krs
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posted on July 16, 2001 03:57:08 AM new
There's been another shark attack in Florida water. They guy's doing well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/national/16SHAR.html?todaysheadlines
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vogeldanl
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posted on July 16, 2001 05:42:19 AM new
Think I would stay away from that area for a while.
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toke
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posted on July 16, 2001 05:50:50 AM new
Humans--1
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loosecannon
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posted on July 16, 2001 07:10:40 AM new
When news of that young boy who was attacked and had his arm bitten off was first heard, I was in the middle of reading a book on shark attacks, believe it or not.
Some very gruesome accounts. I don't think I'll be swimming in the ocean ever again.
Sharks come in close, and sometimes into very shallow water, to feed. They like to eat marine mammals if given the opportunity--seals, etc. Any human in the water becomes a marine mammal. Yikes!
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krs
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posted on July 16, 2001 07:21:35 AM new
When we were kids we killed them with sticks for spears and rocks when we got them ashore. When we got older and lazier we just shot them with flare guns.
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loosecannon
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posted on July 16, 2001 07:57:04 AM new
Never have seen a shark in the process of feeding, but I did see a huge halibut take a good-sized 6 or 7 pound sea bass in two or three chomps.
We were in Prince William Sound, Alaska, anchored in a bay and doing some sport fishing. My mom hooked the sea bass and was reeling it in. It was straight down about 15 or 20 feet in crystal clear water and we were watching it come up. Suddenly the halibut appeared from out of nowhere and took the bass off of the hook in two or three savage bites. Must have been a good 400 pounder at least. About an 8 to 10 foot long fish.
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Hjw
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posted on July 16, 2001 08:06:27 AM new
Reminds me of Hemmingway's "Old Man and the Sea"..."everything kills everything else in some way."
Helen
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krs
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posted on July 16, 2001 08:31:48 AM new
What's surprising about this last chomp is that they called the victim a surfer. What surf? He must have been out there for some other reason because the Atlantic is relatively calm. Two foot breakers don't count.
For that matter, these little sharks don't count for much either. Here nobody pays any attention to Leopard and sand sharkes. It's Great Whites that can eat you. They get BIG. Once I was sailing off of Santa Cruz and a Great White came up alongside. His fin was as high as our mizzenmast and all on that side was black. He must have been 75' long. Looked like a submarine.
But they've done a lot of studies and it seems that Great White sharks show a preference for kinda' short and pudgy women in wetsuits. The study was meant as a warning, but now every dive team and surfer group makes sure that they've always got a short fat chick along for bait. I guess it diverts sharks long enough for everyone else to get back aboard or get ashore.
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Hjw
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posted on July 16, 2001 08:45:16 AM new
LoL
...diversionary chicks for shark bait...
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loosecannon
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posted on July 16, 2001 08:59:38 AM new
Hmmm...
According to the Shark Attack Files (SAF) a lot of attacks are done by sharks 6 feet or less in length, not always by sharks big enough to dwarf a boat and blacken the skies with the size of his dorsal fin. LOL
And these smaller sharks can inflict horrible and life-threatening injuries just the same. Many are "baby" Great Whites or Tiger sharks (the ones that were able to be identified anyway).
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Femme
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posted on July 16, 2001 09:03:44 AM new
KRS,
You have the distinction of getting the first EVER...
ROFLMAO
from me.
Congratulations!!
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Femme
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posted on July 16, 2001 09:12:10 AM new
The only swimming I would do in Florida would be in the chlorinated water right outside my hotel/motel room.
I cannot believe people, including little kids, were back in the waters in the same area the day after the little boy was attacked.
Matters not to me if sharks supposedly feed at certain times. Who's to say one of those sharks wouldn't be in the mood for a snack during the day? Hmmmm?
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krs
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posted on July 16, 2001 09:13:53 AM new
Remember, loosecannon, that the SAF info is a compilation of information about found victims of shark attacks, or pieces of them.
The big sharks don't leave a trace. They swallow their victims whole in one big gulp and leave nothing to be studied later. Just silence.
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loosecannon
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posted on July 16, 2001 09:23:48 AM new
Yes, there was *at least* one confirmed case in the SAF (eye witness) of a diver swallowed whole by a large Great White. Two guys were skin diving and the shark came up on one and that was that.
Edited to add "at least". I don't know the entire SAF.
[ edited by loosecannon on Jul 16, 2001 09:28 AM ]
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kraftdinner
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posted on July 16, 2001 09:41:38 AM new
I wonder how many sharks have killed people compared to how many people have killed sharks? I know, we need their fins for soup.
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ziLvY
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posted on July 16, 2001 09:56:21 AM new
Years ago we were sailing off the Jersey shore in our 16 ft Catamaran...we noticed a mono hull making weigh with a very unusual "rooster tail" I mean it was under sail...no outboard engines on this baby.
As it neared us we were able to discern a male holding onto a knotted rope, body surfing in the boats wake...a female was at the helm.
Do you think she was trolling for sharks?
Could be retribution for all those chunky chicks in California!
[ edited by ziLvY on Jul 16, 2001 09:58 AM ]
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KatyD
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posted on July 16, 2001 10:36:36 AM new
Great White sharks show a preference for kinda' short and pudgy women in wetsuits. The study was meant as a warning, but now every dive team and surfer group makes sure that they've always got a short fat chick along for bait.
