, which are enticed with food to come close to boats.

Some fear the sharks are now commonly inhabiting waters where humans are more likely to be swimming or working.

The poacher is the second person this year to be killed by a shark in South Africa.

In January tourist Lloyd Skinner was killed by a great white as he swam a few metres off the beach in Fish Hoek near Cape Town.

Shocked holiday-makers watched from the shore as the 47-year-old was pulled underwater.

via Poacher killed by great white shark – Telegraph.

Ever since Jaws, great whites have had a reputation as killing machines that has never seemed much point questioning.

However, that could all be about to change – after a study into the fearsome predators’ dining habits.

Scientists towed a 36ft Brydes whale carcass into a well-known hunting ground for the animals in an exercise aimed at documenting how they tackled the huge free lunch.

And these amazing pictures show how up to 30 of them stripped a single whale carcass – and gave an ‘extraordinary’ insight into how the much-feared predators behave.

But while many would have expected a feeding frenzy and potentially lethal fights between the razor-teethed gians, the behaviour observed was quite different.

The sharks appeared to select choice cuts of the dead whale and did not appear to be aggressive towards each other.

Free lunch: The 30 great white sharks were provided with a whale carcass so scientists could study their eating habits

Tasty findings: Alison Kock was the principal scientist at Save Our Seas Shark Centre and Shark Spotting Programme, at Cape Town in South Africa and was surprised by the sharks

Alison Kock, 33, the principal scientist at Save Our Seas Shark Centre and Shark Spotting Programme, at Cape Town South Africa, said: ‘Contrary to their reputation as mindless killers, the level of selectivity for which parts of the dead whale they ate was extraordinary.

‘They targeted the energy-rich blubber, often making repeated “test bites” where no flesh was removed, and removing flesh only once they had determined it was what they wanted. If they got a mouthful of muscle, they often spat it out.

‘They were very picky.’

It’s thought the huge whale was killed after being struck by a boat and was found floating towards Miller’s Point near Cape Town, South Africa, where the clean up operation for the local authorities would have been difficult as their huge bodies are harder to remove on land.

It was also feared the body – giving off oils that attract predators like sharks – may have drawn in great whites to an area frequented by swimmers.

Kock added: ‘Permission was granted by the authorities to have the dead whale towed to nearby Seal Island where the carcass was less of an issue and the sharks could help solve the clean-up problem.

‘In addition it provided an unparalleled opportunity to document white shark behaviour and record the number of sharks in the area.

‘Whale carcasses are believed to be a very important source of food for white sharks with some scientific evidence suggesting they follow whale migrations possibly to, opportunistically feed on dead or sick whales.’

Jaws: Alison Koch said: ‘Contrary to their reputation as mindless killers, the level of selectivity for which parts of the dead whale they ate was extraordinary’

Blubber: During the nine-day experiment Kock and her team made some shocking discoveries, including the fact that the sharks seemed to have a huge preference for soft blubber over tough muscle

During the nine-day experiment, which ended on Saturday, Kock and her team made some shocking discoveries, including the fact that the sharks seemed to have a huge preference for soft blubber over tough muscle.

‘In the case of the whale carcass the sharks knew exactly what they wanted,’ said Kock.

‘It provides evidence that when they bite into a surfboard, or kayak or person wearing a wetsuit they can immediately determine it’s not something they want to eat.

‘It’s very common in attacks on humans for white sharks to take a single bite and leave it at that. Our study provides more evidence that they are simply tasting and looking for meat that is nutritious. It shows that they are not just swimming around mindlessly eating everything they come across, as they are sometimes portrayed.’

She added: ‘I was surprised at the total number of white sharks that fed on the dead whale over the nine days we documented the event. We recorded over 30 different sharks in total. At one stage we had up to four white sharks feeding simultaneously on the carcass.

‘The first two days were the busiest with the most sharks, and the activity slowly decreased as the sharks had their fill. The last two days we recorded no sharks feeding on the carcass.

‘Many of the sharks I recognised as individuals hunting seals around the island from this shark season, as well as previous years. We used their unique dorsal fins to identify them, but there were also new sharks that I had never seen before.

‘The sharks showed very little aggression towards one another in the presence of such a large food source, often feeding side by side.

‘Some of the sharks we observed were gorging on the blubber and you could actually see their bellies getting fuller.

“Some would arrive quite skinny and by the end of their session they looked pregnant with their bellies bulging.’

During the study, the sharks reduced the carcass down to less than seven feet (two metres) of bone and muscle, having removed all the blubber.

Shark enthusiast Kock, added: ‘This is the ultimate example of the very important role sharks play in the ecosystem. That of recycling life, and of keeping our oceans healthy by removing dead and decaying animals like dead whales.’

via Shark attack: Incredible pictures of 30 great whites stripping a whale carcass provide ‘extraordinary’ insight into eating habits | Mail Online.

Ever since Jaws, great whites have had a reputation as killing machines that has never seemed much point questioning.

However, that could all be about to change – after a study into the fearsome predators’ dining habits.

Scientists towed a 36ft Brydes whale carcass into a well-known hunting ground for the animals in an exercise aimed at documenting how they tackled the huge free lunch.

And these amazing pictures show how up to 30 of them stripped a single whale carcass – and gave an ‘extraordinary’ insight into how the much-feared predators behave.

But while many would have expected a feeding frenzy and potentially lethal fights between the razor-teethed gians, the behaviour observed was quite different.

The sharks appeared to select choice cuts of the dead whale and did not appear to be aggressive towards each other.

Free lunch: The 30 great white sharks were provided with a whale carcass so scientists could study their eating habits

Tasty findings: Alison Kock was the principal scientist at Save Our Seas Shark Centre and Shark Spotting Programme, at Cape Town in South Africa and was surprised by the sharks

Alison Kock, 33, the principal scientist at Save Our Seas Shark Centre and Shark Spotting Programme, at Cape Town South Africa, said: ‘Contrary to their reputation as mindless killers, the level of selectivity for which parts of the dead whale they ate was extraordinary.

‘They targeted the energy-rich blubber, often making repeated “test bites” where no flesh was removed, and removing flesh only once they had determined it was what they wanted. If they got a mouthful of muscle, they often spat it out.

‘They were very picky.’

It’s thought the huge whale was killed after being struck by a boat and was found floating towards Miller’s Point near Cape Town, South Africa, where the clean up operation for the local authorities would have been difficult as their huge bodies are harder to remove on land.

It was also feared the body – giving off oils that attract predators like sharks – may have drawn in great whites to an area frequented by swimmers.

Kock added: ‘Permission was granted by the authorities to have the dead whale towed to nearby Seal Island where the carcass was less of an issue and the sharks could help solve the clean-up problem.

‘In addition it provided an unparalleled opportunity to document white shark behaviour and record the number of sharks in the area.

‘Whale carcasses are believed to be a very important source of food for white sharks with some scientific evidence suggesting they follow whale migrations possibly to, opportunistically feed on dead or sick whales.’

Jaws: Alison Koch said: ‘Contrary to their reputation as mindless killers, the level of selectivity for which parts of the dead whale they ate was extraordinary’

Blubber: During the nine-day experiment Kock and her team made some shocking discoveries, including the fact that the sharks seemed to have a huge preference for soft blubber over tough muscle

During the nine-day experiment, which ended on Saturday, Kock and her team made some shocking discoveries, including the fact that the sharks seemed to have a huge preference for soft blubber over tough muscle.

‘In the case of the whale carcass the sharks knew exactly what they wanted,’ said Kock.

‘It provides evidence that when they bite into a surfboard, or kayak or person wearing a wetsuit they can immediately determine it’s not something they want to eat.

‘It’s very common in attacks on humans for white sharks to take a single bite and leave it at that. Our study provides more evidence that they are simply tasting and looking for meat that is nutritious. It shows that they are not just swimming around mindlessly eating everything they come across, as they are sometimes portrayed.’

She added: ‘I was surprised at the total number of white sharks that fed on the dead whale over the nine days we documented the event. We recorded over 30 different sharks in total. At one stage we had up to four white sharks feeding simultaneously on the carcass.

‘The first two days were the busiest with the most sharks, and the activity slowly decreased as the sharks had their fill. The last two days we recorded no sharks feeding on the carcass.

‘Many of the sharks I recognised as individuals hunting seals around the island from this shark season, as well as previous years. We used their unique dorsal fins to identify them, but there were also new sharks that I had never seen before.

‘The sharks showed very little aggression towards one another in the presence of such a large food source, often feeding side by side.

‘Some of the sharks we observed were gorging on the blubber and you could actually see their bellies getting fuller.

“Some would arrive quite skinny and by the end of their session they looked pregnant with their bellies bulging.’

During the study, the sharks reduced the carcass down to less than seven feet (two metres) of bone and muscle, having removed all the blubber.

Shark enthusiast Kock, added: ‘This is the ultimate example of the very important role sharks play in the ecosystem. That of recycling life, and of keeping our oceans healthy by removing dead and decaying animals like dead whales.’

via Shark attack: Incredible pictures of 30 great whites stripping a whale carcass provide ‘extraordinary’ insight into eating habits | Mail Online.

LOS ANGELES — A record number of shark-bitten otters have been found along California’s Central Coast.

Scientists say they found nineteen injured or dead sea otters that appeared to have shark bites in August, primarily in the Pismo Beach and Morro Bay areas. Seven others with similar marks have been found so far in September.

Experts say the ten year average is about seven a month. They blame the cooler than average ocean temperatures on the increase.

Those conditions make the area ideal for great white sharks which have been reported in growing numbers in recent months.

Great white sharks do not typically feed on sea otters and prefer seals and sea lions.

Most of the injured or deceased otters have been found with a single bite mark, which would indicate the sharks are doing a sort of “taste test”, according to scientists Michael Harris.

via Shark Bitten Sea Otters: Record Number of Shark Bitten Sea Otters Found Along Southern California Coast – ktla.com.

As a surfer I’m asked many different questions. I’m often asked if I have a long board or short board. (For the record, I have an 8-0 long board, which means my board is 8 feet and 0 inches long.)

I am also asked about my favorite location and how many different places I have surfed. But by far, my favorite question is about sharks.

People love a good shark story.

As many times as I have been in the water and as many places I have been, you would think that by now I would have seen one while surfing. But the only sharks I have seen in the wild were reef sharks while I was snorkeling in Hawaii. They didn’t show any curiosity and they weren’t very big.

