An oceanic white tip shark badly mauled four Russian tourists swimming close to their beach hotels in two separate attacks at an Egyptian Red Sea resort, a local conservation official said on Wednesday.

Director of Sinai Conservation Mohammed Salem said the shark attacked two Russians swimming in the Ras Nasrani area near the famed Sharm el-Sheikh resort in the Sinai Peninsula and bit their arms off.

Shark (Illustration)

Photo by: AP

The same shark may also have been involved in an attack on another pair of Russians on Tuesday swimming close to the resort beach, he added.

The shark badly injured a middle-aged woman’s legs and back and bit off her hand. She had a heart attack and had to be resuscitated at the hospital.

The second victim, a 70-year-old woman was found with her right hand and left leg torn off.

Diving instructor Hassan Salem (no related to Mohammed Salem) said he was on a dive at the same time of the attack and was circled by the same shark before it went after the couple.

I was able to scare the shark away by blowing bubbles in its face, but then saw it swim to a woman and bite her legs, he told The Associated Press.

Salem said the water turned red with the blood from the attack, and he rushed to take the diver he was training out of the water.

All four victims were flown to Cairo for medical treatment and were in critical condition.

A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Cairo confirmed that two Russians were attacked Tuesday, but he was only aware of a single Ukranian involved in a shark attack the following day. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.

Mohammed Salem said coast guard authorities were hunting for the shark and have issued a warning for swimmers to stay out of the water in Sharm el-Sheikh, a famed scuba diving destination.

He said Egypt sees one to two fatal shark attacks a year and they increase as the number of tourists and swimmers in the water rises.

via Tourists maimed in Red Sea shark attack – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

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.

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.

Three Southern California beaches closed after a fatal shark attack Friday were scheduled to reopen this morning, and some surfers say they’ll be in the water.

Surf Beach, which is open to the public, and two beaches open to anyone with access to Vandenberg Air Force Base were closed Friday after a shark fatally injured Lucas Ransom, 19, of Romoland, Calif., as he was heading out to catch a wave on his boogie board.

The 72-hour closure expires at 9 a.m. unless officers of the base’s conservation law enforcement division, who have been patrolling the beaches and monitoring the ocean with binoculars, saw a reason to keep it closed, base spokesman Jeremy Eggers said.

A photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department showed a 13-inch chunk missing from Ransom’s board. The department said Ransom, a junior majoring in chemical engineering at the University of California-Santa Barbara, had a massive wound to his left leg.

Ransom was bodyboarding with friend Matthew Garcia when he was pulled under the water. He resurfaced with his leg nearly severed.

“When the shark hit him, he just said, ‘Help me, dude!’ He knew what was going on,” Garcia said. “You just saw a red wave and this water is blue — as blue as it could ever be — and it was just red.”

The incident chilled surfers.

“Twenty-five percent of the people who normally surf on the weekend were in the water,” said Bill Bookout, owner of the Pismo Beach Surf Shop about 40 miles north. “I’ve had about half the rentals I normally do.”

Despite beautiful waves, Book-out also stayed out.

“Sharks can travel up to 50 miles a day,” he said. “That shark could have been here Saturday.”

Daniel Dunaetz, who was working at the Surf Connection in Lompoc, just outside the base, said surfers are aware of the risks, but many still seemed rattled.

“Whenever people do talk about it, they’re real leery. They just seem scared,” Dunaetz said.

Authorities have issued several warnings this year after great white shark sightings up and down the California coast. There have been 12 fatal shark attacks in California since the 1920s, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.

“You’re way more likely to be hurt in an auto accident than to be hurt or killed by a shark,” said Andy Nosal, a biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Eggers said swimmers and surfers can improve their odds by not wearing anything shiny, such as jewelry or a reflective bathing suit, that can make them resemble fish, and by paying attention to other wildlife. “For example, if seals or dolphins are moving quickly toward shore, that could be a sign that a threat is near,” he said.

Bookout said he’d be surfing this morning.

“To surf is one of the most beautiful things we have in life,” he said. “The freedom you feel when you’re out there cannot be matched.”

via Despite shark attack, some set to surf as beaches reopen – USATODAY.com.

Not sure what exactly the mystery is here. It’s obviously a Great White. There aren’t many types of sharks that are 18 feet long. And the witness said it was grey on the top and white on the bottom…

(CBS/AP)  The huge shark that attacked and killed a body-surfer off the central California coast may have been a great white, a spokesman for the local sheriff’s office says.

The victim, Lucas Ransom, 19, was body-boarding two feet away from his friend, Matthew Garcia, who was surfing. Garcia says he heard a desperate cry for help. Within seconds, a shark flashed out of the water, bit into Ransom’s leg and pulled him under in a cloud of blood.

“When the shark hit him, he just said, ‘Help me, dude!’ He knew what was going on,” Garcia told the Associated Press as he recounted his friend’s death. “It was really fast. You just saw a red wave and this water is blue – as blue as it could ever be – and it was just red, the whole wave.”

