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.

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.

Shark attacks 2 surfers in the Volusia County while swimming in the water. Both surfers have suffered injuries due to shark attack in Volusia County shoreline.

29 years old Jason Coffman was bitten on the hand by the shark while a 4 year old was bitten by shark on his left thigh. Shark attack is very common at the Volusia County. In fact the county has been given the title of shark bite capital of the world.

29 years old Coffman was bitten at the jetty at Ponace de Leon Inlet while he was off his board swimming in the water. The shark suddenly came from nowhere and bite his arm then surprisingly let him go but then again attacked him. He grabbed the board from free hand and swung it to free his other hand.

Coffman was later taken to the hospital where he received 24 stitches on his hand. Other surfer was also admitted to the hospital for the treatment.

There were usually high numbers of sharks in the region. Officials says that sharks may have come in the region due to Hurricane Earl.

via Shark Attacks 2 Surfers in Volusia County | Easy Destination Blog.

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.

Earlier this month, I had some fun with the Discovery TV Channel’s “Shark Week,” while pointing out – quite seriously – that we’re headed into “prime time” for shark attacks on the California coast. My post quoted shark authorities as saying that divers and surfers in wetsuits are the most likely accidental victims when sharks go cruising for a seal meal.

Uh, did somebody ring the dinner bell? Since then, there have been at least two documented incidents where sharks attacked and gnawed on kayaks, though the paddlers escaped injury. Does this mean coastal kayaking is too risky? NorCal Yak consulted a prominent aquatic scientist who offered some perspective and safety advice for kayakers, based on years of investigating shark incidents. First, the incident details:

Last Saturday, kayak fisherman Adam Coca of Pinole was near Pigeon Point when a shark believed to be a great white hit his boat. “I felt it hit the nose of my boat from below, like boom! Kaboom! Then it flipped the boat over…I held onto my boat and looked right into its eye,” Coca said. “The shark was at least as long as my boat.” See a detailed account and photos in The Santa Cruz Sentinel. And note this yak angler was in an Ocean Prowler – a stable, heavy, 13-foot sit-on-top that wouldn’t tip easily.

Earlier this month, veteran sea kayaker Duane Strosaker had paddled several miles out from Gaviota State Beach in Santa Barbara County when a great white chomped down on his kayak and held it for several seconds before releasing and swimming away. The hull was punctured and the paddler shaken, but he returned to shore safely. Strosaker is not your average recreational paddler – he often paddles several miles out to monitor oil rigs in areas where seals congregate. See the Strosaker blog with photos. He also filed a report with the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

For an expert reaction, NorCal Yak contacted Dr. John McCosker, chairman of the Department of Aquatic Biology at the California Academy of Sciences, who for many years has studied sharks and shark attacks on humans. He’s quite accustomed to public and media misperceptions about sharks. (For example, take this fear-inducing photo from the  Discovery Channel.)

via NORCAL YAK: Shark attacks on 2 California kayakers: Time to get out of the water?.

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.

The Summer of the Shark 2010 continues, with two fishermen recently claiming they snagged a Great White off the coast of St. Augustine. They say they had to cut it loose because their boat was not big enough. Florida’s shark authority is not surprised. University of Florida Biologist, George Burgess manages the International Shark Attack file at UF. He says these animals are not uncommon in Florida waters, although it is unusual to see them during the summer. For swimmers who are concerned about the water, Burgess says don’t worry, great whites— despite what you see in the movies— prefer today’s catch rather than the land lover special. Burgess says there are many other species of shark much more common to Florida’s coastal waters… He notes before summer’s end, we can expect to hear about more eye witness shark encounters… He says this is the case not necessarily because there are more sharks in the water, but simply because there are more people in the water, and more sharks in proximity to them this time of year.

via Great White spotted off coast of St. Augustine – News – AM850.com – WRUF AM – Gainesville, Florida.

BETHUNE BEACH — As Judy Fischman swam in the Atlantic Ocean here Thursday, she suddenly found herself lifted above the water on the back of a large dark animal.

“My first thought was ‘I hope this is a manatee,’ ” Fischman said Friday. “Then I saw the black tail.”

“Shark,” she thought. “Then I saw other sharks and I thought, ‘My God, how am I going to escape a whole group of sharks?’ ”

From her vantage point on the street overlooking the scene, Martha Williams wondered the same thing.

Williams and her husband Ron had stepped out of their car to look out at the ocean. They first noticed a woman swimming alone, a couple hundred feet off shore. It was about 7:15 p.m. Then, as they watched, she said sharks appeared in the water, swimming parallel to the shore between the beach and the lone swimmer.

“I said to Ron, ‘Oh my God, I hope they totally ignore her, just don’t even see her.’ Then all of a sudden they all veer off and they’re all heading to her,” Williams said Friday. “I about screamed and said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, they’re heading right to her, right to her.’ ”

As they watched, the ocean surface around Fischman erupted in churning water and the swimmer was suddenly lifted above the surface of the wave, arms and legs flailing, she said. “It was just so frightening.”