Lately, there have been a lot of reports of great white sharks in Southern California. A group called Shark Research Committee reported numerous recent sightings on the California coast, mostly at San Onofre State Beach in San Clemente, approximately 65 miles south of Redondo Beach and Sunset Beach near Malibu, approximately 40 miles north of Redondo Beach.

Chuck Patterson, a professional surfer and stand-up paddleboarder, recently filmed two great white sharks at San Onofre created a video called “Me, My Shark and I” that went viral online within 24 hours. Last week, a local news reporter and cameraman filmed a short video of a great white shark feeding on something in the water off Sunset Beach.

The last two reported shark sightings in the South Bay, by the way, were on April 16, 2010 and April 17, 2010. Both sightings were near Flat Rock in Palos Verdes. Both witnesses were spear fishing at the time they saw a shark.

Will all this local shark activity keep me out of the water? No.

When I am out in the ocean sitting on my board watching for waves, I really don’t think about sharks. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t be scared if I encountered one, I just don’t think about them when I’m in the water.

Sharks are always out there even if you don’t see or hear about them. Adolescent great white sharks are known to feed on fish in this area every summer. As winter approaches and the waters become colder, the sharks head for Mexico where the waters are warmer.

There hasn’t been a fatal shark attack in California since April 25, 2008. A great white fatally attacked a swimmer at Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach, located approximately 99 miles south of Redondo Beach.

If I do become a little nervous the next time I go surfing, I will keep in mind that shark-related fatalities are rare in California and an attack is usually a case of mistaken identity.

But, I will keep my eye out for a triangular dorsal fin, just in case.

via Sharks Are Swimming Nearby. Should She Still Surf? – Redondo Beach, CA Patch.

A man that was kayaking over the weekend has escaped a shark attack from one of the most dangerous shark species. Adam Coca was attacked by a great white shark while he was kayaking over the weekend in the area of Pigeon Point off the coast of San Mateo.

The man, who is 45 years of age, was fishing in his kayak in a place that is known as the ‘Red Triangle’ just off the coast of San Mateo. This area is known for being a shark area and although the kayaker might not have known this at the time, he certainly knew it when the great white shark got hold of his kayak.

The man said that the shark tipped the kayak completely over but he managed to hang on to the other side of the kayak in order to prevent the shark from getting to him. Shortly after he managed to survive the attack, his friends came to his rescue as they saw what was happening.

Adam survived the shark attack with minor injuries as he just suffered a small cut on his foot. This was certainly a lucky escape.

via Kayaker Survives Attack from Great White Shark | Daily Rosetta.

Chuck Patterson was stand-up paddle boarding when two juvenile great white sharks swam up to investigate. Luckily, Patterson had the camera on a pole….which is a little bit safer, I guess.

Here’s his description of the footage:

[...] within 5 minutes a 9 ft shark came out of no where and circled twice and slapped his tail on my board before disappearing. then a minute later a 7 ft young juvenile Great White swam circles around me for 12 minutes. It was an unreal experience that I will cherish forever

Gives you chills, no?

via Man films his near-miss shark attack.

White Shark Sightings On The Rise On East Coast : NPR.

From NPR, I’m Ira Flatow.

Over the last few years, there have been more and more confirmed shark sightings at beaches on the East Coast, and this summer is no exception. Just last week, lifeguards closed part of Rockaway Beach, that’s here in Brooklyn, after surfers spotted a shark.

Further north, officials closed a remote beach in Cape Cod when a spotter of planes saw not one, not two but at least three great white sharks lurking near the shore a couple weeks ago. No one’s been allowed in the water since then.

And then just yesterday, Cape Cod’s Chatham Harbor was closed to swimming due to the sighting of a 14-foot great white shark. Scary, huh?

But before you call in Quint and his too-small shark boat in “Jaws,” to put this in perspective, there hasn’t been a fatal shark attack in New England since way back in 1936. So why are we spotting so many more great whites today?

Is their population growing, or are we just more paranoid and getting better at spotting them? Here to sort out some of the facts from fiction is my guest. Greg Skomal is a senior biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He joins us by phone. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Dr. Skomal.

Dr. GREG SKOMAL (Senior Biologist Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries): Thank you, Ira. It’s good to be here.

FLATOW: Good, thank you. Are there more sharks these days, or are we seeing more of them?

Dr. SKOMAL: I think it’s a function, it’s a number of variables we’re dealing with here, and it’s hard for us to really tell if there’s more sharks or just simply more effort.

Certainly, a lot of the sightings along the East Coast of the United States have to do with more people utilizing the shoreline, utilizing the water for various recreational activities and otherwise.

But in think in some areas, specifically off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts and Monomoy Island, we are indeed seeing more white sharks. And I think what we’re seeing is a shift in distribution of the white shark in that particular area.

FLATOW: And what is attracting them to that area?

Dr. SKOMAL: Over the course of the last couple of decades, we’ve been seeing a steady increase in the number of gray seals and a growing gray seal, resident gray seal population in that area. I believe it’s drawing these sharks closer to shore.

FLATOW: And why would we be seeing more gray seals now?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, back in the early ’70s, we passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and it’s taken the last few decades for this population to actually recover to levels that pre-existed before we eradicated the species over the course of the last several decades. So we’ve got a growing population in response to protection by the U.S. and state governments.

FLATOW: So I guess what you’re saying is that we’re seeing a restoration of this coastal ecosystem to the way it used to be.

Dr. SKOMAL: Exactly, at least that’s the way we perceive it at this time. You know, we could be going back to what existed several hundred years ago, with a robust seal population being preyed upon by a robust white shark population.

FLATOW: 1-800-989-8255. We’re talking to Greg Skomal about the sightings of great white sharks along the East Coast. Maybe if you’ve seen one, you’d like to call in and talk about it. You can also Twitter us, send us a tweet @scifri, @-S-C-I-F-R-I. Or join the discussion on our website, on sciencefriday.com.

You, what do we you know, aside from watching “Jaws” and all the scary movies about sharks and Shark Week on cable channels everywhere, how much do we really know about white shark populations?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, there are certain parts of the world where you can predictably find white sharks. And these areas, which include, you know, the Pacific Coast, California, parts of South Africa and South Australia – these are areas where scientists have had the luxury, if you will, of going out and studying these animals at great levels.

And we’ve been able to garner quite a bit about their biology in those areas, I think. One of the spots that we know very little about the white shark is the Atlantic Ocean. And perhaps, this change in ecosystem that we’re going through up here in New England, may begin to provide us some access to these animals so we can start to tease away some aspects of their biology.

FLATOW: And you are involved in tagging sharks, are you not?

Dr. SKOMAL: Correct, correct. Yeah, last year we had a chance, for the first time, to put satellite-based technology tags on white sharks in this area, and we are already getting insights into their biology from those tags.

And already this year, we’ve placed four tags out, and we hope to be able to continue to do that over the course of the next month.

FLATOW: How do you get, you know, how do you know when it is time to reopen these beaches that have been closed?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you know, the local municipalities are in charge of those beaches, and all we can do at the Division of Marine Fisheries is provide information to those folks who are making these decisions.

You know, we’d like to provide real-time information on the presence of sharks as acquired through our research activities so they can make well-founded decisions on opening and closing beaches.

FLATOW: What are the odds of getting bitten by a shark?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you yourself indicated that the last fatal attack in Massachusetts was back in the 1930s. So that gives you a sense of what the probability is. That being said, I think it’s important to realize when you place people in close proximity to the prey of sharks, namely gray seals, you could potentially increase the risk modestly.

So I think it’s important for people to make wise decisions when getting in the water and choose areas that may be free of white shark prey.

FLATOW: Henry(ph) in Aurora, Illinois. Hi, welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.

HENRY (Caller): Hello there. Being landlocked, I just have an idea that possibly, there’s less fish out there for the sharks to feed on because you could ask any fishermen why are they still in port. And the sharks will wander farther around, looking for food. That’s my idea. Thank you.

FLATOW: You’re welcome.

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, I’ll tell you, that’s an interesting point, and it points to fisheries management and population management and the importance of looking at bait species and to find relationships between sharks and their prey and whether or not we’re, you know, overexploiting their prey and forcing sharks to other areas to exploit other resources.

That being said, I think it’s well-defined, the behavior of the white shark, when it comes to feeding, these animals are clearly going through, clearly prefer larger prey, namely marine mammals and specifically seals and sea lions.

So I think what we have going on off the coast of New England is actually just a national predator-prey relationship and not anything exacerbated, perhaps, by humans.

FLATOW: Let’s go to Roy(ph) in Sumter, South Carolina. Hi, Roy.

ROY (Caller): Hi, thank you so much for taking the call and specifically on this topic. It’s always been an interest. I’ve been recreational fishing in the Atlantic for 30 years. And over the last three or four years, we’ve noticed a tremendous increase in the number of small sharks that we’re catching.

It used to be something, we may catch one shark every two or three trips, and now we probably catch 10 sharks every trip. These we refer to them as bonnetheads. I dont know if that’s an accurate terminology, about a three, three-and-a-half-foot long shark, always catch them on the bottom, never catch them trawling. And I’ll take my answer off the air, but again, thank you so much for this topic.

FLATOW: All right. Could there be many big sharks because there are a lot more little sharks now?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you know, the bonnethead is indeed a species. It’s considered to be a healthy population off the Southeastern U.S., according to the fisheries’ statisticians. It’s not a fish that’s heavily exploited commercially, although it is sold in some numbers, and recreational fishermen like to catch it, as well.

You know, there are some folks who believe – some scientists who believe that with the removal of very, very large sharks that consume these smaller sharks, we’re seeing more species, you know, more smaller sharks out there. That may be the case, although it hasn’t been clearly demonstrated by scientists.

So it’s an area where there is quite a bit of work, but we have no real conclusions yet.

FLATOW: Have sharks been over hunted?

Dr. SKOMAL: In certain parts of the world with certain populations, absolutely. We have enough information on, for example, the dusky shark to indicate that that population off the Eastern U.S. has been overexploited and reduced dramatically.

The same is true for the sandbar shark. For other populations of sharks, they continue to be robust, and I think the bonnethead falls into that.

FLATOW: All right, let me go to Mark(ph) in New Britain, Connecticut. Hi, Mark.

MARK (Caller): Hi, thanks for taking my call. As you said, I’m in Connecticut, and I’ve noticed changes in the water temperature of Long Island Sound. It’s been creeping up, year over year, and I’m wondering if the climatic changes, increases in ocean temperature, are a possible source of increased activity.

FLATOW: Good question.

