Let us never forget hitting on the sharks girlfriend as a means of provoking an attack.
You go to one of those pierside watering holes. You spot something cute and grey. You send her a bloody mary…she looks at you with that straight on stare, maybe rolls her eyes back in her head a bit. You walk on over and say “Hey beautiful…”
Then suddenly you get hit from behind as her shark boy comes out of the mens room and BANG! Blood in the water!
I remember seeing on of those Discovery channel type shows abou sharks. They went up in a helicopter and filmed the people swimming. They were surrounded by sharks and didn’t even know it. So if you’re ine the ocean there are probably sharks near.
I saw a special about a team sport played off the Great Barrier Reef. Each 2-person diving team would be armed with a small harpoon loaded wth a specific colour dart. The game was, you could tag the most sharks in the dorsal fin with their flags in a given period of time. I don’t know about you, but if my dorsal fin was punctured for sport, I’d be pretty darned provoked!
StG
I live in a place called Pt Lincoln, South Australia. About 40km from here, out in the middle of Spencer Gulf, is Dangerous Reef, where the film “Blue Water, White Death” shot an awful lot of footage. Only about two years ago, a local fisherman was attacked (and died from from his injuries) by a large great white shark on South Neptune Island, which is less than 100km from Dangerous Reef. This death was just the latest on a long line of recorded (and witnessed) shark attacks that stretch back as long as I can remember. The last shark death locally occurred just up the road from here, about 15 years ago, when a female snorkler was completely eaten. Only her flipper and a small piece of wetsuit were ever found.
Consequently, this part of the world is known as The Home of the Great White Shark (known locally as White Pointers). It’s why Jacques Coustea came here a few years ago, and it’s also why the producers of Jaws also borrowed some footage that was shot locally. In fact, almost every recent documentary about White Pointers has involved some research in Spencer Gulf.
We are on the edge of the Great Southern Ocean. It’s only about 5000km from the South Pole, thus our waters are also what you would call “cold”. Maybe not quite as cold as Northern California, but definitely not tropical. Ergo, cold waters are more likely to have large dangerous sharks than warmer ones.
Has there been any word about what kind of shark was involved in the Alabama attack?
Hammerhead, maybe? Tiger?
Two questions:
I thought sand sharks were harmless; I’d heard that most sharks attack humans because they believe the human to be a fellow predator trying to muscle in on the shark’s hunting territory.
My boss is from Cape Town, SA, and near there is the highest concentration of Great Whites in the world (Dyer Island, or Dwyer Island or something like that, I think). Anyways, he told me about the time that a local man got attacked by a White and lost his leg. A few years later he decided to conquer his fear and went back to the same spot and went swimming…yep, you guessed it- got eaten. Talk about the odds! More likely to get hit by lightning? In the same spot?
And yep folks- any time you go into the water…you are in the presence of at least a few. And there is nothing you can do about it if they decide that you are lunch. They are FAST. Saw a video of a shark getting out of dodge when it got spooked by the helicopter- BAM! Outa there! Fastest animal I think I’ve ever seen move- I was shocked at how fast it was going- the camera could only follow it for a few seconds, and in that time it must have covered over a hundred meters. BUT, you are not a tasty fish, you have suntan oil on, funny looking shorts, and are big enough to scare 99.99999999999% of them away. So don’t worry. There are many more things in the water to be scared of (Baracuda, jelly-fish, rock-fish, etc, etc.)
Has there been any word about what kind of shark was involved in the Alabama attack?
Yes. One with a hankerin’ for hillbilly.
[Cue banjo music…]
Squeal lahk a pig,
Taste lahk a pig.
I think Sharks have been turned into monsters by people the same way wolves have been. The idea of the big, bad wolf and of Jaws. But sharks (and wolves) do not attack that often. My deepest sympathies do go out to the people who have been attacked or have lost loved ones to an attack, but it is not that often.
I think it is also important to remember that a number of sharks are on the endagered species list. What about all the human’s who have attacked sharks over the years?
(I do have deep compassion for those who’s lives have been hurt by sharks or anything else for that matter)
My personal observation is that a lot of Alabama swimmers would pass the “Mmmmmmm…Fatty!” taste test. It’s all that barbecue and sweet tea…
Kidding…kidding… 
A site I visited to get the info I posted a few posts up said that sharks do often strike in the same spot.
Oh and it also said that sharks sometimes will chase swimmers up onto the beaches.
Don’t you watch “Shark Week” ?!?!
Sharks almost always attack people because they mistake them or their vibrations for something else that they normally eat - fish, seals, etc.