Back in the water, Fischman said she realized she “was on the back of a huge shark. There was another shark next to me.”

“I screamed,” she said, “but I don’t remember what I screamed.”

Fischman said she remembered advice she’d seen on television for fighting off sharks — giving them “a good punch and let them know you could hurt them.” She started punching the animal. As it seemed to roll on its side, she said it seemed to sort of wrap its tail around her.

“Then a wave came. All of a sudden they were gone,” she said. “They probably realized I’m not food and let go.”

“Maybe they thought I was a seal,” she said. “I had on a black bathing suit.”

Ron Williams ran down to the beach expecting to find the swimmer in need of medical attention, but instead she walked back to shore.

“It was really something,” Martha Williams said.

Fischman told her story to a Beach Patrol officer Thursday night, and on Friday afternoon, Fischman and Martha Williams spoke with George Burgess, director of the shark attack file at the University of Florida. Burgess isn’t yet sure what kind of animal surfaced under Fischman. He said it could have been a shark, or it could have been some kind of dolphin or small whale.

Williams and Fischman agreed to fill out witness statements for Burgess and he’ll try to figure out whether it was a shark encounter.

“It was possible it was a shark attack,” he said. “It’s also possible it was an encounter with a marine mammal.”

Sharks were spotted elsewhere in Volusia and Brevard counties on Thursday.Volusia’s Fischman swims regularly for exercise and said she often sees sharks. She likes to swim far enough out to get past the breakers, in water not quite 6 feet deep.

Fischman, a Bethune Beach resident since 2002, figured maybe a guardian angel was watching out for her. She emerged from the encounter with nothing but scrapes on her legs. And, she headed right back into the water on Friday afternoon.

She’s also had some close encounters with manatees during the past couple of years. “It’s very startling,” she said. “You can get lifted out of the water.”

via Woman: Shark took me for a ride – News.

CBS  Clayton Schulz told his worried mom nothing would happen when he was surfing — then something did. The 20-year-old pitcher for the University of North Florida was surfing with his girlfriend last Friday off Jacksonville Beach when a shark attacked his left foot. It took over 400 stitches to repair that damage. Pictures: Swimming with the Sharks On “The Early Show,” Schultz shared his story, saying first, hes pretty lucky to still have all five toes. He said hes lucky the shark reached his foot only. “Didnt even get into the ankle cavity,” he explained. “Tore all the flesh off, cut across the tendons, the four tendons across the top. Tore everything up, so it was pretty — you know, pretty — Im lucky to have a foot still.” The surgery took two doctors five-and-a-half hours to reattach everything except one tendon. Schulz, a surfer for eight years, said hes heard about shark attacks, but never imagined one coming after him. He said, “Sharks are always there, year-round, you see them jumping in the distance and stuff, but its never — you never think it would be you. Its such a rare — I mean, youre more likely to get struck by lightning, so its very rare. But you never think its going to be you.” Schulz explained he was surfing about 100 yards out when he caught a wave in to shore. Thats when he felt it: “All I really felt was teeth,” he said. “I dont remember everything exactly to the point, but — a lot of teeth.” He said he knew it was a shark. “I pretty much knew the way it grabbed my foot,” he said. “It was kind of violent. Didnt feel good.” After the shark let go, Schulz hauled himself onto his board, stunned. He said, “I told the others — there was another surfer there away from me and I yelled to him, I said, Man, I just got attacked by a shark, can you help me out here? He said, paddle in. I caught a wave in. He got the lifeguard. I crawled up on the beach, I waved at my girlfriend. She was laying there. I was like, Come on, I just got bit.” Jacksonville lifeguards ushered Schulz to an ambulance. As for the shark, Schulz said no one else saw it after his bite. Schulz said, “It went through my mind when I was paddling in, Is this thing following me? But, no, never saw it after that. You know, Im lucky. The surgeons did a great job. You know, when I first saw it after the surgery, it looks like a foot, still looks like a foot and it didnt look like a foot before.” The shark was so elusive, Schulz never even saw it — he only felt it. Schulz told “Early Show” co-anchor Erica Hill, “Never saw it. It was completely by surprise. You know, when you think shark, you think, you know, farther out than everybody else, but it was actually more in towards the shore. Thats why it really caught me off guard.” Will he surf again? “Yeah, I think I will,” Schulz said. “Its a scary thing, but the chance — if I get bitten twice, then — ” “Then you should look out for the lightning,” Hill joked. Schulz said, “Thats the sign I need to get out of the water.”

via Shark Attack Victim: “All I Felt Was Teeth” – The Early Show – CBS News.