Dr. SKOMAL: Yes, an excellent question, one we anticipate a lot of research trying to answer over the course of the next decade. We know that with climate change and global warming, we’re going to see changes in the structure of fish populations in terms of the diversity of species, with a shift north of tropical species.

And it has been demonstrated for some, already. I imagine with warming water temperatures in Long Island Sound, you’re going to see a change in the fish diversity in that body of water, as well.

So, you know, it’s an area that we’re going into. We anticipate changes, and some of them have been documented. In terms of sharks, we haven’t seen any kind of dramatic shift as of yet, but some of the species that typically occur south of Cape Cod and not north, have indeed been starting to creep around the Cape. So we’re starting to see some indications that the fish populations, including sharks, are changing.

FLATOW: Steve(ph) in Cambridge, Mass. Hi, Steve.

STEVE (Caller): Hey, how are you doing? Thanks for taking the call. Great show. I think the shark thing is just a bunch of media hype, frankly. I mean, it just, you know, it makes people tune into the news shows, and I’m not sure there’s any more or less. I just think the sightings are more – maybe because there’s more fishermen out there.

But I was wondering if you might know why there’s a lot more jellyfish in the bay this year.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you bring up a couple of excellent points, and a lot of the shark phenomenon, or shark frenzy, if you will, is driven by the media – and it’s something we have to deal with all the time.

I can tell you that some of the shark sightings data absolutely indicate a shift that’s going on over with white sharks, and some of it’s just generated by a media frenzy. Somebody sees a fin, it may not be a shark fin, but it gets reported as such, and that just compounds upon itself.

I wish I could be of more help with you with jellyfish. I’ve been hearing a lot of folks complain about jellyfish in the bay over the last several weeks, but unfortunately, I study things a lot bigger.

FLATOW: All right, we’ll have to take a look at that, with some jellyfish folks, on a future program. But I want to thank you for taking time to be with us today.

Dr. SKOMAL: Oh, my pleasure. It’s great to be here.

FLATOW: Have a good weekend.

Dr. SKOMAL: Yes, you, too.

FLATOW: Greg Skomal is a senior biologist in the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., and he was joining us by phone from there.

When we come back, we’re going to switch to electric cars, plug-ins. Do you want a plug-in? How about a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf? We’re going to compare the two. Maybe you could talk to us about what you’d like to see the perfect plug-in to be. What would you are these two cars the kind you might purchase? If not, what do you want to have?

Our number, 1-800-989-8255. You can tweet us @scifri, @-S-C-I-F-R-I, or go to our website at sciencefriday.com, where you can chat around with some folks that way.

So stay with us. We’ll be right back after the break.

(Soundbite of music)

FLATOW: I’m Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR.

For years, a running joke among swimmers and surfers frequenting Los Angeles County beaches has been that they had more to fear from a mild sunburn or parking ticket than a possible encounter with a hungry shark.

But no one is laughing in New England, where a recent string of great white shark sightings has prompted beach closures.

Or in San Diego, where a swimmer was attacked and killed by a white shark in April 2008.

But in waters off local beaches, white shark sightings are relatively rare. Or are they?

Experts, pointing to relatively new tracking technology, say the massive creatures are migrating down the coast to Baja California, through Santa Monica Bay.

Waters off Los Angeles County beaches are also a congregating place for their offspring.

“There is a known occurrence in the summer of juvenile great white sharks in Santa Monica Bay,” said Steve Blair, an assistant curator with the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

Blair said he was unaware of any shark attacks on humans in the area and it’s difficult to pinpoint specific migration tendencies among white sharks – including why they tend to linger off local coastal waters.

“They’re hard to study because they’re so large – you can’t handle them or catch them easily,” Blair said. “And they’re really not that common.”

The species has been protected in California waters since 1994, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

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Experts say white sharks, which were added to international endangered species lists in 2004, like to feast on fish and seals, rather than oceangoers as depicted in the 1975 film “Jaws.”

Most attacks on humans, they say, stem from curiosity or mistaken identity – sharks mistaking a wet suit-clad surfer for a seal, for example.

Revelations about the white shark’s migration down the Southern California coast have been made possible through the efforts of researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium who have been tagging white sharks off Ventura and Los Angeles beaches and monitoring their movement.

Based on tracking data, sharks are swimming through waters from Santa Barbara south to Mexico, said Ken Peterson, a Monterey Bay Aquarium spokesman.

Since the program began in 2002, about 38 juvenile white sharks have been tagged off Southern California coastal beaches.

Waters off Will Rogers State Beach and Malibu have historically been known to attract white sharks, Blair said.

“There are certain areas they’re attracted to,” he said. “Any areas that include large populations of seals and sea lions.”

Sightings have also been reported near San Onofre State Beach in northern San Diego County, Huntington Beach, the Channel Islands and throughout the Central and Northern California coast, including the Farallon Islands off San Francisco.

Despite the sightings, attacks on humans are rare.

But websites dedicated to forecasting surf are rife with user-submitted notices of alleged shark sightings throughout the Santa Monica Bay.

“They’re frequently incorrect,” Blair said. “Sharks are commonly misidentified.”

Los Angeles County lifeguard officials said there have not been any recent shark sightings off South Bay beaches.

During the past two decades, there have been a string of shark sightings in waters off South Bay beaches, highlighted by a sighting in July 1978 of a rare hammerhead shark near the Manhattan Beach Pier.

In 2008, stunned whale watchers gathering at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes watched as a great white shark attacked a sea lion from underneath, throwing the animal in the air before crushing it with its jaws, according to a report in the Daily Breeze.

And in August 1982, two commercial shark hunters snagged a 16-foot female great white shark off Point Dume near Malibu.

The shark, too large to put aboard their boat, was towed to San Pedro, where a large crowd gathered to see the shark weighed. It died on the journey back to the harbor.

“All this just because of the movie `Jaws,”‘ one of the fishermen, Craig Williams, said while the massive creature hung on display for the growing crowd. “It’s not really that big a deal.”

via Great white sharks in SoCal waters may not be so rare – The Daily Breeze.

It might come as unwelcome news to swimmers and surfers, but great white sharks appear to be mounting a comeback off California.

“I think there are more sharks,” Christopher Lowe, a professor at Cal State Long Beach and director of the university’s Shark Lab, said during an exclusive phone interview. “And that’s not a bad thing; it’s a good thing.”

It’s the first declaration by a prominent shark researcher that a recovery of the embattled great white shark — the world’s most notorious predator — seems to be occurring.

A longstanding statewide ban on fishing for white sharks, an increased survival rate among young white sharks because of fishing gear restrictions, and an expanding sea lion population as a prey source are chief reasons for the comeback.

Lowe, who has performed extensive tagging of juvenile white sharks off Southern California and has pored over data dating back generations, said personal observations and increased incidental catch rates of small white sharks by commercial fishermen help support his contention.

Salvador Jorgensen, leader of the white shark research team at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, did not disagree with Lowe’s assessment but was more guarded when asked for a response.

“If what we are seeing is truly an increase in the white shark population that would be a relief,” Jorgensen said. “Currently we are finding that the total number of adult white sharks along the west coast of North America is much smaller than many people expected.”

While the prospect of great whites multiplying off the Golden State might trouble beachgoers, particularly in the middle of summer, Lowe said he does not believe a growing population would result in more attacks on humans.

“The fact that we see so few adult white sharks around populated areas tends to suggest that they don’t want to be around places where people are,” the scientist said. “People aren’t being bumped. People aren’t being hit. My guess is that sharks are actually avoiding areas of high human population.”

Southern California is a nursery area for juvenile great whites, who feed on small fishes, rays and other sharks during the summer months. Some of these sharks, measuring to about seven feet, are seen each summer by beachgoers.

There have been only eight fatalities attributed to white sharks off California dating to 1926, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File. The last fatality involved an attack by an adult white shark on a swimmer off a northern San Diego County beach in April 2008.

White sharks are found in all major oceans and “red-listed” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a globally threatened species. The California Department of Fish and Game banned fishing for white sharks in 1994 because of concern for their survival.

Jorgensen said a joint population study of adult white sharks by Stanford University, U.C. Davis and Montana State University is still under peer review, so he could not volunteer a number. Lowe and his colleagues also have produced a scientific paper under review, supporting a recovery. “Like Sal, I’m a little hesitant to reveal too much until the paper is fully accepted, but I think the data look pretty strong,” Lowe said.

Adult great whites congregate each fall near elephant seal rookeries off Central California. A separate population gathers during the same period at remote Guadalupe Island west of Baja California.

Adult great whites congregate each fall near elephant seal rookeries off Central California. A separate population gathers during the same period at remote Guadalupe Island west of Baja California.

Among the threats white sharks have faced globally are trophy hunting for jaws and teeth — which became widespread after the release of the movie “Jaws” in the mid-1970s — and commercial fishing for fins and flesh.

It almost seems implausible, in an era during which so many species of sharks are overfished and believed to be in decline, that any species could mount a comeback.

But considering the changing landscape off California, a comeback and its timing make sense. The ban on fishing for white sharks — for sport or commercially — was imposed in 1994. That same year, voters approved a measure outlawing the deployment of gillnets within three miles of the California coast.

In Southern California, this zone is where juvenile white sharks spend the summer preying on small fishes, rays and other sharks, before swimming into warmer Mexican waters during the winter.

White sharks are still being caught unintentionally beyond the three-mile mark — The increase in these captures is what helps support evidence of a comeback — but those sticking closer to shore are no longer imperiled by the indiscriminate nets, until they venture into Mexican waters.

Adult white sharks, meanwhile, now have a seemingly endless bounty of sea lions on which to prey, along with the elephant seals they prefer.

Sea lions, once routinely slaughtered by fishermen, were spared under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Ten years later, their population was estimated at 145,000 in a range from the Sea of Cortez within Mexico to British Columbia, Canada, with only 50,000 in the Southern California Bight.

According to the most recent National Marine Fisheries Service estimate, there there are at least 238,000 sea lions in U.S. waters, the majority of which reside off Southern California.

“So if you add those two things together, you’ve got a restored forage base for the adults and you’ve got better survivorship of the pups,” Lowe said. “So what we think we’re seeing from the fishery catch data and some of the other anecdotal pieces, is the actual recovery of the white shark population.”

The biologist added that while Southern Californians should not expect a spike in shark attacks on humans, those who spend lots of time in or near the ocean might witness more sea lions with bite marks, and more surface attacks by white sharks on the pinnipeds.

