[Salty Dog]

My good friend came down from Michigan to spend the long weekend at my place and he wanted to go to Va Beach. We were heading along and out of no where we decide to go to the Outer Banks in NC instead. We saw this on the news on a bar TV in Red Lobster. The whole meal we had a creepy feeling and discussed the topic of things happening for a reason many times. I feel badly for the kid and his family but honestly I can't help think of how many times I have been on that same sand bar and even farther out. This kid not only had the unreal bad luck to get bit........the shark hits his femoral artery to boot!! Instead of a bad scar he is dead. This has been a weird night for me and I'm not really sure what I am feeling, just glad I am still typing I guess.


http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/02/sha...ack/index.html


Man am I glad I suggested the Banks

[MEC]

Theres definately something wierd going on with the sharks. Seems there are more of them arround this year, and in bigger schools. Looks like they are taking a liking to human flesh too.. Is it possible that their normal preditors are dying/being killed off????
Its always good to listen to that little voice in youre head Salty..
...Mike

[petpoor]

Even the outer banks in N.C. isn't safe, saw there was an attack today that killed a man and critically wounded his wife.

[Salty Dog]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/622987.asp?0NI=-33&ta=y


WTF IS GOING ON WITH THESE SHARKS?????????


Something is definately going on in the ocean and they better figure out what it is or we are going to have a ton of dead sharks very soon. If they start attacking at places where money is the primary factor (Spring Break........Resorts) They will start whiping them out

[orion25]

I do not believe there are any natural predators for sharks other than age and humans. Of course I may be wrong, I'm no marine biologist or anything.

Ryan

[cod]

I think it has somthing to do with these dive tours that feed sharks. Bears and deer in national parks become conditioned to associating humans with food. Why not sharks?

I read a story a while back about a group of divers in the Bahamas who inadvertantly went down in a spot where a dive tour feed grouper. These experienced divers thought it was odd when several grouper, an ordinarily shy fish, approched, and swam around them without reserve. Two of the divers wound up getting bitten. Other than some abrasions, and having the crap scared out of them no real damage was done.

[ranaman]

Nothing abnormal is going on with sharks. Every year in daytona there are alot of bites most minor a few severe, and a rare fatality. I think what has changed is the amount of news coverage given to the problem. Hell the Condit thing seems to be running out of steam, and something got to fill air time. Given human stupidity and more people visting the ocean conflicts will arise. Splashing around at dusk in the ocean might not be the smartest thing to do. We had a gator attack that happened at 10pm with some chick on a boogie board can you say trolling for gators.
People get real stupid with wildlife, out in Montana I saw a book called DEATH IN YELLOWSTONE that was all the entertaining ways people have managed to get killed in the national park. One thing I remember was a tourist asking a ranger If the animals were tame, because you surely if they were wild you wouldn't let them run loose.
Back to sharks, while in Kauai we had breakfast in a diner run by surfers. I noticed a surf board with a large crescent bite mark dated something like Nov.1999. Yo dude look what that tiger did to my board. Bet you never read about that one, but if it happened now it would be all over the news.

[Salty Dog]

You have to admit that sooner or later you have to stop calling it coincidence or a media spin when people are getting killed in places for the first time in 30-40 years.

I was actually shocked when I lived in St Pete for almost a year at the number of attacks I kept seeing on the news. If anything I think Florida has done a great job of keeping these attacks quiet for so long. Before I lived there I rarely remember hearing about shark attacks on the news. Of course in NY you just don't see that many sharks unless they want to learn to ski

The problem is now that these attacks have happened in a place not used to hearing about it every summer like Fl residents are. When I was in Fl a attack report would barely cause someone to look up from the morning paper but when it happens in unusual spots the media coverage is inevitable.

[chromis]

I'm with ranaman, there is nothing going on with the sharks. What used to be small paragraphs buried deep within the newspaper is now being blown into large stories filled with graphic pictures. What do you expect with more and more people on the earth? Not even a year ago a woman was bit by a shark on the outer banks. There was a fair sized story then everyone forgot about it. When you step in the ocean, you are in the shark's habitat, dont forget that.


IMHO
Andrew

[Salty Dog]

If someone was only bit this time I'm sure the article would have been just as small and not headline stuff. This was not a bite, someone is dead and his wife is in critical condition. Not to mention until recently I highly doubt anyone.....including the sharks considered waist deep water to be territory of the sharks. People have been swimming in these beaches for years and sure bites and mistakes happen and frequently due to stupidity of humans but these seem more simialar to attacks then accidental bites.

[mastaJ]

You know what I think (if it matters, lol) of course all of this is IMHO

I think that it has something to do with fisherman that OVERfish some species, (no offense to fisherman) I believe this screws up the whole dang food chain and the top of the chain suffers (the sharks) so they have to find a different source for food (people).

On a show I was watching they had ALL kinds of different fish for sale in an auction in China, there were sooooo many fish there it was incredible.

I actually have been thinking of this for several days now when I heard of so many "attacks". Of course all of this could be (and probably is) wrong...

[ranaman]

MOST SHARK ATTACKS HAPPEN IN SHALLOW WATER! Chase a school of fish into less than three feet of water and you have an easy meal. Some of the shark bites that occour in FL have happened in only a foot of water. BTW the size of most of these biters are around three feet long. Think about the size of a target you are in waist deep water. You will look much smaller than you really are to a shark. In a foot of water you are just two bite sized bits. Smaller than me = food, bigger than me = something that might eat me.
Every year in Florida we are treated to eyewitness news chopper photos of sharks swimming with people. "GEE BOB, I WOULDN"T SWIM THERE!" "RIGHT YOU ARE MARLA! , COMING UP CENTRAL FL's DIRTIEST RESTURANTS "
While a fatal attacks are rare, chains of attacks are not unheard of such as the case of the shark attacks off of new jersey in the 1930's that inspired JAWS
When I got scuba certified the instructor joked the best way to avoid a shark attack was to be in a group, since the atttack would most likely happen to someone else. The fish most likely to attack you in the florida keys is the dusky damsel fish. The same instructor said if they grew to three feet we'd have problems. Most of the damselfish attacks happen with the fish biting a diver to protect its eggs.

