A 19-year-old French surfer was reportedly paddling back to his boat when he was hit by a shark in the waters of New Caledonia in the south Pacific, according to a story on the Associated Press.
Police commander Alain Bouedo says the 19-year-old surfer was swimming back to his boat early Friday when the shark sank its jaws into his arm and leg, causing fatal injuries. . . . The young man was dead by the time doctors arrived.
The 19-year-old student’s arm was ripped off and his leg bitten when he was attacked “apparently by several sharks” while trying to get back onto a boat with his friend on Friday, police said.
After three shark attacks in Sydney, Australia in the past few weeks sales of Paul Lunn’sShark Shield have increased by 50 percent, according to as story in The Australian.
SeaChange Technology, the Adelaide company that produces the electronic “Shark Shield”, says inquiries have tripled over the past two months and sales have increased by 50 per cent. “We cannot keep up with production. Twice in the past two months we’ve increased our production line only to find immediately that we have to do it again,” SeaChange Technology co-founder Paul Lunn said. The device, which costs between $600 and $700 depending on the model, weighs 80 grams and can fit into the palm of a mans hand.
And what a perfect sales pitch: is your leg, arm, or life worth $700 AUS?
According to a story in the Heraldsun.com.au a 15-year-old boy was surfing with his father March 1, 2009 at about 6:45 AM at the Northern end of Avalon Beach north of Syndey when he was hit by a shark.
“The father and son were out surfing this morning. They are members of our surf club as well,” Mr Miller told ABC Radio. . .”It got him around the top of his leg and his calf muscle and the father came in and dragged him in. . . “They’ve just taken him to hospital in a helicopter.”
This is the third serious shark attack in Sydney in less than three weeks.
Glen Lockery was surfing with friends last Wednesday at Shelly Beach Australia when he got slammed by a shark according to The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Lockery was waiting for a wave, watching his mates paddle in, when he was attacked. . . . “I was sitting out the back on my own and just got hit from below,” he said yesterday. It was a massive impact that flipped his surfboard up to hit him in the face. Mr Lockery caught a glimpse of the shark’s girth – about twice as wide as his surfboard. “People have told me that when it comes from the deep it is either a great white or a tiger. It lifted the board and broke the nose,” he said.
And he escaped with only a broken nose on his surfboard.
A researcher at the University of Florida says that the bad economy is most likely responsible for a drop in shark attacks world wide, according to a story on the University of Florida website. It’s not that the sharks noticed any difference in the markets, it’s that fewer people traveled to the beach says George Burgess, ichthyologist and director of the International Shark Attack File.
According to the latest statistics released today, the total number of shark attacks declined from 71 in 2007 to 59 in 2008, the fewest since 2003, when there were 57, said Burgess, who works at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. . . . “I can’t help but think that contributing to that reduction may have been the reticence of some people to take holidays and go to the beach for economic reasons,” Burgess said. “We noticed similar declines during the recession that followed the events of 2001, despite the fact that human populations continued to rise.”
A 33-year-old surfer known only as Gary was “having a sunset surf off south Bondi about 7.30pm when he felt something brush his arm while paddling back out to catch another wave” according to a story in the Sydney Herald.
Realising he had been bitten, he called out for help to a group of nearby surfers who came to his aid, paddling him to shore and carrying him to safety onto the beach. One of them used the leg-rope of his surfboard and wrapped it as a tourniquet around the man’s heavily bleeding arm.
A doctor and nurse just happened to be walking by and were able to help stabilize the surfer and get him ready for transport. Sadly, the surfer has lost his hand above his left wrist. This is the second shark attack in Sydney this week. In that attack a diver lost his right hand. Guess the shark was going for a pair.
Durwin Keg, 41, of Maroubra Beach, Australia was surfing Cellito beach on the north coast of New South Wales when he saw something dark beneath him, according to a story in the Herald Sun.
“Straight away I knew it was a shark. He was just sitting under there watching me. . . I knew it was after me,” he said. “I started moving and I could see him going behind me.” Moments later it struck with all its force into Mr Keg’s board. . . .Screaming to his mates to get out of the surf, he began wildly throwing punches at the shark which eventually moved off.
Keg was surprised that he escaped completely unscathed. Maybe that whole “punch ’em in the nose” thing really does work.
At New Zealand’s Karitane Beach today surfers got out of the water in a hurry after spotting a shark according to a story on Stuff.co.nz.
Constable John Paul Tremain said it was a very large shark and one of the surfers chased out of the water was a veteran surfer in the area. . . .”So for him to bail out of the water it means that he’s frightened enough obviously to get out so it’s fairly serious.” . . .At this stage it was unknown what type of shark it was.
“I don’t know if it’s a white shark or a mako or a tiger – its lurking in the surf and in the inlet.”
We think it odd that anyone would think any surfer would stay in the water after seeing a large shark. But it’s nice that the reporters think “veteran surfers” are gnarlier and more likely to stay in the water if it’s just a small shark.
Yesterday, on Australia’s Gold Coast Jonathon Beard, 31, was surfing with three friends at Fingal “when a shark inflicted a bite about 40cm long and 5cm deep to the top of his leg.”
Apparently there was a group of dolphins nearby and then the next thing he realised was he received a large bite to the top of his leg,” he said. “The blokes he was with then saw some violent thrashing in the water and called out ‘Shark!’. . . . “They showed a lot of initiative — they used his leg rope as a tourniquet and got him into shore quickly and got help.”
Meanwhile at Binalong Bay 13-year-old surfer Hannah Mighall was surfing with her 20-year-old cousin when she was chomped by a 5 meter white pointer.
The shark twice dragged the girl under the water before her cousin reached the scene on his surfboard and hit the animal, causing it to let go of the girl’s leg. . . . The cousin managed to pull the teenager on to his surfboard and began to paddle towards the shore. But the shark followed and circled the frightened pair as they frantically paddled.
Luckily, both surfers escaped major permanent damage though as the story points out they will have some great scars to talk about.