“I think the white shark population is going to do what it’s supposed to do: help regulate marine mammal populations,” Lowe said, explaining that apex predators play a vital role in maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem.

To be sure, fishermen whose livelihoods are threatened by pesky sea lions, which decimate catches and destroy gear, will cheer alongside marine conservation groups for more signs of a white shark comeback.

Swimmers and surfers? They’re probably not so enthusiastic.

via White sharks making a comeback off California, expert says – Outdoors, action and adventure.

CHATHAM — Town officials closed South Beach for swimming indefinitely yesterday after a spotter plane located at least five great white sharks off the coast.

Audio: Globe reporter Jack Nicas talks about spotting sharks from a helicopter off the coast of Chatham.

“They’re spread all up and down that beach,’’ said pilot George Breen, 66, who spotted three great whites during morning flights with a Globe reporter and photographer, and three sharks on his flight home to Falmouth.

He believes the sightings represented at least five distinct sharks, based on location and timing.

Around 1:30 p.m., after receiving radio reports from Breen, Harbormaster Stuart Smith banned swimming at South Beach, which was closed last year after five great whites were tagged around Labor Day. Yesterday’s beach closing was the state’s first because of sharks this year, although many sunbathers ignored the prohibition.

South Beach is a 4.5-mile peninsula accessible only by boat or foot that extends south off the elbow of Cape Cod. Swimming has been banned on its eastern coast.

“It is remote and rural, but it’s popular,’’ Smith said.

Just before 11 a.m. yesterday, two 12- to 14-foot great whites swam 200 yards apart, about a quarter-mile off South Beach.

To the north, another great white was swimming back and forth about 100 yards off the beach. Breen estimated the shark was 14 feet long, weighed 1,500 pounds, and was swimming along the ocean floor at a depth of 12 to 15 feet.

“They’ll even go closer than that. They’ll hang out in the white water,’’ Breen said as he circled the plane 500 feet up. “He’s just cruising the beach.’’

About 100 yards from where a great white swam, 33 children and adults at a family birthday party were lounging and playing Frisbee on the sand. Near their semicircle of chairs, seaweed spelled out “Happy 30th!’’

As Breen flew back to Falmouth around 1 p.m., he spotted three sharks, all within 100 yards of the coast. He said one off South Beach was probably a shark he had seen hours earlier, but the other two were too far south to have been the same sharks. One was near the middle of Monomoy Island, a national wildlife refuge popular with seals, and another was a mile north of the island’s tip.

In more than 30 years of flying spotter planes, Breen said he had seen “only a handful’’ of great whites before last summer, but he saw a dozen in one day in September and has seen sharks seven out of the eight days he has flown this summer.

He directed researchers to the great white that was tagged off South Beach Tuesday, but said he saw five other great whites that day.

The number of confirmed shark sightings off the Massachusetts coast this summer is approaching 20. But state biologist Dr. Gregory Skomal said the count is meaningless because many sightings could have been of the same shark.

In an attempt to more accurately count the sharks and to study them, Breen, Skomal, and commercial fishermen Bill and Nick Chaprales plan to head out today in a plane and a boat to tag great whites off Chatham.

The sharks are attracted to the area’s thriving seal population, which is growing because of the seals’ protected status, said Skomal, a shark expert with the Division of Marine Fisheries.

Thousands of seals lounged on sand bars yesterday and rolled in the waves breaking along the swoops of the Chatham coast.

Meanwhile, dozens of people relaxed on the sand of South Beach and some went in for a swim, despite the ban.

After exiting the water, Nicola Massarotti, 39, of Naples, said he thought there was little chance of an attack by a great white.

“I’d be more afraid to be hit by a car than to get in a shark accident,’’ he said.

But because of the sharks, John Roussel , 44, of Vernon Hills, Ill., said this is the first summer he will not take his son boogie boarding off South Beach.

“I just don’t want to take the chance,’’ said his son, James, 15.

At the birthday party where a shark had swam nearby, many were nonchalant. Nearly all had gone swimming in the morning, and 12 of the partiers said they went in the water even after the harbor patrol boat came by and asked them not to.

“We’re careful; we don’t go too far out. But I think I’m faster than a shark anyway,’’ joked the birthday girl, Hallie Smith, 30, of Chatham.

Breen, who has probably seen more sharks off South Beach than anyone, said the swimming ban is well advised.

“People say there hasn’t been a shark attack since 1936 in Massachusetts,’’ he said. “Well, I’ve been flying out here [for] 30 years and I’ve never seen sharks near the beach. If the sharks aren’t there, they’re not going to attack you. But now they are, so it’s a whole different story.’’

via Shark sightings close a Cape Cod beach – The Boston Globe.

A spate of shark encounters and sightings has led to a flurry of warnings to surfers and swimmers along the Central Coast, including at Santa Barbara Island in Channel Islands National Park.

The Santa Barbara Island Landing Cove was the scene of a recent great white shark attack on a California sea lion.

Despite the heightened awareness, a surfer was bitten by a shark Friday evening near Silver Shoals off Shell Beach. Derek Crane, 19, of San Luis Obispo, was bitten on the foot by what he described as a four-foot brown shark with dark spots. A friend drove him to a nearby hospital for treatment of a laceration.

National park officials last week issued a public notice for those wishing to visit Santa Barbara Island. Great white sharks have been observed in the area attacking California sea lions although there have been no shark attacks on humans there.

There have been three known attacks on sea lions by great white sharks in the past few months, including one at the Santa Barbara Island Landing Cove, the only access point on the one-square-mile isle. Hordes of sea lions enjoy hauling out on the barnacle-encrusted rocks surrounding the cove. Two other attacks occurred off Cat Canyon on the rugged southeast side of the island.

Officials warned the public to enter the water at their own risk until further notice. The windswept island is a popular destination for day hikers, campers, divers and kayakers.

Santa Barbara Island is home to one of the largest California sea lion rookeries in the state — numbering in the thousands — and a smaller northern elephant seal rookery with hundreds of the animals.

via Great White Shark Warnings Issued at Channel Islands National Park – Noozhawk.com.

It’s probably not what you want to hear as you head out for your Fourth of July trip to the beach, but the Coast Guard has issued a shark advisory for the waters off New England.

Just days after a fisherman caught a 7-foot great white shark off Massachusetts, the agency is warning swimmers and boaters to be alert.

“I have no doubt that a Great White Shark that swims into your comfort zone would surely find a splashing paddle or dangling hand inviting,” First Coast Guard District recreational boating specialist Al Johnson said.

Shark attacks on humans in the Northeast are rare.

The last unprovoked shark attack off Massachusetts was in 1936, according to the Cape Cod Times.

The last report of a shark attack in Connecticut was on Aug. 24, 1960 in Seaside Park, off the coast of Bridgeport, according to records maintained by the Ichthyology Department at the University of Florida.

A 38-year-old Stratford man sought medical attention for what he said was a shark bike.

George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and web editor for the International Shark Attack File, said he would not discount what his colleagues deemed a shark bite, but what’s a little worrisome about the report is that shark attacks are “extremely rare” on the Long Island Sound and this was the only one in Connecticut.

The person to report the bike shark was also noted to have gone “shark hunting” in the past in New York, Burgess said.

“My colleagues 50 years ago has ruled it a shark attack. I’m not going to trump their call at this point,” he said.

There were, however, other sightings, he said, and there were more reports of people seeing fins.

via Sharks!!! Coast Guard Says Beware | NBC Connecticut.

Hearing the ominous “Jaws” theme music after Saturday’s great white shark sighting 20 miles off the Scituate coast? State environmental officials have some advice: tune it out.

“For common-sense swimmers, they (great whites) don’t pose a threat,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles said. “People should enjoy the beaches. Obviously, if you see a large population of seals, you’ll probably want to avoid swimming in the middle of a bunch of them.”

Still, the number of great whites in New England waters may be on the rise, according to experts, who point out that the sharks love to feast on gray seals, whose populations have surged since protections were put in place in the 1970s.

“We’ve been seeing a slow increase over the past 10 years in the number of credible (great white) sightings,” said Dr. Greg Skomal, a biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries. “White sharks have been here; they will continue to be here. This is part of their normal migratory pattern.”

Several sharks were spotted last summer off Monomoy Island, near Chatham, a popular place for gray seals. Warnings for swimmers were posted.

Five great whites off Cape Cod were electronically tagged, allowing state biologists to learn about their migratory habits through satellite tracking.

Four of the sharks left southern New England by October and wintered in waters off northern Florida. The latest tag to surface was off North Carolina in mid-April.

The shark spotted Saturday was a juvenile about 7 feet long and weighing about 150 pounds. It was caught by the sport fishing boat Sweet Dreams III about 20 miles offshore on Stellwagen Bank. The shark was tagged and released.

While more great white sightings are expected, officials said beach closings are unlikely. Such decisions are generally made by towns, Bowles said.

The last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts occurred in 1936 near Mattapoisett.

The attacks depicted in the 1975 hit film “Jaws” – filmed on Martha’s Vineyard – made many people consider the great white shark among the planet’s most feared creatures. Scientists say the mythology is not backed up by fact.

via State officials downplay danger after shark sighting – Quincy, MA – The Patriot Ledger.

Is it just me or has there been an awful lot of shark news lately? Hint: it’s not just me.

Not one, but two attacks took place last Friday when a shark bit a 6-year-old girl in South Carolina and another shark bit a 13-year-old from North Carolina. And in early June a shark bit an 18-year-old girl in Georgia. Fortunately, no limbs (or lives!) were lost.

But there have also been several shark sightings in the Hamptons near New York City, and recently and a great white shark was caught and then released in Massachusetts.

Now the U.S. National Park Service has announced that they are issuing an “enter waters at your own risk” warning for the area around Santa Barbara Island in Southern California. The Wednesday warning was due to three great white shark attacks on sea lions in the area and is in effect until further notice.

Holiday weekend, beautiful locations, and great white sharks. This sounds either like a movie plot or one of my worst nightmares.

And in a crazy coincidence, this summer marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Jaws. Which, if you didn’t already know, features one of the creepiest movie scenes ever, where the old fisherman, Quint, recounts the story of the USS Indianapolis. Terrifying!

via Shark Attack 2010: Feds Warn Southern California About Great Whites – TIME NewsFeed.

There’s a scene near the beginning of one of the Naked Gun movies in which Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) shoos people from a crime scene by saying: “Nothing to see here. Keep it moving. Nothing to see.’’ Behind him, there are gunshots, explosions, bodies hitting the pavement.