As huge waves broke over his head, Garcia tried to find Lucas Ransom in the surf, but couldn’t. He decided to get help, but turned around again as he was swimming to shore and saw Ransom’s red body-board pop up. Garcia swam to his friend and did chest compressions as he brought him to shore.

The 19-year-old already appeared dead and his leg was mauled, he said.

“He was just floating in the water. I flipped him over on his back and under-hooked his arms. I was pressing on his chest and doing rescue breathing in the water,” Garcia said. “He was just kind of lifeless, just dead weight.”

The University of California, Santa Barbara, junior had a severe wound to his left leg and died a short time later on Surf Beach, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

The beach, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is on the property of Vandenberg Air Force Base, in Lompoc, Calif., but is open to the public.

Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the coastline to search for Ransom’s missing leg but were only able to recover the body-board, which had a 1-foot segment on the side bitten off.

Federal and state Fish and Game officials were working to identify the type of shark that attacked Ransom.

“The size of the teeth and the width (of the bite in the body-board) are going to help the experts determine what kind of shark this is,” Drew Sugars, of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, told co-anchor Chris Wragge on “The Early Show on Saturday Morning.” “We have not determined the type. The witness (Garcia) did say that the top of the shark was gray, the bottom was white. This is typically a great white, but we’re not in a position to confirm that, Hopefully, by Monday, we’ll be able to determine what type of shark this is, but the teeth marks will help us in that determination.”

Sugars says officials hope the shark itself “is long gone. We’re not going to search for it at this point.”

As is protocol at Vandenberg, he adds, the beach involved will be closed for three days. Nearby beaches have warning signs posted but remain open.

The ocean was calm and beautiful before the attack, with large wave sets that the friends had been tracking all week as they moved down the West Coast from Alaska, Garcia said.

The shark, which breached the water on its side, appeared about 18 feet long, Garcia said.

“There was no sign, there was nothing. It was all very fast, very stealth,” said Garcia, 20.

Authorities have issued several warnings this year after great white shark sightings up and down the California coast.

There have been nearly 100 shark attacks in California since the 1920s, including a dozen that were fatal, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. But attacks have remained relatively rare even as the population of swimmers, divers and surfers sharing the waters has soared.

The last shark attack on Surf Beach was in 2008, when what was believed to be a great white shark bit a surfer’s board. The surfer was not harmed.

The last fatal attack in California was that same year, when triathlete David Martin, 66, bled to death after a great white shark bit his legs about 150 yards off of a San Diego County beach.

Randy Fry, 50, died from a great white attack in 2004 while diving off the coast of Mendocino, north of San Francisco Bay.

In 2003, a great white shark killed Deborah Franzman, 50, as she swam at Avila Beach, about 30 miles north of Vandenberg.

via Killer Shark May Have Been Great White – The Early Show – CBS News.

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.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.  — The victim of a fatal shark attack at a beach northwest of Los Angeles cried out to his friend for help as the shark flashed out of the water with no warning, bit into his leg and pulled him under in a tide of red blood, the friend said Friday.

Matthew Garcia was two feet away from his friend, 19-year-old Lucas Ransom, when the shark attacked with no warning, he said. The whole attack lasted seconds while the pair were bodyboarding about 100 yards from the shore.

“When the shark hit him, he just said, ‘Help me, dude!’ He knew what was going on,” Garcia told the AP. “It was really fast. You just saw a red wave and this water is blue — as blue as it could ever be — and it was just red, the whole wave. Even the barrel was red.”

Lucas Ransom, shown in a 2007 photo from Murrieta, Calif., was killed in a shark attack Friday while boogie-boarding at a Vanderberg Air Force Base beach near Lompoc Calif.

As huge waves broke over his head, Garcia tried to find his friend in the surf but couldn’t. He decided to get help, but turned around once more as he was swimming to shore and saw Ransom’s red body board pop up. Garcia swam to his friend and did chest compressions as he brought him to shore.

Ransom already appeared dead and his leg was mauled, he said.

“He was just floating in the water. I flipped him over on his back and underhooked his arms. I was pressing on his chest and doing rescue breathing in the water,” Garcia said. “He was just kind of lifeless, just dead weight.”

The University of California, Santa Barbara, junior had a severe wound to his left leg and died a short time later at Surf Beach, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. The beach, 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is on the property of Vandenberg Air Force Base but is open to the public.

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Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the coastline to search for Ransom’s missing leg but were only able to recover the boogie board, which had a 1-foot segment on the side bitten off.

Ransom was from Romoland in Riverside County, in southern California.

Federal and state Fish and Game officials were working to identify the type of shark that attacked Ransom. -

Officials closed three beaches after the shark attack.

Airman 1st Class Daniel Clark, left, and Staff Sgt. Keri Embry, post a sign warning surfers of a recent shark attack Friday at Vandenburg Air Force Base, Calif.