Rogue redneck sharks. Hmmmm…
Hay-ulp! Hay-ulp!
That is why you won’t find me in anything that is not chlorinated. I was bumped by something big in the Gulf of Mexico in about 12 feet of water in 1988. Didn’t see what it was and didn’t wait around trying to get a look. Did my Jesus impression getting to the bank and haven’t been back in the ocean since. Had their shot at me and I’m not giving them another.
shudder
I have a typical love-hate relationship with sharks. As a kid, I loved them even more than the ordinary kid loves dinosaurs. I could rattle off names, facts, trivia, whatever, and being a kid in midwestern Minnesota, I had exactly zero fear of being attacked by a shark. Even the fabled land sharks would have trouble crossing the great plains - or even making it through all the locks and dams up the Mississippi river.
Cut ahead to college in Boston. Not much fear of a shark that far north in the Atlantic ocean, until someone pointed out to me that Jaws supposedly took place in New England. Fortunately, I realized that about a month before graduation, so staying out of the water wasn’t a problem, and everyone assumed my suddenly unstable mental state was due to imminent graduation.
Skip ahead to a month ago, when I was at a beach house in the Outer Banks of NC for a week. I had jokingly expressed fear of being attacked by sharks and jellyfish and sea grizzlies, and my fears were mostly assuaged- but I’d still only go swimming in a group. I gradually became more comfortable, and stayed out in the water after my friends went in.
Someone on the beach waved their arms and shouted something at me. I stopped swimming, started treading water, and shouted “What?” back.
“eh…fin!”
…which my brain parsed as “dolphin”. ‘Dolphin,’ I thought, ‘at least it’s not a shark. Good, no worries.’ I lazily rolled onto my side and swam parallel to the shore for a while. My friend on the beach ran parallel to me, waving his arms and shouting some more. I soon realized that he wasn’t saying “dolphin”, but just “fin! fin! fin! fin!” As BooBoo316 said, I did my best Jesus impression getting back to shore.
Yeah, yeah, sympathies and all that to the Billy-Bobs what got bit and all…
Sharks are (for the most part) opportunistic feeders. They cull the weak and dying from the seas. Rarely will they expend the energy required to hunt down something healthy and fight with it. Deep water sharks (mako) are more apt to hunt than shallow water sharks (white). There are also regional population differences in eating/hunting habits. The whites off Catalina Island in California hunt differently than those off of Durban, SA.
In general, sharks go for the weak, dying, sick, infirm first, thereby conserving energy. They identify this prey by the vibrations/water disturbances they create. Near a beach, there is lots of vibration drawing sharks, but also confusing them. They may be scared away, or chomp reflexively at something near them - though usually the former.
On the energy idea, sharks feed rather infrequently, whites often going months between meals. Therefore, they tend to go after prey with lots of stored energy (read: fat) this is why seals are so popular on the menu. Surfers tend to look like weak thrashing seals from below (neat studies done off Catalina with surfboards and fins). Sharks will often bite and, if too chewy/low-fat will move on.
I’ve been diving many times with many sharks. I’ve NEVER felt that I was in any specific danger (though always felt quite edgy). I’m too big of a meal, not fatty enough and would fight to the point that a shark would decide I’m not worth the energy expendature. Of course, that would be AFTER the test bite. (hence edgy)
One memorable experience was off the coast when our dive boat was making its way to a wreck 10 mi. off shore. I won’t say where, in that it is a popular beach destination and many of my MD doper friends might get a bit spooked. We were just about 1/4 mile off the coastline when we saw a pod of porposes heading our way. While it’s illegal to approach sea live and harass it, it’s fine if you sit still and let them come to you. We slipped overboard and saited until they swam past us, often circling and checking us out.
Of course, what follows food is that which eats the food. SHARKS. Shortly after most of the porpii (?) left, we found ourselves in the water with 2 BFSharks. We pulled knives and slowly made our way 50 ft or so to the boat as the sharks swam off. Sucked my tank dry at 15 feet!
I’ve also been diving in a big tank with, among other creatures, 5 bull sharks (known attacks on man), but this was at Epcot, so they were Disney sharks. More cute and cuddly than anything else.
Just wanted to propose that a “provoked” shark attack might be ones in which a “scientist” or some other goofball decides its a good idea to chum up some water real good and then head down yonder with a camera or some other jutification. You usually see these guys in little steel cages, but I’m sure there are alot of Steve Irwin wannabes that make news in their own way. I’d call that a provoked attack, and could probably be classified seperately from beach/surfer attacks as provoked to keep peoples minds at ease.