This is what came immediately to mind as Ian Bowles and Gregory Skomal told the people of Massachusetts this week that there’s nothing to fear from the great white sharks that have taken up residence along our shores.

Bowles is the state secretary of environmental affairs; Skomal is the state’s shark expert, which I hope is not a patronage job. The thrust of their advice was not to swim with seals — i.e., shark food — in warm water.

Thank you, gentlemen. And may I add that you should never jump out a window more than five stories high.

Ian and Greg were, not coincidentally, standing on dry land as they announced the ocean was perfectly safe. Perhaps their proclamation would have carried a little more weight if Bowles donned a wetsuit and held his next news conference in the surf off Lighthouse Beach.

That’s not going to happen. The governor of this coastal state decided to build his vacation house 130 miles inland. Our lieutenant governor is from landlocked Worcester. They know the ocean like J.D. Drew knows how to play through pain.

Which is to say that as much as Frank Drebin comes to mind, there’s another fictional character that may be even more relevant to the moment: Larry Vaughn. Vaughn was the mayor of Amity in the blockbuster “Jaws,’’ Amity being an awful lot like Edgartown, “Jaws’’ providing a prelude to what could be happening in real life. When the gouged body of a tourist washed ashore just before the July 4 holiday, Vaughn, like Bowles, said there was no reason in the world why people shouldn’t swim.

Several bodies later, there seemed to be reason after all.

We dodged fate last summer. There were so many great whites at the Cape that they were just about ordering Tanqueray and tonics around the pool at Chatham Bars Inn. An awful lot of perfectly nice seals suddenly found themselves on the lower links of the food chain, though fortunately, no human swimmers lost so much as a toe.

But how long can our good fortune go on? Bowles and Skomal are betting forever; I’m not so sure. It’s only June and a Gloucester-based fisherman videotaped a juvenile great white swimming off Scituate. The fisherman pegged this youngster at 200 pounds. Skomal, a master of underestimation, had him at 150. Trust me, 50 pounds either way isn’t going to matter if you’re pretending to be Tom Brady with a Nerf football and you find the shark in waist-deep water doing a safety blitz.

A quick Google search reveals that mother sharks give birth to anywhere from one to 14 politely-termed “pups,’’ meaning there could be 13 siblings in the area. Answers.com also indicates that mothers like to watch over their juvenile children — and something tells me they’re not the most laid-back caregivers.

I called Skomal, a widely respected biologist, but his voice mail message said he was “in the field.’’ I’d prefer my shark expert be in the water, but that may just be me.

We live in a state where the government seizes up at the mere prediction of snow. Kids are required to sit in booster seats until just about college. And along comes something truly deserving of every ounce of our fear, great white sharks, and state officials take pains to say they’re no big deal after all.

I can only speak for myself, but I’m not going in the water. To be honest, I won’t even take a bath.

Cape Cod has the largest concentration of miniature golf courses and batting cages on the planet. This long holiday weekend, I’d urge you to make good use of every one of them.

via State’s little white lie – The Boston Globe.

VENTURA, Calif.—Federal wildlife officials are warning swimmers to enter the water at their own risk after great white sharks were spotted feasting on sea lions around the Channel Islands.

The National Park Service says there have been three attacks on California sea lions in the past few months near Santa Barbara Island.

There have been no attacks on humans but because of the potential risk a warning was instituted Wednesday and will remain in effect until further notice.

Officials say great white sightings in Southern California are rare. Migrating sharks usually pass through without stopping for meals.

via Swimmers warned of sharks off SoCal coast – San Jose Mercury News.

BOSTON — State officials and shark experts moved quickly to reassure beachgoers Monday after a tuna boat snagged a great white shark, the first confirmed sighting in Massachusetts waters this summer of one of the sea’s most feared creatures.

The juvenile shark — 6 to 7 feet long and weighing an estimated 150 pounds — was pulled up by Gloucester-based Sweet Dream III on Saturday some 20 miles off the coast in the rich fishing ground known as Stellwagen Bank. The crew tagged the shark and returned it to the sea.

“Sharks are some of the most poorly understood creatures in the sea,” said state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles. “They’re very elusive, hard to track and there’s not a very large body of information about (them).”

But on the danger to humans, Bowles was more certain: “For commonsense swimmers, they don’t pose a threat,” he said.

Common sense, he explained, meant not swimming amid a gathering of seals, a favorite food of great whites.

The last fatal shark attack off Massachusetts was nearly 75 years ago. Indeed, the state’s most famous shark attacks are fictional: The 1975 blockbuster film “Jaws” was shot on Martha’s Vineyard, and the movie is credited with creating a Hollywood-style mythology around great whites that scientists say is not backed up by fact.

Still, experts acknowledge that visits by great whites to New England waters may be on the rise.

“We’ve been seeing a slow increase over the past 10 years in the number of credible sightings,” said Dr. Greg Skomal, a biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, who added that most perceived great white sightings turn out to be something more benign — basking sharks, for example.

Skomal said great whites enjoy feasting on gray seals, the population of which has exploded since protections were put in place in the 1970s. Monomoy Island off Chatham has become one of the more popular gathering spots for gray seals, and swimmers in the area were warned last summer after several sharks were spotted.

Officials said they anticipate more great white sightings this summer but did not foresee beach closings, though Bowles said those decisions are generally made by towns.

The tag placed on the shark would only be useful to scientists if the animal were ever recaptured.

A year ago, state biologists successfully attached more sophisticated electronic tags to five great whites off Cape Cod. In the ensuing months the satellite tracking devices produced a wealth of information about the migratory habits of the sharks in the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Skomal is hopeful that more of the electronic tags, which send data via satellite when they detach and surface, can be placed on sharks this summer. Data from four of the great whites tagged with the help of a harpooner last summer (the fifth device surfaced prematurely) revealed that the sharks had left southern New England by October and wintered in waters off northern Florida.

The last of the tags to surface was on April 15 off North Carolina.

Among the more surprising discoveries was that the great white seemed to have a well-defined comfort zone, spending more than 80 percent of their time in 59- to 67-degree water, Skomal said.

“That’s a really narrow temperature range,” he said.

Scientists were also mildly surprised that Atlantic great whites tended to hug the coast — staying within about 200 miles — whereas Pacific sharks have been known to stray as far as Hawaii after feeding off California.

via The Associated Press: Great white shark spotted off Mass. coast.

Fatal shark attacks are rare anywhere in the world, with an average of about five recorded each year globally, but in New England, it's virtually unheard of.

Sightings near local beaches, however, have become an annual occurrence.

A sighting Saturday, which was captured by a Coast Guard camera off York Beach, Maine, appears to be a pair of juvenile basking sharks about 12 feet long, said Dr. John Mandelman, a research biologist at the New England Aquarium.

Though basking sharks are considered harmless to humans, with no positive species identification to work with over the weekend, lifeguards at Hampton Beach patrolled the waters for anything unusual.

“Any large animal, depending on what constitutes a threat, is potentially hazardous in their natural environment due to their sheer size,” Mandelman said. “But a basking shark would never attack a human. They are called basking sharks because the theory is they bask in the sun. They are passive filter feeders.”

Basking sharks are 5 to 7 feet long when born and, in rare instances, grow to as big as 40 feet. While it's early for a sighting so far north, young basking sharks are known to wander close to shore, Mandelman said.

Another sighting a mile off Cape Neddick in southern Maine on Thursday is said to have been a 10-foot porbeagle shark.

Though the sharks are likely chasing a meal and pose little to no threat to humans, these latest shark sightings serve as a reminder that many sharks do swim in local ocean waters.

“There are 15 species of sharks that exist in New England waters that wouldn't be unusual to see in a given instance,” Mandelman said. “There are tons of sharks in New England waters that get close to shore across a myriad of species, especially in the summer months.”

In 2005, ABC news correspondent Jay Schadler, who has his art studio in Amesbury, was swimming off Plum Island when he reported seeing a shark. It, too, turned out to be a basking shark.

There are other species lurking in the deep off New England, however, including makos, tiger sharks and even great whites.

Last year, scientists were shocked by the sighting of several great white sharks off Monomoy Island near Chatham over Labor Day weekend, five of which were tagged for future study. The sharks passed within 75 yards of Hollywood Beach, prompting officials to close the beach to swimmers.

A group of fishermen looking for tuna off Dartmouth last August hooked a 624-pound mako.

And while local shark attacks aren't common, they are not unprecedented.

Joseph Troy, 16, of Dorchester, was swimming with a friend of his uncle in about 10 feet of water, an estimated 150 yards off Mattapoisett in Buzzards Bay in July 1936, when a white shark grabbed his leg and pulled him down. He was rescued and brought to shore but died in surgery.

His was the last fatal shark attack recorded in New England.

Most documented shark attacks in the U.S. take place in Hawaii or Florida, where a 38-year-old kite surfer lost his life in a shark attack in February.

Local dorsal fin sightings are much more likely to be the aforementioned basking sharks or ocean sunfish, another surface sunbather with a large fin that can be mistaken as a shark.

For swimmers, however, common sense still prevails, Mandelman said.

“Swim in pairs, don't swim at dawn or dusk, and don't swim where marine mammals are present,” he said, noting seals can sometimes attract the wrong kind of attention. “The marine mammals tend to be pretty hazardous themselves.”

via Sharks spotted off New England shores » Local News » NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA.

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About this time each year, a fisherman catches a large, pregnant bull shark somewhere in the Tampa Bay area. The angler usually drags the shark ashore and poses, jaws agape, for the obligatory dead fish picture. Then the phone rings. “Is it still safe to swim?” a caller asks. “Of course not,” I respond. “But don’t drive either. You could get killed.” After a long, uncomfortable pause, I laugh and explain that a person is more likely to be killed doing home improvements than by a shark. But nobody ever made a movie about the inherent dangers of house painting. However, let a great white shark loose off a New England shoreline on a summer’s day and you’ve got blockbuster, a horror movie that will withstand the test of time.

Living dinosaurs

One hundred million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, sharks dominated the ocean. Today, while highways and office buildings cover much of the planet’s land now, all that remains of those “terrible lizards” are bones and fossils.

But sharks, nature’s perfect predators, still swim supreme in the sea. Perched atop the food chain, they feed on the weak and the sick, which helps maintain nature’s balance.

Slow to grow and giving birth to only a few pups at a time, a shark’s only enemies are other sharks and humans. Sensitive to overfishing, many marine biologists fear that if too many sharks are caught and killed, entire species may disappear forever.