The victim was a University of California, Santa Barbara student studying chemical engineering.

Federal and state Fish and Game officials were working to identify the type of shark that attacked. It was described by witnesses as being 14 to 20 feet in length.

Officials at Vandenberg closed Surf, Wall and Minuteman beaches for at least 72 hours, Lt. Ann Blodzinski told the Santa Barbara Independent.

In September 2008, base officials issued a 48-hour warning to beach users after a shark bit a surfer’s board at Surf Beach, according to the Santa Maria Times.

Base officials said at the time that they believed it was the first shark incident off Vandenberg, the newspaper reported.

Fatal shark attacks are rare in the area. A great white shark killed a woman in 2003 at Avila Beach, about 30 miles north of Vandenberg.

Great whites also killed two men in 2004 and 2008 at beaches in Mendocino and San Diego counties.

via Shark attack: Friend describes fatal scene – U.S. news – Life – msnbc.com.

When Jack Musick heard that a teen had been bitten while surfing off Sandbridge last month, he immediately got to work trying to pin down the culprit.

Could it have been a bull shark?

Probably not, concluded Musick, a professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who investigates shark attacks. They’re uncommon in Virginia.

How about a sandbar shark?

Not likely. They’re not very active and prefer to feed in deeper water.

Maybe a blacktip shark?

Bingo. According to Musick’s report, which he’s submitted to the International Shark Attack File in Florida, the attacker was probably a small blacktip or spinner shark, maybe even two.

Those species often visit Virginia’s waters in September, he wrote. They’re also active feeders and have been implicated in similar nonfatal attacks here, in Florida and elsewhere. The circumstances also fit, Musick said.

Caleb Kauchak, 18, was wading in chest-deep water next to his surfboard the afternoon of Sept. 24 when something latched onto his ankle, shook him and let go. He jumped onto his board and felt another bite, on his knee.

He needed 51 stitches. While his injuries have healed almost completely, the scars still draw lots of attention, Kauchak said.

The attack – in murky water during the time of day when sharks start to feed – was most likely a case of mistaken identity, Musick said. The shark probably thought Kauchak’s leg was a fish, and let go when it realized its mistake, he said.

“The shark was too small for it to have been a predatory attack,” Musick said. “Also, if that had been a large shark, the damage would’ve been a lot greater. It probably would have removed a limb or something.”

Shark attacks are rare in Virginia. In 2001, however, a shark fatally attacked a 10-year-old Richmond boy as he surfed with his father off Sandbridge, not far from where Kauchak was bitten. A 9-1/2 foot bull shark is believed responsible.

Whatever bit Kauchak was much smaller.

Blacktip sharks can get up to 5 feet 9 inches long and tend to live in shallow coastal waters from New England to Florida, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science website. Spinners can grow up to 9 feet 10 inches long and visit southern Virginia’s waters on occasion.

Those two species have been linked to 58 attacks on humans in the past 50 years, according to estimates by the International Shark Attack File, which tracks all shark bites worldwide. One, in 1973 involving a teen being bitten in the elbow while snorkeling and spearing crabs south of Sandbridge, was similar to the attack on Kauchak, Musick said.

With just three or four shark attacks in Virginia in the past 40 years, and millions of people in the water here over the years, Musick said the “probability of a shark encounter is miniscule.”

via Attack in Va. Beach was likely from 1 of 2 shark species | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.

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.

Alexander Alcantare loves animals, but he has the worst luck when it comes to handling them.

Having already lost one arm in an attempt to save some birds, the South Florida man nearly lost his other arm last night when he was bit by an alligator he was trying to help.

The incident happened around 9 p.m. Sunday when Alcantare spotted the gator in distress in some water near his home in Northwest Miami-Dade.

“I figured I’d trap it and try to get it some medical attention,” said Alcantare.

He went running to the rescue of the 8-foot alligator, which had been struck in the head with an arrow. Alcantare said it was roaming helplessly in the water.

“So I baited a hook, I got it, I brought it over here,” he said. But the gator wasn’t grateful, and it struck back.

“I couldn’t really handle him too good,” Alcantare said. “The guy I asked to help me, he got scared and let go of the rope and since I couldn’t secure his mouth, he got me.”

The gator got him on his good arm. Alcantare said he lost his other arm trying to rescue baby birds from an electrical fence that burned him so bad, his arm had to be amputated.

“That’s why I couldn’t handle him too good like before, but I did pull him out of the water,” he said.

He also called police, but when investigators arrived, they cited him for possession of an American alligator.

Now the man with an animal attraction is once again left hurt after trying to help.

“That’s what happens when you deal with wild animals, you’re going to get bitten,” admitted Alcantare, who was also attacked by a tiger once in the Congo.

Alcantare said since the gator bit him, wildlife officials will have to euthanize the gator.

via Gator Attacks Bad-Luck Animal Lover | NBC Miami.