MICKLERS LANDING, Fla. — St. Johns Fire Rescue said a swimmer was pulled from the surf at Micklers Landing about 11 a.m. Monday with an apparent shark bite.The middle-aged woman was in stable condition when transferred to the Mayo Clinic for treatment.Rescuers said the woman who was visiting from out of town was in chest-deep water when she saw the 3- to 4-foot-long shark coming directly at her. They said she blocked it with her arm, and the shark dug in.”She screamed, I just got attacked by a shark. Everybody get out of the water,” witness Jen Moe said. “She came running at me, screaming. I looked at her arm and it was just shredded.”Witnesses said about 50-75 people who were in the water at the time of the attack ran for the sand when the victim screamed.Video: Shark Attacks Woman In Surf Related Story: Expert Debunks Shark Repelling Myths”When we came out, I saw her arm was all bloody, and everyone was like, She must have gotten bit by a shark,” swimmer Matt Myers said. “And then all the lifeguards started blowing their whistles and telling everyone to come back in.”Rescuers said what made the shark attack unusual was that the water was crystal clear and, according to experts, shark attacks are usually the result of mistaken identity, but in this case it appears the shark was headed right for the woman.”She was in shock, literally, that fast. She was just holding her arm, screamed a couple times,” Moe said.The victim was able to walk to the beach where she was helped by lifeguards.Ironically, its Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and beachgoer Trecia Todd said that makes the attack even more odd.”We watched about two hours of survivors of shark bites, how they had punched them and bit them and got away and survived and was telling their stories, and we laughed about coming to the beach today and seeing a shark,” Todd said. “Ironically, we didnt see the shark, but theres evidence of sharks in the water.”If this were confirmed as a shark bite, it would be the third attack in local waters in the past two months. The previous two were at Jacksonville Beach, one on June 10 and another on July 23.

via Shark Shreds Tourists Arm – Jacksonville News Story – WJXT Jacksonville.

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.

Isle of Palms, SC — A teenager is recovering from a shark attack in the waters off South Carolina.

Alex Stamm, 16, went to the Isle of Palms on vacation from Indiana. He said he was in waist-deep water when he felt something biting his leg.

“At first, I was kind of like bewildered, like what was going on. And then I saw the bite itself and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s definitely a shark bite,’” Stamm described.

He has more than 40 stitches on his right leg.

Stamm said he believes his past shark tales are catching up to him. Last year he was in a bicycle crash and told people he was bit by a shark to sound cooler.

The state Department of Natural Resources says on average, there are four to five shark bites a year in South Carolina.

Last week, a 10-year-old boy from Pennsylvania was bitten by what an expert calls a shark at Myrtle Beach. In North Carolina waters, two 13-year-old girls have had stitches after bites at Wrightsville Beach and Topsail Island.

To avoid any problems, experts say you should not wear flashy jewelry in the water, especially around your ankles, and it’s best to avoid areas where people are fishing.

via Teen Bitten By Shark Off SC Coastdigtriad.com | Triad, NC | National and World News Article.

After someone was bitten by what is believed to be a shark off Jacksonville’s coast for the second time in six weeks, lifeguards and surfers are blaming it on more people in the water, not more sharks.

Clayton Schulz, a 20-year-old pitcher for the University of North Florida Ospreys, was surfing about 4:30 p.m. Friday when something snatched and shook his left foot.

He didn’t see what bit him, but Schulz said he could feel teeth and believed it was a shark. He was in stable condition this week at Shands Jacksonville hospital, where he got about 300 stitches to close the wounds.

“He’s doing well,” his father, Peter Schulz, said on Monday. He said he expects his son will be released from the hospital this week. Doctors have said they expect a nearly full recovery.

The attack is at least the second bite injury reported in Jacksonville Beach since June 10, when a woman was bitten in waist-deep water a few feet from shore. She was treated for a minor wound, which was described as an outline of a small mouth with teeth.

Officials aren’t sure it was a shark that bit Schulz. Barracudas, bluefish and stingrays can also bite, said Capt. Thomas Wright of Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue. Before June 10, it had been about four years since a shark attack was reported in Jacksonville Beach.

“It’s kind of unusual to have two bites that close together,” Wright said.

Likely, it’s because of the number of people in the water, he said.

There have been no official reports of shark bites in the Ponte Vedra Beach area. The last reported shark bite occurred there last year in the Vilano Beach area, said Jeremy Robshaw, spokesman for St. Johns County Fire Rescue.

Swimmers and surfers must use their judgment about entering the water. Beaches lifeguards post purple warning flags for dangerous marine life. But that’s usually when scores of jellyfish arrive and dozens of stings are reported, not when sharks are swimming around.

Sharks are always out there, Wright said.

“That’s where the sharks live,” he said. “You’re in their house. If you’re concerned about that, you shouldn’t be out there.”

When Schulz was bitten, a waist-to-chest-high swell had brought out more surfers than usual, said Mitch Kaufmann, director of the North Florida district of the Eastern Surfing Association. When the surf is decent, few places between Jacksonville Beach and Atlantic Beach aren’t crowded, increasing the chance of a shark attack, he said.

“Shark attacks are still so rare that you really don’t need to worry about it,” Kaufmann said. “You do need to be aware of sharks and keep your eye out, but there are more people in the water than ever, it seems like.”

Sharks are so common that some bites aren’t even reported, said Tim Ellis, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident and member of the First Coast Wavemasters Society.

