Shark Page 2
During its gentle contact with Rogers’ surfboard, the shark left its ‘calling card’ in the form of two whole teeth. In addition, the impressions left by the shark’s teeth were easily identifiable by their spacing. This permitted a reliable size estimate for the attacking White Shark at 5.7 metres in length. The surfboard, with accompanying White Shark teeth, is currently in a surfing museum in Santa Cruz.5
Set against this are eyewitness accounts describing the ferocity of attacks on people by sharks. In April 2008 Dave Martin, a member of a triathlon training group, was killed by a great white while he was swimming off southern California’s Tide Beach. The shark ‘struck around 7 am, charging at Martin from below and lifting him vertically out of the water, both legs in its jaws, its serrated teeth slicing deep, fatal gashes. “They saw him come up out of the water, scream ‘shark’, flail his arms and go back under”, said Rob Hill, a member of the Triathlon Club of San Diego, who was running along the beach when the attack happened.’6
Debatable, if not strictly for movie fans, is the concept of the rogue shark, the individual that develops a taste for human flesh. Before the introduction of shark netting, the coastlines of Australia, the United States and South Africa all occasionally experienced so-called cluster attacks—repeated attacks in a specific geographical location in relatively concentrated periods of time. They were rare and all but ceased after protection measures were introduced at swimming beaches before the mid-twentieth century. What might explain cluster attacks? It could be that an ageing, sick, wounded or mentally disoriented shark is reduced to hunting and scavenging in a localised area. This is not Jaws-style rogue behaviour. Similarly, where there is no anti-shark protection and sharks feed on human beings, for example high seas shipwreck victims, or bathers or corpses in rivers or estuaries, this is not rogue behaviour but a combination of predatory and scavenging behaviour. Bull sharks, also known as river whalers (Zambezi sharks in Africa), were once known to congregate well inland at the site of the Ramornie Meat Works on the bank of the Orara River in northern New South Wales, in order to scavenge off disposed offal. Like crocodiles, sharks feed off corpses ritually consigned to the holy waters of India’s rivers and Lake Nicaragua. And, like seagulls, they follow ships for their refuse tossed overboard.
Shark attacks are statistically very rare and usually not fatal. Since 1958, the American Elasmobranch Society and the Florida Museum of Natural History have been collating the International Shark Attack File (ISAF). The ISAF has records of every known shark attack dating back some 450 years, which comes to more than 4000 attack investigations. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the ISAF has recorded a mean average of five known unprovoked fatalities per year.7 What can’t be known is the number of unreported attacks, particularly in developing nations and remote regions of the world. Where there are such studies, they are informative. To take one example: a study of attacks in the rivers of southern Iran documented 34 cases over nearly half a century (1941–1985), half of which were fatal. The number of attacks decreased as the introduction of piped water meant that fewer people used the rivers for water supplies.8
ISAF statistics in countries where human activity in shark waters is regular confirm the low rate of shark–human interactions. In 2006 the ISAF investigated 96 ‘alleged incidents of shark–human interaction occurring worldwide’. Sixty-two were classified as unprovoked. Four of the unprovoked attacks were fatal, and the 34 incidents not accorded unprovoked status comprised ‘16 provoked attacks, 5 cases of sharks biting marine vessels, 2 incidents dismissed as non-attacks, 2 scavenge incidents, and 9 cases in which insufficient information was available to determine if shark attack was involved’.9 (A common example of a provoked attack is a person bitten while trying to extricate a shark from a fishing net.) According to statistics, between 2004 and 2007 in the US there were 15 shark attack fatalities and 127 dog attack fatalities.10
The ISAF also compiles statistics on shark species involved in attacks—with, however, the proviso that such data should be used with caution, because species identification by victims and witnesses is often wrong. Total recorded species attacks between 1580 and 2008, including fatalities and non-fatalities, are: great white shark, 451; tiger shark, 158; bull shark, 120; sand tiger shark/grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus), 75; common blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus), 41; hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna spp.), 41; blue shark (Prionace glauca), 41. About 35 other species are also cited, with such minor infractions that the records are meaningless, even comic. For example the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) has been implicated in two ‘boat attacks’ and wobbegongs (Orectolobus spp.) implicated in two non-fatal unprovoked attacks. (Interestingly, though, there are 21 records of wobbegongs engaging in provoked attacks, suggesting a lack of caution or respect on the part of the attacked.) Needless to say, the number of humans consumed by sharks increases greatly when factoring in victims of air and sea disasters.