And thanks to the movie Jaws, sharks in general have a bad reputation that may hasten their demise.

Fact and fiction

Most people are scared of sharks. But the truth is, most sharks are just as scared of humans. Of the 350 species of sharks, only a few are known to be dangerous to humans.

Most shark attacks occur close to land. Marine biologists believe that in most cases, the shark has mistaken the swimmer or surfer for a common food source, such as a seal or large fish.

But sharks are wild animals, and all wild animals should be treated with caution and respect. Almost any large shark, 6 feet or longer, can be considered a potential threat to humans.

Three species – the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri) and the bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) - are responsible for most attacks.

“People have this impression that if a shark sees you that it wants to attack,” said Brent Winner, a shark expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg. “But that is a myth. If you look at the records, most attacks are bite and release.”

Most attacks in Florida involve surfers in Volusia and Brevard counties.

“Surfers are in the water longer than swimmers,” Winner said. “The longer you spend in the water the more likely you are to run into a shark.”

Four near our shores

Hammerhead

The great hammerhead, which can reach lengths of 20 feet and more than 1,200 pounds, is feared as a man-eater, but in reality, this odd-looking fish is more interested in eating stingrays. Hammerheads are often found with stingray barbs sticking out of their mouths. One unfortunate specimen had been stung 50 times.

Tiger

The tiger, along with the great white and bull, is one of the world’s most dangerous carnivores. Reaching lengths of 17 feet, the tiger is an opportunistic feeder. This shark gets its name from the dark stripes that cover its body early in life but disappear as it grows older. A favorite food is sea turtle, which the tigers crush with their thick, jagged teeth.

Black tip

One of the most common inshore species of sharks, the black tip is so named because of the easily recognizable black markings on the ends of its fins. A fish-eater that feeds close to piers and beaches, black tips often swim near bathers without incident.

Bull

Possibly the most dangerous shark, the bull can live for long periods in freshwater. It has been found in the upper Amazon, 2,300 miles from the open sea, and in land-locked bodies of water, such as Lake Nicaragua. Bulls like shallow water and have been implicated in number of unprovoked attacks, including several in the Tampa Bay area.

By the numbers

1 in 11.5 million

Odds of a shark attack on a human

0 in 264.1 million

Odds of a fatal shark attack on a human

231 Number of reported shark attacks between 1956 and 2008 in Volusia County, making it the shark attack capital of the world

Play it safe

Although your chances of being killed by a bull shark are less than your chances of being struck by lightning, you can take some steps to protect yourself. Here are a few tips, courtesy of the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville:

• Avoid swimming near the mouths of rivers or bays, areas favored by bull sharks.

• Do not swim near schools of baitfish. Bull sharks may be nearby.

• When spearfishing, be ready to drop your catch. Bull sharks are attracted by speared fish.

• Avoid swimming at night or early in the morning, when sharks are most active.

Worst-case scenario

A University of Florida study showed shark attacks on humans are more likely to occur:

• On a Sunday (more people go to the beach on that day of the week, of course)

• In water less than 6 feet deep (that’s typically the depth swimmers favor at the beach)

• Between dusk and dawn (feeding time)

• During a new moon (tides influence bait)

• To those wearing black-and-white bathing suits (researchers believe the contrast is a factor)

Source: The International Shark Attack File; odds are from Year 2000 USA Beach and Injuries Fatalities report

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Wow this thing is just huge. But why’d they have to kill it?

A group of fishermen were delighted when they caught a shark in the warm waters off Australia’s east coast.

So imagine their surprise when there was a bigger tug and they realised their catch was being swallowed by an even bigger fish.

This giant, weighing one and a quarter tonnes and measuring 20ft long, was caught off the north coast of New South Wales and is thought to be at least 40 years old.
Monster from the deep: Shark museum boss Vic Hislop with the giant hammerhead shark caught off NSW’s northern coast

Vic Hislop, who runs a shark museum in Queensland, was so excited by news of the catch that he bought the shark, which died as it was hauled to shore.

‘It’s a magnificent specimen, that’s for sure,’ said Mr Hislop. ‘I’m planning to freeze it and then put it on display at the shark museum.’

Some species of hammerheads are on the global endangered list but they are not renowned for attacking humans, unlike the man-eating great white shark.

What might be a warning for swimmers to exercise caution about where they chose to swim is Mr Hislop’s comment to Brisbane’s Courier Mail that ‘while this one is huge, it’s not the biggest one I’ve seen’.

Sharks are known to feed at dawn and dusk, so people are advised to avoid the ocean at those times to further reduce their small chance of a shark attack.

Hammerheads, which are found in warm waters around the world, get their name from the shape of their heads, which are flattened and extend sideways.

This is thought to help them move in close to their prey and to find food on the sea bed.

While they are not notorious for killing humans, the International Shark Attack file lists them as seventh among sharks that pose a danger to people, the most dangerous being the great white.

In recent years there have been 33 reported hammerhead attacks on humans, but none have been fatal.

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Three of seven attacks were on surfers

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 17 March, 2010 : – - There were 7 unprovoked shark attacks authenticated from the Pacific Coast of North America during 2009. All 7 of the reported attacks occurred in California and were distributed in the following months; April (1), July (1), August (2), October (1) and November (2), with 5 of the 7 attacks occurring South of the Santa Barbara/Ventura County line.

Activities of the victims were; 3 Surfing, 1 Paddle-Boarding, 1 Diving, 1Surf- Fishing, and 1 Swimming. The Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, was positively identified or highly suspect as the causal species in 5 of the attacks with 1 attack attributable to the Thresher Shark, Alopias sp., and 1 unknown species.

The publication “Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century” authenticated 108 unprovoked shark attacks from the Pacific Coast between 1900 and 1999. The Great White Shark was implicated in 94 (87%) of the attacks with an annual average of slightly more than one shark attack per year. The 7 cases reported for 2009 brings the total number of unprovoked shark attacks occurring along the West Coast during the first 9 years of the 21st Century to 49.

This is ‘more than five times’ the Twentieth Century annual average and represents 45% of the total number of attacks reported for the entire Twentieth Century, and all in less than a decade. The Great White Shark has been implicated in 41 (80%) of the 49 attacks reported during this Century. Of the 157 unprovoked shark attacks reported from the Pacific Coast since 1900, the Great White Shark has been positively identified or highly suspect in 133 (85%).

Victim activity for the 49 unprovoked shark attacks reported from the Pacific Coast since 20000 are distributed in the following groups; surfers 35 (71%) of the documented attacks with 5 (10%) swimmers, 3 (6%) kayakers, 3 (6%) divers, 2 (4%) paddle boarders, and 1 (2%) surf fishing. The number of adult, sub-adult, and juvenile Great White Sharks observed in Southern California during 2009 suggests a possible change in their population dynamics and seasonal site preferences.

The number of stranded marine mammal carcasses reported, specifically their location and time of year, would seem to support this observation. The Shark Research Committee will continue to closely monitor this activity in the coming year.

Additional information regarding the Shark Research Committee’s conservation, education, and research programs are available at:  sharkresearchcommittee.com. ‘Save the Sharks – Save the Oceans’

www.sharkresearchcommittee.com

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My money’s on Bull Sharks. Those things are scary.

Related Stories

• Shark attack: Lifeguard hailed as a hero in rescue attempt
• Florida shark attack a Great White?

Scientists have not yet conclusively identified the species of shark responsible for a fatal attack on a kite surfer off a Stuart, Fla., beach, but they have ruled out any involvement by a great white shark.

Some media reports speculated that a group of white sharks might have attacked the kiteboarder on Wednesday. Florida-based shark experts say the reports were based on an apparent misquote and media hype.

“Our investigation definitively indicates it was not a great white shark,” George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said on Friday.

Instead, he said, an examination of the victim’s wounds suggests that the attacking shark was eight to nine feet long and was more than likely a bull shark or tiger shark.

He said that although the lifeguard who attempted to rescue the kiteboarder saw several sharks nearby, only one shark bit the man. According to officials, there was a very deep and fatal bite to his thigh, a second bite to his buttocks, and a defensive wound to his hand.

Most shark attacks are hit-and-run

Most Florida shark bites are quick nips, like a hit-and-run, experts say. This attack was different.

“The attacking shark really meant business. This was not likely to be a mistaken-identity situation,” Mr. Burgess said. “This was a shark that was attacking with some real meaning.”

Although Burgess was able to narrow the range of potential species involved in the attack, officials have made arrangements to consult a second shark-bite expert to help solve the mystery.

Grant Gilbert, a research scientist in Vero Beach, says he will meet on Monday with the Martin County medical examiner to try to match the victim’s wounds with an extensive inventory of shark jaws. It is a kind of forensic shark-bite version of “CSI.”

“Sharks can be identified by their dentition [teeth],” he says.

A tiger shark has saw-edged teeth on both its upper and lower jaws. In contrast, a bull shark has pointed teeth on its lower jaw and triangular, serrated teeth on the upper jaw.

The pointed teeth are designed to hold prey, while the upper teeth are built for cutting. According to Gilbert, puncture wounds produced by the lower jaw would be present in a bite from a bull shark, but not from a tiger shark.

Forensic evidence focuses on bite marks

But that may not end the inquiry, he says. Two other sharks, the dusky shark and the silky shark, share similar jaw configurations with the bull shark. At that point, Gilbert says, the sharks may be differentiated by the number of teeth in the upper and lower jaws. Much depends on the evidence from the bites, he says.

In 1998, a 9-year-old boy was killed by a shark near Vero Beach. Gilbert worked on that case as well. The two main suspects, he said, were a bull shark and a tiger shark.

The bite characteristics allowed officials to rule out the bull shark. They concluded the attack was caused by a tiger shark.

Tiger sharks prey on sea turtles, and their jaws are evolved to the task, Gilbert said. “It was a young tiger shark, and it thought it had a sea turtle,” he said, of the Vero Beach attack 12 years ago.

Migrating sharks not probably involved

Televised reports about the Stuart shark attack have included stock footage of sharks migrating up Florida’s east coast, Gilbert says. But those migrating sharks, the research scientist says, are probably too small and unlikely to be involved in an attack like the one Wednesday.

Gilbert says he suspects that the kite surfer plunged into the water at exactly the worst place. “It is possible that he actually fell on the shark,” he said. “If there were a number of sharks out there, it could be that he just fell at the wrong spot at the wrong time.” The researcher added, “We’ll never know.”