In June, Matt Searcy, another surfer in his 20s, was attacked in the Ponte Vedra Beach area and received 30 stitches, but that received no media attention, Ellis said.

He was dismayed by the severity of Schulz’s wound. “That’s a major deal when it requires 300 stitches,” Ellis said. “Anytime you have a shark attack, people who don’t regularly go in the ocean hear about it and it makes them fearful.”

Jim Dunlop, who owns Mystic Surfboards custom board manufacturing in Jacksonville Beach, said he’s had plenty of brushes with sharks along the First Coast over the decades.

He has seen shark fins in the water, one that measured 8 feet from the dorsal to the tail fin, meaning the shark could have been up to 12 feet long.

“I’ve seen big sharks. They’re here,” Dunlop said. “You look at the beach any weekend with all the people wading around, I’m surprised there’s not more [attacks.]”

Kaufmann predicted the latest attack won’t harm enthusiasm for surfing.

On Saturday, the day after Schulz’s attack, 150 youths showed up for the Super Grom Clinic on the south side of the fishing pier to learn how to surf.

via More people in ocean in Jacksonville Beach area means greater shark attack risk, lifeguards and surfers say | jacksonville.com.

A 12-year-old girl died Tuesday after falling into floodwaters near Flagstaff, Arizona, authorities said.

Shaelyn Wilson had gone to see runoff from a flash flood around 2 p.m., according to the Coconino Sheriff’s Department. A younger sister ran back to tell the father that Shaelyn had fallen into a wash.

The family searched the area near where the girl fell and several agencies also took part in the search, according to Kelli Most, administrative specialist with the sheriff’s department.

The girl was found about a third of a mile from where she went into the water, and her father performed CPR until paramedics arrived. She was pronounced dead at Flagstaff Medical Center.

A massive wildfire last month made the area susceptible to flooding, said Most. “There’s just no greenery there” to prevent runoff, she said. The blaze charred 15,000 acres.

Several small streams pushed over their banks, and flash floods were threatening homes, according to CNN affiliate KPHO.

via Arizona girl, 12, dies in flooding – CNN.com.

Wilmington-area resident Steve Studer said he made an interesting find off Wrightsville Beach’s north end Thursday evening—a 5 foot shark gliding through Mason’s Inlet.

It was about 6:10 p.m. when Studer spotted the creature. He said he was flying up above the water in a powered paraglider. He captured an image of it as it moved parallel across the shorelines between Wrightsville Beach and Figure 8 Island.

“He was . . . in fairly shallow water and scampered off when I dropped down low on him,” Studer said in an email.

The Lumina News sent Studer’s photo to George Burgess, director of Florida’s Program for Shark Research and curator of the International Shark Attack File. Burgess said a photo wouldn’t be enough to identify the species. But the animal, he said, came from the family Carcharhinidae, which, in North Carolina, includes the blacktip, spinner, sandbar, blacknose, sharpnose, bull and tiger sharks.

Paul Barrington, director of husbandry and operations at the North Carolina Aquarium in Fort Fisher, said inlets are a major feeding ground for predatory animals, mainly because their dynamics tend to aggregate bait, thereby offering these creatures an aquatic smorgasbord of prey.

“High tide, low tide—it doesn’t seem to matter,” he said. “Where the food is, the apex predators are going to follow.”

Shark bites on humans are rare and are usually a case of mistaken identity, where the shark misinterprets human movement for that of its prey.

“They move quickly whenever they sense movement, but unfortunately sometimes what they’re grabbing turns out to be an arm or a leg,” Burgess said.

North Carolina has seen four documented shark bites so far this year, more than double its annual average. None of those were fatal.

The latest encounter, between 13-year-old Kendall Parker and an unknown species, occurred just south of Mason’s Inlet, where Studer reportedly captured his image.

Earlier this week, Burgess suggested northern predatory grounds had opened early due to above-average water temperatures, causing an unseasonable abundance of sharks along the North Carolina seaboard, he said.

via Lumina News – Wrightsville’s Newspaper Since May 2002.

A 10-year-old boy was reportedly bitten by a shark in Myrtle Beach on Monday morning.

Shark bite has not been confirmed as the source of the injury to the boy’s leg, but witnesses told TheSunNews.com that they saw a shark fin in the water just prior to the boy’s injury.

The report from Myrtle Beach comes just two days after a 13-year-old girl was bitten by a shark at Wrightsville Beach on Saturday. Her wounds required 40 stitches.

A Greensboro girl needed 60 stitches after she was bitten by a shark at Topsail Beach in June, and a Georgia girl was bitten by a shark in June in the water off Fripp Island, S.C.

The International Shark Attack File lists 35 attacks in North Carolina from 1935-2009. Eight of those attacks were in New Hanover County and eight were in Onslow County. There were none listed for Pender County, although that will change when the 2010 statistics are added. The site lists 64 attacks in South Carolina from 1837-2009. Eighteen of those attacks were in Horry County.

via Boy, 10, reportedly bitten by shark at Myrtle Beach – Captain StarNews – Wilmington Star News – Wilmington, NC – Archive.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: A man who survived a crocodile attack in Broome says he was curious about the animals because they came to him in his dreams.