[Salty Dog]

I realize that most attacks happen in the shallows. What I was saying is that I don't consider the shallows "shark territory". If this were the case then spring break would be the ultimate blood bath every year. Millions and millions of people swim in shallow water every year around the country without incident so I would say that it is not shark territory or attacks would be far more common. If people were getting killed every day just by going into a few feet of water no one would ever be surprised. We all know that is not the case and when a shark does come in close and attack someone people want to know why?? Why this time? Why this person?? Why do people and sharks swim near each other everyday and then all the sudden an attack occurs?? Then you add the fact that it happens in unusual places and close together and most people don't want to hear the word coincidence even if it may be true.

I have seen the footage as well. It only makes me think that something has changed recently to effect the behavior of these fish. They have been swimming in the same water as us for A LONG TIME and never seem too interested and if they did bite us by mistake they quickly left the sceen when they realized what they bit. Now it seems they are taking more of an interest in the humans that share the water with them and when they are biting they are not letting go quite as fast.

Less food?? Warmer water?? Competition?? Who knows but I sure hope we don't ignore this until people get scared to even go in the water because then they will just start killing them and no one wins in that case

One thing is for sure..........you can't blame a shark for searching for and eating food. That's ALL they do.

[schrocat]

I can only speak of the shark population on the East coast of Florida from Mayport to Daytona Beach...

My dad has an airplane or two, we often fly low over the coast.
The shark population does not appear to differ from past Summers.
Same amount of sharks, same places.
The same surfers in the same spots with the same shadows right next to them...

As a youth, I had several friends who had encounters with unknown dark shadows that resulted in wounds.
(my worst marine visitor was a jelly fish which got sandwiched between me and my surfboard as I started to paddle out...)

The Local and National reporting of these encounters by the media was non-existant.

I guess this kept the unwarranted hysteria in check.

Had they reported every surfer with a cut foot (like today), I honestly feel we have had much "worse" statistics to mill through in the recent past.

l8r

[chromis]

Salty Dog, please go do some research, and stop watching Jaws. You may not notice it but you are coming off as really uneducated on this topic.

[Biomanjcs72]

The Number of shark attacks is normal, and actually below what it was this time last year. Last year, a man got his arm bitten off in Gulf Shores AL, a short time laster in the summer, a man somewhere on the gulf coast of the Fl peninsula, was swimming 5 feet from his pier when he got hit, he bled to death on his pier. Both of these, while tragic, didn't make much news stories except locally...It's a slow news summer guys, no election, no war, etc...slow news summer = shark attacks get more attention.

[Salty Dog]

Originally posted by chromis
Salty Dog, please go do some research, and stop watching Jaws. You may not notice it but you are coming off as really uneducated on this topic.

You may not notice but I couldn't care less


Do you think I started this topic to discuss the unlimited facts and figures about sharks that I research and document in my spare time??

Here it is in a nutshell..........i was going to a beach but decided on a different beach. Both beaches had people killed at them one day apart. It creeped me out thinking I could have been the unlucky one in the wrong place at the wrong time. I lived in Florida last year and IMO it seems like shark attacks are more common today. That may very well be media and it may not be. I am the one who said I hope they decide it is either normal or find out what is wrong instead of just creating panic which always results in rash decisions.

Chromis all I have stated here are my opinions. You are taking this way too seriously. Calm down and don't worry about anyone hurting your friends the sharks.

I didn't know you had to have a Master's in shark behavior to tell people you were at the beach where someone got eaten

[chromis]

I was, obviously referring to your later posts where you try to explain shark habitat, feeding behaviors, you started out OK, but please dont try to tell me how sharks are starting to like human flesh and are now patrolling the eastern seaboard for fresh blood, that is right out of Jaws. The simple answer to more(even though this year is fairly normal) shark attacks is that more and more people are going to the beach as the population grows.

Andrew

[FISHme]

Bio hit the nail on the head about shark attacks being on a normal pace as far as the numbers world wide for this time of year.
Nothing unusual going on !!!!!

[Salty Dog]

Originally posted by chromis
please dont try to tell me how sharks are starting to like human flesh and are now patrolling the eastern seaboard for fresh blood, that is right out of Jaws.

Andrew

You got all that from me saying this.......

Now it seems they are taking more of an interest in the humans that share the water with them and when they are biting they are not letting go quite as fast.

Andrew.......It's just an opinion man don't be so easily offended


All I was trying to say is that attacks are more common then people probably think but they are usually bites or scrapes and gashes. In the last few weeks the headline grabbers have been an arm ripped off and 2(nearly 3) deaths. That is not a accidental bite IMO. To kill someone that shark needs to hang on and do a lot of damage by thrashing and ripping at the flesh. In the young boys case a major artery was severed and that could be chalked up to bad luck but a bite is a bite and an attack is an attack. It seems like we are seeing more of the second variety in waters that are not used to this kind of behavior.

I hope it is all media hype and I hope it never gets any more attention and goes down as just another normal year. I for one think that something else is behind this behavior. Food, population, bait fish, temp...........I don't know, I have not done nor intend to do any research as I have said before it is just my opinion.