by The Editors on April 20, 2009
The sharks are still on the hunt in Jupiter Beach, Florida according to a story in the Sun Sentinel.
A surfer whose foot was bitten by a shark is in stable condition at Jupiter Medical Center this morning, according to WPTV-Ch. 5. . . Witnesses told the station the victim was bitten on the foot and may have lost two toes. . . The incident was reported just south of Carlin Park at around 3:45 p.m. Sunday.
The man, Bruce Klinker of Candia, New Hampshire, was surfing with his daughter when he was attacked.
Another Florida surfer was bitten on the forearm while surfing near the Florida Power & Light Co. Nuclear Power Plant, but was able to drive himself to the hospital.
[Link: Sun Sentinel, TCPalm.com and 7 News]
by The Editors on March 30, 2009
Santa Cruz surfer Sam Skelton, 24, and his friend Ryan Mackey apparently had a little nose to nose with a Great White shark last week while surfing at Platform’s, according to his first person story in the San Jose Mercury News.
While waiting for a set, a dark, large object in the water catches my peripherals. There, within eight feet of me, placed still in the water, the ocean’s most infamous predatory fish — a great white shark. . . The clarity of the water allows me to see its gills, the speckled skin going from dark to light, and its sheer size, which looks about 10-12 feet long. Fear penetrates my bones, heightened from all the shark-week programs and cheesy TV dramatizations that hype the great white as vicious and bloodthirsty. . . . In a frenzy of four-letter words mixed with “shark,” “holy,” and “big,” I paddle parallel to the beach, directly away from the predator, passing Ryan, who does not know yet what all my commotion is about.
The two eventually paddle in yelling shark the entire way, but no one else seems to care. To get the full feeling of giddy relief read the rest of the story. . .
[Link: San Jose Mercury News]
by The Editors on March 26, 2009
Calvin Galbraith, 17, of Halls Head Australia got a lucky break while surfing last Friday, according to a story in the Mandurah Mail.
At 6.45pm, Calvin, along with three friends and his brother Scott, were 30m offshore just north of Blue Bay trying to catch one last wave into shore. . . The TAFE student felt something grab hold of his leg. . . .Gradually the grip got tighter and pulled Calvin down off his board. . . .“It felt like my leg was being clamped in a vice,” the teenager said. . .“I looked down and my whole foot was in its mouth then I saw a tail thrashing in front of me; that was when I realised it was a shark.”
Calvin got away with six stitches and a puncture marks all over his lower legs. But what comforted us was that this was another shark attack stories that didn’t mention pain. It is somehow easier to deal with when the bites are described as a “pressure” or “tugging” sensation and not, as we would expect, as the excruciatingly painful nightmare. Don’t know why, but it does.
[Link: Mandurah Mail]
by The Editors on March 25, 2009
Luyolo Mangele, 16, from the Mthumbane township in Port St Johns in South Africa was surfing Second Beach when he was attacked and died from injuries from what locals believe was a Tiger Shark, according to a story on Dispatch Online.
Vuyo Maza, a lifeguard for the Wild Coast Guards , was on duty at Second Beach when Mangele, a surfer, was attacked by the shark. “Everything happened so fast. We had people shouting ‘Shark! Shark!’ But when we got there the shark had already struck.”
Some say that local healers have been holding rituals at the beach that are attracting the sharks.
The healers allegedly throw raw meat and blood into the sea as part of their rituals. . . A lifeguard told the Daily Dispatch yesterday that on Friday – the day Mangele was killed – traditional healers were seen leaving the beach in the morning.
You think?
[Link: Dispatch Online]
by The Editors on March 24, 2009
Thanks to swarming schools of batfish on the Goldie sharks have come in from all over to chow down. That didn’t stop a 36-year-old surfer named Mugley from paddling through black clouds of batfish because it “wasn’t a bad left-hander.”
About 30 sharks up to 3m long were seen feeding on the schools, which stretched from Snapper Rocks to the Southport Seaway. . . “They were so thick I was treading on them on the way out,” said the 36-year-old surfer. . . “The water was clear so if there was a shark around I would have seen it a mile away. . . “I was on watch the whole time.” . . Mugley said he knew the danger of surfing with sharks. . . One of his Lismore university mates, Mark Penches, 25, died after his right leg was bitten off by a great white shark while surfing in South Africa in 1997. . . “It’s the luck of the draw,” said Mugley.