Michael Newman nearly had his right leg taken off after he climbed into a crocodile enclosure at a wildlife park on Monday night.

The 36-year-old said he wanted to experience something he’d never done before.

David Weber reports.

DAVID WEBER: Michael Newman says that over the past few weeks he’s been having a lot of dreams about crocodiles.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: And the last dream I had was about a crocodile in the water, inside of my dream and he was in the water. He would’ve been like a two-and-a-half metre crocodile in my dream. And I picked up a big stone and a sound come out of the water and said ‘Where do you come from?’ and I threw the stone in the water and the crocodile swum off.

And ever since then I’ve had, um… I’ve had a way of trying to see a real crocodile because I hadn’t ever seen a real crocodile in my lifetime.

DAVID WEBER: Mr Newman says he decided on Monday night after he’d had a few beers that he might go into the wildlife park.

He says he was looking for two crocodiles he’d seen before.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: So I kept on walking around and I seen this really big alligator – the five metre one -over the fence, and he wasn’t far from the fence and I tried putting my hand through the fence to just feel it, the skin, what the skin feels like. So I couldn’t reach it and I thought to myself ‘Well, I’ll jump the fence and go from behind its tail and pat it and sit on its back’.

DAVID WEBER: That decision nearly cost him his life.

Fatso the Crocodile weighs about 800 kilograms.

He did not react well to having a strange man in his pen, as Mr Newman explains.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: Before I even just slightly touched its back, it already had me. It grabbed my leg here. Yeah I got a bandage on and it’s really like severe bites – all the skin here was ripped off and um, put a big hole through the sides of my leg here and I think they stitched it up.

DAVID WEBER: Michael Newman says the crocodile lost interest in him and went for his torch, and this gave him time to climb out of the enclosure.

MICHAEL NEWMAN: Then I’ve jumped the fence, and I kept on walking around in circles trying to get out.

Then I went to another fence and as I grabbed onto the other fence I’m thinking ‘If I climb this one, I’m out of here’, another croc’s come out and gone “ROAR” and I thought ‘Shit, that’s the wrong way out of here’.

And I’m walking and walking and I went past this incubating place, where they’re incubating the crocodile eggs. It was all lit up and they’re making babies in the eggs there. Then I looked over to my left and I seen the city, the lights, and then I remembered the way I got in.

So that way I went out and I climbed out that way and I felt the blood splurting out of my leg and as I’m putting pressure on my leg, I can feel on the side of all my kneecap that it’s all cracked and shattered.

DAVID WEBER: Now he’s been through several drips of antibiotics to combat any potential disease.

Malcolm Douglas, who runs the park, says the man’s lucky to be alive.

MALCOLM DOUGLAS: What can you do?

If someone wants to break into something, wouldn’t matter whether you had, we had triple… Well, we had three lots of fencing, he basically got through, it wouldn’t matter what you did. If you were that sort of person, there’s not a lot you can do about it is there?

They want to do something brave, they want to do something stupid, they want to do something to tell their mates. It would’ve been a shocking way to die and it would’ve been incredibly upsetting for me and our staff and family, and especially the whole of Broome. We don’t want things like this to happen.

DAVID WEBER: Fatso the crocodile is seemingly oblivious to his new-found fame.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: David Weber.

via PM – Man narrowly escapes drunken spree in croc pen 14/07/2010.

Port St. Joe – Single red flags were flying at St. Joseph State Park when a man, his son, and his brother-in-law waded into the waist deep water. A short time later, the man would be dead, and his brother in law hospitalized.

Although names are being held pending the family’s notification, the drowning happened around noon, shortly after a 53-year-old man, his 21-year-old son, and his 49-year-old brother in law waded into the surf. Although the trio was in waist deep water, they got caught up in a rip current, and were dragged away from the shore.

A beach goer noticed that they were in trouble, and called 911. Then other beach goers, park rangers, and DEP Police all responded, pulling the men to shore, where they began to perform CPR on the 53-year-old man. From the beach, he was transported to Sacred Heart Hospital Port St. Joe, where he was pronounced dead at 1:10 p.m.

The son was treated and released, the man’s brother in law was airlifted to Bay Medical Center in Panama City, where he’s listed in stable condition.

via Rip current costs a man his life in Gulf County.

NAPLES — Beside Alligator Alley in Golden Gate, there is a canal that locals have named “the Crystal.”

Tracy Cusick, 39, and Chris Kight, 49, parked their van and set their white plastic chairs underneath a shade tree beside the Crystal, their favorite swimming hole, to enjoy some “tranquility.”

Cars repeatedly swoosh by on the interstate, but the trees act as a buffer between the couple and civilization.

“Normally when they drive past they, blow their horn at us,” Kight said.