OMG! That is the funniest thing I've ever read on these chatboards. LMAO! And so very UN-pc. 
KatyD
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spazmodeus
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posted on July 16, 2001 11:38:42 AM new
His fin was as high as our mizzenmast and all on that side was black. He must have been 75' long. Looked like a submarine.
This was a deliberate exaggeration, right?
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toke
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posted on July 16, 2001 11:51:05 AM new
LOL @ ZilvY!
Males are by far the best for trolling...they have those little spinners as an added attraction...
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Zazzie
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posted on July 16, 2001 12:49:47 PM new
My absolute favourite cartoon (since the demise of Calvin & Hobbes)
http://www.slagoon.com/
[ edited by Zazzie on Jul 16, 2001 12:52 PM ]
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hepburn
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posted on July 16, 2001 01:35:45 PM new
Sharks feed at night, or early evening. I would never go swimming at that time. And no, Im not a short fat chick
However, I will keep in mind to see if I can find a short fat dude to use as bait if I ever do decide to do alittle night swimming.
Yes, Spaz, he is exagerating. The only shark I have ever seen that was 75 feet long was the one at Universal Studios (Jaws).
[ edited by hepburn on Jul 16, 2001 01:36 PM ]
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spazmodeus
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posted on July 16, 2001 02:04:46 PM new
I think the largest Great White on record (that is, captured) was about 22 feet.
For a discussion of Great White-like sharks in the range of krs's "75'" I direct you to this thread:
http://www.auctionwatch.com/mesg/read.html?num=28&id=89042&thread=88962
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toke
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posted on July 16, 2001 02:12:07 PM new
Think on't...just be enjoyin' those posts for their sheer machismo...
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snowyegret
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posted on July 16, 2001 02:44:59 PM new
The one that got away.
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sulyn1950
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posted on July 16, 2001 03:01:51 PM new
"But they've done a lot of studies and it seems that Great White sharks show a preference for kinda' short and pudgy women in wetsuits..."
Don't know if you meant this as a tounge-in-cheek statement, but I lost a friend in a diving "accident" due to a shark (assumed anyway-it was night and nobody in the group really got a look at what grabbed her). Ironically or perhaps as "proof"...she fit that criteria! Nobody else in the group did. She was not the first down or the last, that is what had them all puzzled, why her out of all the possibilities?????
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spazmodeus
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posted on July 16, 2001 03:11:37 PM new
but I lost a friend in a diving "accident" due to a shark (assumed anyway-it was night and nobody in the group really got a look at what grabbed her)
Was her body -- or any remains -- recovered?
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gravid
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posted on July 16, 2001 04:53:17 PM new
In asian waters the natives have a method for controling sharks. When there are too many they take a short piece - 6 or 8 inches - of green bamboo which is like spring steel and sharpen each end with a little notch cut in the side behind the point .
You skeewer a piece of chum on it roll it into a circle with the points past each other and tie it off with a piece of string on the notches.
You strew these in the water where the sharks gulp them down whole. As soon as the digestive juices eat the string away -- spoingggg----they open back up straight with the points out - major indigestion.
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ziLvY
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posted on July 16, 2001 05:23:05 PM new
Gravid you never cease to amaze me, where do you get all of this escoteric information...you must be an avid reader...sounds like the kind of thing my dad would have been reading? He loved adventure and odd bits of information...always was a delight to talk to and gave me (his daughter) some invaluable information. One that I will never forget was, if riding in the cavalry with sabre drawn use a backswing on your adversary or you will be dismounted. Of course we never got to the part about what if the enemy were standing his ground with a pike at the ready. Oh well, details...back to the sharks!!
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bunnicula
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posted on July 16, 2001 05:34:47 PM new
sulyn1950: was she wearing yellow? Divers refer to that color as "yum yum yellow" as sharks seem to like to bite on it.
Or, was she splashing or thrashing about more than the others? Like land predators, sharks will go after the hurt, sick or weak--someone thrashing about in the water would definitely arouse their interest.
However--much as people don't like to hear it 99% of shark bites or "attacks" aren't done with the intention of making a meal of the human involved. If it were, there would be many more deaths per year. Sharks use their mouths to explore their environment--they "taste" things & then spit them out all the time. With those razor-sharp teeth damage occures easily. In cases of shark attacks, it is usally a matter of the person acting in an "intersting" way or resembling a prey species...the shark mouths him/her and most often just spits 'em out again. That's why so many shark attack victims have a single bite--but not the large gaping holes that sharks leave when feeding.
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krs
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posted on July 16, 2001 05:56:47 PM new
The big ones are hard to measure, as you can imagine, and to make it even harder--they don't cooperate like children at the measuring mark on the doorway in the kitchen.
Although the Great White is the largest of carnivorous sharks, it does not reach the size alleged in popular literature and in the films. The largest accurately measured specimen, caught of Cuba in 1945, was 6.4m (21ft) long and weighed just over 3 tons. Of moderate reliability is an unsubstantiated report of a specimen 9m (29ft) long caught off the Azores in 1978. in a slightly less reliable category still is the report of an 11.3m (37ft) long fish from New Brunswick, Canada, in the 1930's.
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