There have only been 28 recorded shark bites in Martin County since 1882, says Mark Perry, director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. This week’s attack was the first fatality in the county.

The victim, Stephen Schafer, was well known in Stuart, said Mr. Perry, whose office is across the street from Stuart Beach, where the attack took place.

A memorial ceremony is set for Saturday at Stuart Beach, where Mr. Schafer’s friends will hold a barbecue and a “paddle out,” in which surfers paddle offshore and form a large circle in remembrance.

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STUART — The research scientist who matched tiger shark teeth to bite wounds during an autopsy of the Treasure Coast’s only other shark fatality says young great white sharks — the fish of Jaws notoriety — are among suspects in Wednesday’s fatal attack off Stuart’s coast.

A 38-year-old kiteboard surfer, Stephen Howard Schafer, 38, of Stuart was attacked by sharks Wednesday afternoon and died from his injuries, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

The scientist, Grant Gilmore, said the size and type of shark in Wednesday’s attack can be learned the same way it was in the 1998 death of 9-year-old James Willie Tellasmon north of Jaycee Park in Vero Beach: By comparing characteristic bite patterns from among many species that live or visit off the Treasure Coast to wounds.

“It can be done,” Gilmore said. “It would be nice to have closure on this, to know what it was, especially since the man, tragically, died.”

Great whites prefer colder northern Atlantic Ocean waters and aren’t usually thought of as a Florida shark. But smaller 6- to 8-foot ones migrate to Florida’s east coast during winter.

Of the many types of sharks off the Treasure Coast, three of the four species known to attack humans — great hammerheads, bulls and tigers — prefer warm water. They leave the area or go deep in winter.

“The only other species that gathers in abundance out there in the winter are the juvenile great white sharks,” Gilmore said. They eat their way through a migrating parade of 3- to 4-foot sharpnose sharks that travel south from New England waters to Florida.

Cooler ocean water usually keeps great whites north of Cape Canaveral, Gilmore said, but this winter has been unusually cold.

Gilmore said it is very unusual to have a person bitten by a shark off Florida’s east coast this time of year. With only early news accounts for information, he wouldn’t guess which species was involved in Wednesday’s attack.

Doctoral work done by Jon Dodrill documented fishermen catching great whites off Florida’s east coast between Cape Canaveral and Daytona Beach. Gilmore was Dodrill’s professor when Dodrill did the census in the mid-1970s that is still considered an authoratative source for which sharks live and travel off Florida’s east coast.

Today, Dodrill runs Florida’s artificial reefs program.

The attack on James in 1998 happened in shallow water and was attributed to a young tiger shark about six feet long.

It was Martin County’s first fatal shark attack, according to records going back to 1882.

About 4 p.m. Wednesday, a lifeguard was looking through his binoculars and saw Schafer, the kiteboard surfer, in distress about a quarter of a mile off shore from an unguarded beach just south of Stuart Beach, officials said.

When the lifeguard paddled out to Schafer, he was encircled by sharks, officials said.

The lifeguard put Schafer on his rescue board and paddled to shore where Schafer said he had been bitten by a shark, authorities said. Officials performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the victim, who had multiple bite wounds, and he was rushed to Martin Memorial North Medical Center, where he later died.

Schafer’s friends said they are shocked by his death.

“I’ve never heard of multiple sharks in this area surrounding someone and fatally wounding him,” said the victim’s childhood friend, Teague Taylor, 36. “He was the nicest person ever.”

Normally, sharks appear in the area to feast on bait fish migrating to the area.

Taylor said he was surprised to see the sharks because they normally come around the spring. On Tuesday, the day before the fatal attack, Taylor said he was surfing near where his friend was attacked and he saw several sharks.

“You always think in the back of your mind that they (sharks) are out there,” he said.

Jordan Schwartz, who has known Schafer for five years, said he was a very experienced kiteboard surfer.

“He was a super nice guy. Always mellow. I don’t think he had any enemies,” he said.

Including Wednesday’s fatal attack, there have been about 14 deaths in Florida attributed to sharks, according to records provided by University of Florida Museum of Natural History.

REDUCING RISK OF SHARK ATTACKS

Always stay in groups; sharks are more likely to attack a lone person.

Do not wander too far from shore — this isolates an individual and additionally places one far away from assistance.

Avoid being in the water during darkness or twilight hours when sharks are most active and have a competitive sensory advantage.

Do not enter the water if bleeding or if menstruating — a shark’s olfactory ability is acute, and sharks are attracted to blood.

Do not wear shiny jewelry because the reflected light resembles the sheen of fish scales.

Use extra caution when waters are murky and avoid uneven tanning and bright-colored clothing — sharks see contrast particularly well.

Refrain from excess splashing, and do not allow pets in the water because of their erratic movements.

The International Shark Attack File Web site, University of Florida Museum of Natural History, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm

TREASURE COAST SHARK ATTACKS

Indian River County: 17 (one fatal, 1998)

St. Lucie County: 29 (none fatal)

Martin County: 28 (one fatal, 2010)

Source: International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida Museum of Natural History and media reports

SHARK ENCOUNTER OCCURRENCES

Attacks are most common in Central Florida. Here’s a look at unprovoked attacks in the state from 1882 to 2008.

231:Volusia

96: Brevard

58: Palm Beach

28: Martin

29: St. Lucie

17: Indian River

11: Broward

10: Dade

19: Florida Keys

Source: International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida Museum of National History.

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Fiddling with his swimming goggles as he strolled across one of Cape Town’s most popular beaches, Lloyd Skinner did not notice anything amiss.

With temperatures in the 90s, the sand was packed with families enjoying the delights of the South African summer.

The sea appeared calm – perfect to escape the heat. But as he waded out, something terrible started to happen. A strange ripple effect circled him in the water. On the beach, people started waving their towels and shouting at him desperately.

It was too late. A great white shark struck 37-year-old Skinner with devastating force. The world’s deadliest coldblooded predator then turned and, amid thrashing water, pulled its human prey under the waves.

Astonishingly, all was not lost. An endurance runner and fitness fanatic, Skinner somehow managed to struggle to the surface as the sea turned red around him.

He disappeared again moments later. The shark simply circled and struck again, knocking the man into the air before pulling him under once more. He has not been seen since.

This was no ordinary shark attack. The beast was simply enormous – indeed, one eye witness described the animal as being the size of a ‘dinosaur or bus’. And chillingly, some experts believe the deadly predator, hungry for meat, could have been tempted to shore by humans themselves. It may be that it is we, not the Great White, who are at fault for this horrific attack.

Despite lifeguards’ best efforts, Mr Skinner was doomed. With Cape Town’s beaches packed because of a heatwave, lifeguards raced into the water. ‘I was shouting “Shark! Shark!” ‘ one said last night. ‘These bathers were about 15 metres away and could not see what was happening. Then it was over. There was this pool of blood in the water.’

Using its unique ability to detect the tiny electrical pulse emitted by a human heart, this fearsome creature – estimated to weigh more than five tonnes – had attacked the tourist, striking from beneath at up to 25mph.

Watching from his holiday home overlooking the beach, Gregg Coppen was horrified. ‘Holy s***! We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house! That shark was huge! Like dinosaur huge!’

He added: ‘It was this giant shadow. . . 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.’

Horrified British visitors also saw the carnage unfold at Fish Hoek, a popular tourist resort 30 minutes outside Cape Town, a premier destination for Britons keen to escape freezing temperatures at home.

‘We saw the shark come back twice,’ said Phyllis McCartain from Arundel in Sussex. ‘It had the man’s body in its mouth and his arm was in the air. Then the sea was full of blood.’

Denis Lundon, her holiday companion, watched as the swimmer was thrust out of the water by the shark’s strike. ‘I jumped, waved my hat and roared and screamed at swimmers to get out of the water,’ he said. ‘I never want to experience this again. I’m going to block it out of my mind.’

Kyle Johnston, another tourist, said: ‘We were at about chest depth and he was deeper. We saw people waving towels at us, then we looked further out to sea and saw what looked like blood, and a man’s leg come up.’

An engineer from Zimbabwe who ran mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Skinner was on holiday in South Africa to attend the wedding of his partner’s daughter, who was on the beach as the horror unfolded.

As the police helicopters scoured the area yesterday, and beaches remained closed, a coastguard-spokesman said: ‘Whether we find body parts . . . it’s very unlikely. The possibility of the body being completely consumed is being considered. We think the shark took everything.’

By last night, only the tourist’s goggles had been recovered. Shark spotters were desperate to locate the Great White responsible. Because sharks are territorial creatures, experts say a beast this size is likely to return again and again to the same spot where prey is known to live.

Ever since the Steven Spielberg film Jaws, this lethal predator has been reviled and feared.

But many believe humans, not the Great White, should be blamed for this horrific death, the latest in a string along South Africa’s coastline, which has one of the largest Great White populations in the world.

Indeed, seas around Cape Town teem with these creatures. Despite their fearsome reputation as a so-called apex predator, with only humans higher in nature’s hierarchy, Great Whites seldom attack humans. They feed instead on seals, dolphins and large fish such as tuna.

But now the tables are being turned – and humans are being hunted. With no reported attacks for decades, up to three fatal attacks – as well as countless lesser incidents – are now being reported each year.

Many believe this is due to the greedy, irresponsible actions of dozens of tour operators, which have sprung up along a place known locally as ‘shark alley’, offering tourists the chance to ‘swim’ with these monsters of the deep.

Touting for business at tourist spots such as Cape Town waterfront, they charge tourists £100 a time to be taken out by boat, placed in a cage and lowered into the water, hoping for the Great White shark of Jaws legend to circle.

The methods used to entice the sharks to the paying tourists are being blamed for turning these Great Whites into man-eaters.

Environmentalists and surfers blame these tourist boats for ‘chumming’: dropping bloody bait, such as meat and rotting fish, into the sea to lure sharks towards the tourists.

Surfers and swimmers say this pungent bait drifts all over the sea, luring sharks dangerously close to the shore. They say chumming is behind the upsurge in lethal attacks.

Craig Bovim, a marine engineer who survived a shark attack, has set up a group to lobby for cage diving to be banned, saying the presence of people in the shark’s habitat was creating a familiarity between the two species – with deadly results.

‘We should stop this craze,’ he says. ‘Baiting of leopards and lions is no longer allowed. We should not do it to sharks. They are magnificent animals.’

Adrian Charles, another surfer, said: ‘Sharks are intelligent creatures and they learn to associate human beings with food. They follow the boats into the harbour when in the past they wouldn’t come all the way in.’