In some places of the canal, the clear water makes it easy to see the bottom. Fish dash by and the surface of the water sometimes ripples as they go. In other parts, which Kight thinks can be as deep as 40 feet, the water is mysterious and dark.

Cusick and Kight have visited the Crystal to swim, fish and meet with friends for about 20 years, but they are worried they may have to fight to keep the swimming hole open after a gruesome alligator attack on Sunday left a young man without a hand.

Tim Delano, 18, was attacked by a 10-foot alligator while swimming in the canal with friends Sunday evening. The gator clamped its mouth around Delano’s left hand and then severed it when the teen got away.

Friends drove Delano a couple of miles to get help. Delano was airlifted to Lee Memorial Hospital, where he is recovering. A tracker, sent by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, later trapped and killed the gator.

Delano wants people to stop swimming at the Crystal. “I hope they shut it down, so no accidents like this will happen again,” he said.

Kight said what happened to Delano was a first.

“It was a freak accident,” Kight said.

Although Cusick and Kight were the only mid-afternoon swimmers at the Crystal Monday, Kight said there were about 75 people there Sunday.

People were listening to music, barbecuing and swimming in the canal, according to the couple.

“It’s just a hangout,” Kight said.

Parents bring their children to swim and fish.

“The kids are never unattended,” Cusick said.

The day of the accident, Kight and Cusick left before it got dark, around 7 p.m., because they won’t swim in the Crystal past sunset.

“A gator feeds at night like a shark does,” Kight said.

Unlike Delano, they have seen gators in the waters before. “Any canal you go in there’s a chance,” Kight said.

Kight learned what happened to Delano from a television news report later that night. He knew it was the Crystal right away.

“I recognized a tree,” Kight said.

There’s still a dried pool of blood where Delano stood after he got out of the water. Kight pointed it out on the dirt road. He said they are glad Delano survived, but they’re worried their favorite swimming hole won’t.

“It would really bother me if they shut it down. There aren’t places to swim,” Cusick said.

She thinks it might be a good idea to post signs warning people about the potential dangers or to let them know what to do to stay safe.

“Everyone knows anyway, but to refresh their memories,” Cusick said.

But if there is a push to ban people from swimming in the Crystal, Kight said he’d start a petition to fight it.

“There will be a lot of people to sign it,” he said. “It’s the last swimming hole we have in Naples.”

via PHOTOS: Alligator attack doesn’t deter locals from swimming in the Crystal » Naples Daily News.

GOLDEN GATE ESTATES — An 18-year-old Golden Gate Estates man, who lost his hand after an alligator attack in the Estates on Sunday night, may be getting back what he lost.

Timothy J. Delano, 18, was swimming in a drainage canal called “The Chrystal” near the intersection of Everglades Boulevard and 42nd Avenue when a 10-foot alligator bit his left hand off, said FWC spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro.

Delano and two companions fled the canal and went to a gas station at Wilson and Golden Gate boulevards to call 911 at approximately 9:30 p.m., said Collier Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman Cherie Wilson-Watson.

Delano was airlifted to the Lee Memorial Hospital trauma center in Fort Myers by Collier EMS, officials said.

Ferraro said a trapper was able to find the attacking alligator last night. The gator was “harvested” and the victim’s hand was found in its stomach.

Attempts could be made to reattach the Delano’s hand, Ferraro said.

“Our goal is always to make a person whole again,” she said.

Delano is in good condition, reported Lee Memorial spokeswoman Pat Dolce.

Ferraro said people should recognize that any fresh water body in Florida could have alligators. She said those animals are most active at dawn and dusk.

via Alligator bites 18-year-old’s hand off; gator caught and hand recovered » Naples Daily News.

READINGTON TWP. — In July 1960, a sand tiger shark attacked then 24-year-old John Brodeur and ripped through his right thigh as he stood in the ocean at the Sea Girt beach.

50 years later, the Readington Township resident is grateful he lived through it to experience 40 years of marriage with his wife Celine, and life with his four children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

“I’m very happy with my life. It was just an incident along the way,” said Brodeur, a retired accountant, who has been featured in books about sharks and was once a guest on the “O’Reilly Factor.”

Brodeur was told the shark had been a 12- to 17-foot sand tiger shark, judging from the teeth marks in his leg, At the time of the attack, he was standing farther out than other bathers, his feet firmly planted in the sand.

“I ride waves and I was getting ready to ride a wave in,” Brodeur said. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I saw this big black thing coming toward me — I thought it was a telephone pole,” he said. The shark was long and black, and there had been a bad storm earlier that week.

When the shark bit him, Brodeur slapped the top of the shark’s head with his hand, and “eventually it let go,” he said.

“The lifeguard pulled me out of the water and then dropped me in the sand,” Brodeur continued. “My right thigh was all torn open.”

Celine Brodeur, who was not present at the time but knows the story well, said the young lifeguard panicked. “It’s not every day you get a shark attack,” she said.

A Marine veteran named Norman Porter, from the Bronx, took his belt off and used it to apply a tourniquet to Brodeur’s leg to slow the bleeding until he could be taken to the hospital. Because his nerves were severed and he was in shock, Brodeur does not recall feeling much pain.