Aussie surfers are too tough to care, huh?
[Link: Goldcoast.com.au]
by The Editors on March 19, 2009
A guy surfing at a beach on the New South Wales far south coast didn’t get munched by a shark today, but his surfboard did.
Andrew Edmunds from the Far South Coast Surf Life Saving branch says the size or species of shark is not known. . . “The male surfer didn’t sustain any injuries in the incident, but his board was damaged by the attack, by the shark,” he said. . . “The type of shark is unknown.”
A little bite of foam seems to keep them from coming back.
[Link: ABC.net.au]
by The Editors on March 17, 2009
The LA Times may joke that the beaches of southern California might be a great place for AIG executives to take part in a “long-distance swimming race with no lifelines” but to those who surf everyday the recent shark sightings are not all that funny.
- A surfer over the weekend reportedly was rushed by a large shark off Carlsbad, which is about seven miles north of Solana Beach. This has not been confirmed.
- A beachcomber off Bolsa Chica State Beach on Monday discovered a headless sea lion with other wounds. Perhaps this serves as evidence that adult great whites, which generally prey on much larger elephant seals off Northern California, are utilizing an increasingly dense sea lion population off Southern California.
- The remains of a seal or sea lion washed up on a beach in Carlsbad on Sunday.
- A swimmer and stand-up paddleboard surfer in the Pacific Palisedes area on Saturday reported sighting estimated seven- and eight-foot sharks, 15 minutes apart around 8 a.m. The swimmer said there were two sharks, and that one of them leaped, or breached.
- Three people atop Balboa Pier in Newport Beach on Saturday reported sighting an estimated eight-foot shark, which also breached.
We’re not looking forward to seeing any, thank you.
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on March 13, 2009
by The Editors on March 12, 2009
Diver Craig Clasen and friend Cameron Kirkconnell were hunting yellow fin tuna with filmmaker Ryan McInnis and Surfing Magazine staff photog DJ Struntz when a 12 foot tiger shark began circling McInnis, according to a story in the Daily Mail.
With no time to lose, Mr Clasen grabbed his speargun and swam to his stranded friend, who was being circled by the giant predator. . . .’I positioned myself between Ryan and the shark and I tried to watch it for a second, hoping it would pass us by,’ explained 32-year-old Mr Clasen. ‘I noticed that the shark was getting tighter and tighter and just kept trying to get a back angle on us and behaving in an aggressive manner. ‘The shark made a roll and looked like it was going to charge us so I just went ahead and took the conservative route and put a shaft through its gills. ‘Cameron and I have been around sharks for years and we all have a lot of experience with them but this encounter had a different feel to it. ‘Down in my core I really felt the shark was there to feed. I didn’t want it to come to that.’Mr Clasen spent nearly two hours wrestling with the giant 12ft shark, spearing it seven times and even attempting to drown the beast before eventually finishing it off with a long blade knife.
While Clasen was killing a shark with his bare hands, DJ was apparently getting perfect photos like the one above.
[Link: Daily Mail]
by The Editors on March 12, 2009
Steve Lockhart and his friend Aaron Hix were about a mile and a half off-shire from Newport Beach last night burning off some fuel after working on their the engine of their 1985 29-foot Carver when they thought they saw a seal bumping along beside them. But it wasn’t a seal, it was a what they are calling an 18-foot-long shark, according to a sory in the OC Register.
“The shark was a beast,” he said. “It was definitely curious.” He said the distance between the dorsal fin and the tail fin was about 10 to 12 feet. “The shark was somewhat inquisitive, but still focused on his direction. We originally thought it was a seal, then realized it was a fin … then we pulled right next to it and realized it was a shark,” he said.
As the OC Register reminded us: it was about this time last year when a San Diego County triathlete was killed by a great white. Anyone surfing San O this weekend?
[Link: OC Register via Shop-Eat-Surf]
The sharks are still on the hunt in Jupiter Beach, Florida according to a story in the Sun Sentinel.