The remarkable proliferation of these sharks around Fish Hoek, where the Atlantic first touches the Indian Ocean on the eastern side of Cape Town known as False Bay, has also brought an influx of wildlife photographers and film crews.

Their methods, according to locals, are also making these sharks associate humans with food. With cameras rolling, many film crews tow dead seals behind their boats in the hope that a Great White will leap out of the water and attack.

Even Peter Benchley – whose book inspired Jaws the movie, sealing the reputation of the killer Great White – campaigned in the decade before his death to save sharks, more than 100 million of which are killed by humans each year for soup and as a by-product of industrial netting.

So big is the threat to their future – and they are a vital part of the ocean’s eco-system – that many species, including the Great White, have been designated as endangered.

But with beaches last night still closed amid the Cape Town heatwave, and spotters buzzing the sea in helicopters, some people were already going back into the water.

Incredibly, lifeguards had to chase several people from the sea where this week’s fatal attack happened.

So is cage diving to blame for the latest death? Hard to say – but this dreadful attack did, at least, give an insight into the relative intelligence of humans and Great White sharks, regarded by scientists as the number one and number two predators on the planet.

In the water, however, the shark always wins.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243355/As-swimmer-eaten-alive-Great-White-chilling-evidence-humans-blame-Have-turned-sharks-maneaters.html#ixzz0dEzcRVBH

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Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — A 37-year-old Zimbabwean tourist died after being attacked by a shark while swimming off Cape Town’s Fish Hoek beach today, South Africa’s National Sea Rescue Institute said.

“There were plenty of eyewitnesses” to the attack, Ian Klopper, an official with the institute, said in a telephone interview from the city. “There is no chance of survival.”

The attack took place shortly before 4 p.m. local time, he said. A helicopter and four boats were used to search for the victim’s remains. It is unclear what type of shark attacked the man, Mark Dotchin, chairman of the Western Cape province’s lifesaving association, said in a telephone interview.

“As of now, no body has been found,” Dotchin said. “There was a lot of blood in the water.”

Great White Sharks, which can grow to 6 meters (19.7 feet) in length and weigh 3 metric tons (6,614 pounds), have been responsible for most of the attacks that have taken place off Cape Town’s beaches in the past.

The Zimbabwean was swimming about 20 meters offshore when he was attacked,Talk Radio 702, a Johannesburg-based broadcaster, reported. His wife witnessed the incident and is receiving trauma counseling, it said.

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Cape Town – The NSRI has confirmed that a swimmer has been the victim of a shark attack at Fish Hoek beach near Cape Town.

Ian Klopper of the NSRI told News24 that an intensive search was underway to locate the swimmer, but had so far yielded nothing.

“A white male, between 32 and 38 years old has been taken by a shark and we have not been able to locate the patient,” Klopper said. The identity of the victim is still unknown.

Twitter users also confirmed the attack.

“Holy shit, we just saw a GIGANTIC shark eat what looked like a person right in front of our house in fishhoek. Unbelievable,” wrote skabenga.

Bathers have been warned by Cape Town Disaster management to be on the lookout for great white sharks which traditionally cruise this stretch of the coast at this time of year.

“The appearance of white sharks is normal during peak summer months in Cape Town near in-shore areas, as these sharks are known to hunt and feed along this stretch of coastline at this time of year,” spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said on Tuesday.

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VETERAN surfer Russell Specht has survived a terrifying face-to-face encounter with a monster great white shark stalking North Stradbroke Island.

The 52-year-old surfer, local lifesavers and island boardriders fear the huge man-eater was responsible for the horrifying shark-on-shark attack off the island, east of Brisbane, which The Sunday Mail featured in graphic photographs in late October.

The smaller 3m white pointer, snared on a baited drumline set off North Stradbroke’s busy Cylinder Beach, was almost bitten in half by the bigger shark.

Mr Specht, who has surfed for more than four decades on the island, said he and fellow surfers who were used to swimming with sharks had switched to predator alert.

“It was frightening. It was like a submarine heading towards me. I didn’t expect to live,” Mr Specht said.

He and several mates were surfing more than 100m off Main Beach when a younger boardrider shouted to them about the approaching monster.

“This thing came at me from behind. The other four guys with me, they took off to the beach and left me,” Mr Specht said.

“My first instinct was to paddle out to sea. Then I thought that this is not right, this is exactly what he wants me to do.”

Mr Specht bravely chose to sit quietly on his board and “eyeball” the shark – at least 4m long – as it came close enough to touch.

“He veered off, then he did a U-turn 10m away from me.

“I’m on a six foot three inch board. I’m thinking if he’s going to have a go at me he will eat me. But I thought you’re going to have to eat this board first,” Mr Specht said.

The champion surfer and Point Lookout Boardriders Club life member sat motionless on the board as the shark went directly under him, just 1m below, on its second pass.

Fellow surfers believe the same shark was hooked on a drum line off the beach later that day. The drumline “exploded” as the great white managed to free itself.

After spotting between 10 and 15 sharks off Main Beach in the past week, Mr Specht said he and other surfers were taking extra precautions and not surfing alone.

He said it was important to report his encounter just three weeks ago to warn holidaymakers that a dangerous great white shark was in local waters.

Surf Life Saving Queensland Gold Coast services co-ordinator Stuart Hogben, who has been on recent flights by the Westpac helicopter to North Stradbroke Island, supports Mr Specht’s suspicions about the great white being responsible for the attack on the other shark.

Mr Hogben saw several 2-3m sharks about 200-300m offshore along the island’s surf side during a flight last weekend. Other sightings were made off the Gold Coast.

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GOLD Coast surfer Nigel Hughes escaped from a shark attack in known Great White territory near Evans Head with nothing but an injured big toe.

Mr Hughes was bitten by the shark while surfing at Coffee Rock, north of Evans Head, at 7am on Sunday.

The 39-year-old deputy principal of Palm Beach-Currumbin State High School was holidaying in Evans Head with friends and decided to head out with them for an early morning surf.

Just as he was pushing himself up to stand on his board he felt the shark strike.

“I looked back to see if my foot was there,” said Mr Hughes, speaking from the Lismore Base Hospital where he was waiting last night to have surgery on his foot.

The shark sliced through Mr Hughes’ big toe which was left partly hanging from his foot.

After the attack he was able to catch a wave in to the beach.

His friends then helped him walk 200m to a car.

Mr Hughes said he could not tell exactly how much blood he was losing because his friends tightly wrapped his foot in a towel before taking him to hospital.

As he waited for surgery last night he remained remarkably calm for someone who had just been bitten by a shark.

He even said the attack would make the holiday ‘memorable’, and that he would not hesitate to hit the waves again in the future.

“I’ll definitely be getting back in the water,” he said.

Mr Hughes said he did not see the shark so he was not willing to speculate about what type it might have been.

Evans Head man Mick McGilvray said the shark was most likely a bronze whaler or a bull shark.

Both are known man-eaters, but Mr McGilvray said the shark that bit Mr Hughes would have been no bigger than two metres.

Mr McGilvray said the spot where Mr Hughes was surfing had murky water which sharks loved.

“It’s definitely a sharky area,” he said.

Mr McGilvray, who operates a chartered fishing boat, said between five and 10 sharks were caught on that stretch of beach between Evans Head and Broadwater each year.

He said he caught two Great White sharks nearby three years ago.

Another tourist lost his leg to a shark bite while swimming at Evans Head in the late 1980s.

“Mr Hughes was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr McGilvray said.

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SurfPulse just received a report from the Shark Research Committee of a shark attack in Santa Cruz on Thurs., Nov. 5:

On November 5, 2009 Eric Geiselman was surfing at Lagunas, just north of Santa Cruz. The following report was posted on the websiteSuper Spectacular Adventures by Geiselman:

“I don’t even know how to describe it. Everything happened so quickly! I was surfing with my brother Evan and Taylor Brothers at this wave called Lagoonas. The waves were sh..ty and it was raining. I wasn’t even that motivated to go out. Evan and Taylor were in typical ‘grom’ mode and wanted to have a paddle. Jay Thompson and a couple other guys were out surfing too. Right before it was getting dark everyone went in except us. I was sitting out the back just waiting for a wave. I had my back towards the ocean looking straight towards the beach to line up when it happened. Out of nowhere I got attacked from underneath. My board broke instantly right underneath me from the crazy force and I pretty much fell through my board but somehow managed to keep the front end under me. I knew right away I was being attacked and sort of just went into panic mode. I actually kicked it to when I was scrambling to get away. I was screaming to my brother who was about 30 yards away from me. My leash was still attached to the back end of my board when I was scratching to get away but, I was too scared to even reach back and undo it! What was so crazy is we weren’t even that far off the beach. Luckily I made it in to the shore. My buddy Mike Lopez and Taylor’s brother Cavin filmed me scratching once they heard me screaming. All that you can see on footage. Somehow my board didn’t get a bite in it?? Luckily it hit me by my fins so I think that might have spooked it. It was definitely the scariest thing that has ever happen to me. It’s crazy because it felt like a really bad nightmare. So scary to know how helpless you are in the water when something like that goes down! Thank God that’s all that happened!”

Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.

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A kayaker is lucky to be alive after being attacked by a four-metre great white shark in the ocean off Victoria’s south-west coast.

Rhys Gadsden was out for a morning paddle off Portland on Friday when he says a great white shark appeared from the deep and wrapped its jaws around his sea kayak, leaving giant puncture marks.

The 27-year-old was flipped off the kayak and spent a terrifying 15 minutes in the water by his kayak desperately hoping he would not be eaten alive.

‘‘I grabbed my oars, hit it in the head probably five to six times and it released it,’’ the Portland man told the Nine Network.

‘‘As soon as it released its bite it turned and headbutted me and knocked me over and put me in the water with it.

‘‘It was freaky being in the water, yeah, I didn’t know where it went, I didn’t know if it was going to come back.

‘‘I didn’t know what to do really, I didn’t want to splash around and make it come back.’’

Finally a nearby boat came to his rescue.‘‘It took me a while to calm down, I was shaking for hours after,’’ he said.

‘‘It was big, dark eyes, scary, evil, I never want to do that again.’’

Less than 24 hours after coming face to face with the great white, Mr Gadsden was brave enough to paddle out for a few metres into the water on Saturday for TV cameras.His friends have also nicknamed him ‘‘shark-bait’’.

Local surf life savers have conducted patrols of the harbour since the attack but have not spotted the shark.