He still thinks highly of Porter. “He saved my life. I was a lucky man.”

Celine noted that Porter has passed away, “but he’s been my husband’s hero.”

Brodeur’s leg had to be amputated, and he spent three months recovering in the hospital. Now with a prosthetic leg, he can’t run, but he can walk, and he enjoys playing tennis.

“I still go to the beach,” he said. In fact, the Brodeurs and their children will be taking a family vacation in Cape May this summer.

“He never, ever let one thing stand in his way,” his wife said. “It was never a handicap to him.”

In spite of the attack, John said he has always loved swimming in the ocean. But he warns other swimmers to be careful, especially because it is not always true that sharks will only attack someone who is already bleeding.

“Make sure that there are lifeguards, and other people in the water,” Brodeur warned.

via Shark attack!!! 50 years later, Readington man tells of having his leg mauled | NJ.com.

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.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

WEST ASHLEY, SC (WCSC) — What started out as an early morning dog walk turned in to a battle of life or death for William Belch of West Ashley.

Belch said he was walking his grandchildren’s German Sheppard, Dutchess, near a community pond in the Hamilton Grove subdivision around 7 a.m. Sunday.  Suddenly, according to Belch, a sharp movement in the water caught the attention of Dutchess who broke free from his grasp and headed directly toward the water.

“It was so quick!” recalled Belch.  “Like a snake striking out!”

Within seconds, what Belch described as an eight foot alligator had Dutchess in its jaws, dragging the 80-pound dog into the water.

“I knew it was my grandchildren’s dog and that I would have no way of explaining to them that [the dog] had been killed by a gator, so I just reacted on instinct.”

Which meant Belch was going to get in the water. He spent the next 30 seconds in a three-way tug of war; one hand pulling Dutchess, the other thrashing the alligator on the nose.

After a trip to a local veterinarian Dutchess will make a full recovery. The dog has some scarring on her legs and skull.  While animal safety is a top concern, admits Belch, it’s not his only worry.

“The neighborhood is lined with houses, all filled with small children,” Belch said.  “Something is going to happen. Something tragic. I just know it.”

Belch’s daughter, Joanna Robbs, said she has called her homeowners association as well as the Department of Natural Resources about alligator problems in the past.

“Usually they tell us [the alligators] are more afraid of humans and pets than anything else,” Robbs said. “Clearly, this isn’t the case.”

Robbs and Belch both say that, in their observation, the alligators that do inhabit the pond make their way from a heavily wooded swamp area that surrounds much of Hamilton Grove.  Robbs also said that the Department of Natural Resources has told her that due to the close proximity of the alligators natural habitat to the neighborhood, it is hard to do anything drastic about the situation.

“They expect us to live side by side, but that just isn’t safe,” Robbs said.  “An alligator can grab an 80-pound dog, it can grab a 50-pound child.”

Both Belch and Robbs agree killing the alligators is not the best method of control, however.

“Fences, barricades, something,” Belch said. “Something has to be done before it is too late.”

Follow up calls to the Department of Natural Resources and the local homeowners association will be made when offices resume business on Monday Robbs said.

via West Ashley alligator attack spikes safety concerns – CHARLESTON, SC NEWS – LIVE 5 WCSC Breaking News, Weather, Sports.

WEST ASHLEY, SC (WCSC) — What started out as an early morning dog walk turned in to a battle of life or death for William Belch of West Ashley.

Belch said he was walking his grandchildren’s German Sheppard, Dutchess, near a community pond in the Hamilton Grove subdivision around 7 a.m. Sunday.  Suddenly, according to Belch, a sharp movement in the water caught the attention of Dutchess who broke free from his grasp and headed directly toward the water.

“It was so quick!” recalled Belch.  “Like a snake striking out!”

Within seconds, what Belch described as an eight foot alligator had Dutchess in its jaws, dragging the 80-pound dog into the water.

“I knew it was my grandchildren’s dog and that I would have no way of explaining to them that [the dog] had been killed by a gator, so I just reacted on instinct.”

Which meant Belch was going to get in the water. He spent the next 30 seconds in a three-way tug of war; one hand pulling Dutchess, the other thrashing the alligator on the nose.

After a trip to a local veterinarian Dutchess will make a full recovery. The dog has some scarring on her legs and skull.  While animal safety is a top concern, admits Belch, it’s not his only worry.

“The neighborhood is lined with houses, all filled with small children,” Belch said.  “Something is going to happen. Something tragic. I just know it.”

Belch’s daughter, Joanna Robbs, said she has called her homeowners association as well as the Department of Natural Resources about alligator problems in the past.

“Usually they tell us [the alligators] are more afraid of humans and pets than anything else,” Robbs said. “Clearly, this isn’t the case.”

Robbs and Belch both say that, in their observation, the alligators that do inhabit the pond make their way from a heavily wooded swamp area that surrounds much of Hamilton Grove.  Robbs also said that the Department of Natural Resources has told her that due to the close proximity of the alligators natural habitat to the neighborhood, it is hard to do anything drastic about the situation.

“They expect us to live side by side, but that just isn’t safe,” Robbs said.  “An alligator can grab an 80-pound dog, it can grab a 50-pound child.”

Both Belch and Robbs agree killing the alligators is not the best method of control, however.

“Fences, barricades, something,” Belch said. “Something has to be done before it is too late.”

Follow up calls to the Department of Natural Resources and the local homeowners association will be made when offices resume business on Monday Robbs said.

via West Ashley alligator attack spikes safety concerns – CHARLESTON, SC NEWS – LIVE 5 WCSC Breaking News, Weather, Sports.

An environmental scientist had his jaw broken during an alligator attack while snorkeling in the Silver River Tuesday but was otherwise recovering from the attack Wednesday.

Peter Butt was in fair condition Wednesday and is expected to make a full recovery from a bite by the 11 1/2-foot reptile, said Wes Skiles, owner of Karst Environmental Services, an Alachua County firm that Butt and Skiles started in 1987.

“He is expected to make a full recovery,” Skiles said. “It was a completely out-of-nowhere attack. It was just bam.”

The attack happened about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday as Butt, 54, was checking water samples when the alligator attacked, biting him in the neck.

Butt was flown by helicopter to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. A trapper worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to locate the alligator Tuesday night, after which the 500-pound reptile was killed.

In addition to the broken jaw, Butt had cuts and bruises from the bite, according to the Shands statement.

Butt was working on the Silver River with a colleague, Tom Morris, as part of Karst’s ongoing work concerning water quality and the aquifer.

Morris had checked water samples in that area just a short time before Butt did. Morris called for help when the gator attacked.

There was speculation Wednesday as to the factors that might have contributed to Butt’s encounter with the alligator. But those familiar with gators suspect bad luck was the primary factor.

The attack, which occurred outside the Silver Springs attraction, had no correlation with alligator mating season, which starts in mid-April and lasts until around mid-July, according to Lindsey Hord, an alligator biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and a coordinator for the agency’s statewide Nuisance Alligator Program. Likewise, he said there is no factual basis for the notion that alligators display aggression because of territoriality.

Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the FWC, said Butt is an experienced diver and had been coming to the same site for a few months.

“You can be careful and experienced and still get [bit],” she said. “Wild animals are unpredictable.”

Swimming at dusk, at night and early in the morning can put people at risk because those are alligator feeding times. However, Butt was snorkeling at around 5 p.m., so Hill said she thinks it was just bad luck in this case.

FWC’s policy is to remove any unprovoked alligators that have endangered a human’s life, Hill said. Those alligators are dubbed “nuisance” after they have bitten someone.

FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program issues a permit to remove a nuisance alligator after evaluating the report of the attack.

“We value human life over the alligators,” Hill said. “And there are no shortages of the alligators.”

There are about 1.3 million alligators in Florida, according to the FWC website. Of the 517 recorded alligator bites that have occurred since 1948, just 22 were deadly.

The total number includes unprovoked and provoked bites; the latter includes bites that happened while alligators were being handled or intentionally harassed. The last fatal bite was recorded in 2007.

“It’s very unlikely to get bitten by the alligator at any time,” said Hord, the alligator biologist. “Alligators are not something people should have an irrational fear of.”

After the alligator attacked Butt, it stayed in the same place in the Silver River until Jerry Ziegler and Al Roberts, gator trappers for the FWC, arrived a couple of hours later.

By not leaving, the 11 1/2-foot-long reptile showed no fear of humans, which suggested that the alligator was accustomed to being around people, Hill said.

Most of the time, alligators stay in the same place after an attack, Hord said. He said alligators become more habitual over time when exposed to people who don’t threaten them. Feeding the alligators speeds up the habitual behavior and is illegal.

Ziegler, a licensed nuisance alligator trapper, said he and his partners, Roberts and Will Parker, sold the meat and hide to B&W Meats, a processing facility in Hawthorne, soon after they trapped and killed the alligator.

Ziegler, who has been catching alligators since August 2009, said this trapping wasn’t much different from others he has done. The trappers set up bait for the alligator and caught the animal pretty quickly.

“We go out after gators all the time,” he said. “It’s what we do.”

via Victim of gator bite is in fair condition | Ocala.com.

Nuisance Gator Trappers for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Jerry Ziegler, left, and Al Roberts, right, move an 11 and a half foot Florida Alligator in the back of a pickup truck after trapping and killing the large male after the gator attacked Pete Butt at Silver Springs Attraction in Silver Springs, Fla. on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. Butt was taking water samples for the St. John’s River Water Management District when he was attacked by the gator in an area of water called the Fort King Canal. Butt was airlifted to Shands in Gainesville with a possible broken jaw and serious face and neck lacerations.

via A researcher was snorkeling in the Silver River on Tuesday when an alligator bit his neck and possibly broke his jaw. | Gainesville.com.