ISAF data also reveal distinct patterns to shark attacks, the most common being a ‘hit and run’, where a shark bites once and does not return to the victim. This behaviour could result from any number of factors. ‘Bump and bite’ attacks are often preceded by the shark circling its victim, which is a clear demonstration of intent on the part of the animal. The shark is probably assessing the potential resilience and nutritional appeal of the target. A ‘sneak’ attack occurs without warning and seems to be a premeditated ambush. In the latter two cases the shark will often repeatedly attack, resulting in severe injury or death to the victim.
The ISAF asks victims and/or witnesses to complete its Shark Attack Questionnaire, which is designed to help identify the likely species involved. Respondents are asked to choose one action out of each of the following lists:
Shark behavior prior to initial strike
Circling victim
Following victim closely
Shark in position between victim and barrier or obstacle/beach/reef/boat, etc.
Shark not seen at all prior to contact with victim
Straightaway approach to victim
Straightaway approach to victim, passed close by other(s) in water
Swimming erratically
Swimming normally
Behavior unknown
Shark behavior at time of initial strike
Attack did not occur in water
Shark did not contact victim
Minimum of turmoil, victim initially unaware of situation
Sudden violent interaction between shark and victim
Behavior unknown
Shark behavior during subsequent strikes
Attack did not occur in water
Shark made only one strike
Shark made multiple/repeated deliberate strikes
Frenzied behavior
Released initial hold, quickly bit victim again
Behavior unknown
Shark behavior after final strike
Attack did not occur in water
Shark remained attached to victim and had to be forcibly removed
Shark remained in immediate area of attack
Shark followed victim/rescuers towards shore
Shark seen to leave area of attack
Shark not seen after final strike
Shark remained attached to victim after final strike, released hold without use of force by victim/rescuer
Behavior unknown.11
A description of the feeding method of predatory sharks illustrates just why attacks can be so destructive:
Their initial attack on a victim too large to be swallowed whole is usually aimed simply at taking out a mouthful of flesh . . . In the case of an attack on a man, this often results in a leg being take clean off, especially if the bite goes through a knee joint, or the removal of a huge quantity of muscle from calf, thigh or buttock, leading to fatal haemorrhaging from ruptured arteries. In many cases, the flesh is effectively stripped from the tibia, fibula and sometimes the femur as well when the victim struggles to get free and th
e shark fights to make off with its pound of flesh.12
Australian fatalities have averaged one per year over the last fifty years13, although in the first seven years of the twenty-first century there were eleven shark attack fatalities in Australian waters, including two river and canal bull shark fatalities and one near Neptune Island, 70 kilometres off the coast of South Australia (a great white shark congregation zone because of the presence of breeding fur seals, sea lions and seabirds). The temperate, prey-rich waters of South and Western Australia are particularly favoured by great whites. Australian shark trackers are aware that great whites travel along these coastlines to pupping grounds in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf to give birth. They also travel west along the Western Australian coastline into the Indian Ocean. It’s not surprising therefore that many surfers in these regions consider sharks to be their foremost occupational hazard.
In 2004 a well-known surfer was killed by a pair of great white sharks off a popular Western Australian beach: the locality and nature of the attack, and the victim’s high profile as a well-known surfer combined to generate horror headlines across the country. A written tribute in a surfing magazine evokes something of the psychological complexities associated with such grim fatalities:
While surfing Noisys near lefthanders in Gracetown on Saturday 31-year-old Brad Smith from Rockingham lost his life doing what he loved best, surfing. He passed away before reaching the shore. Police have closed beaches in the region . . . His friends assembled in the surf beach car park at Secret Harbour last night, the stories and facts came out about a man who loved, life, surfing and his mates . . . A man that would stick up for his mates and was as Australian as Ayers Rock. A hard tough man that called a spade a spade and was scared of nothing . . . How tough was this legend? Friends were describing how he fought the first shark and refused to give in, punching it in the head continuously and giving it the fight of its life which unfortunately cost him his. But remember this, it took two of the Bastards to take him down and he went down with a fight. The second shark leaped out of the water in flight and was also believed to be a White Pointer, one shark was believed to be 3 metres in length while the other was around 5 metres . . . Rest in peace and hope you catch up with Simmo and the rest of the crew and have a great time wherever you are. From all the lads in Rocko and those who have had the pleasure to have met you and surf with you [signed] Mario ‘Marz’ Vassallo.14
Eighteen months later, on Australia’s east coast, another fatality created a media sensation through its own tragic circumstances. Twenty-one-year-old Sarah Whiley was holidaying with a church group at North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, when she was attacked at Amity Point Beach by up to three bull sharks. Both of her arms were bitten off, her legs and torso severely mauled and she bled to death while being airlifted to a Brisbane hospital. According to a Queensland police officer, ‘She was swimming with three other friends. She went down under the water and screamed “Shark!” And, of course, people at the time thought she was only joking until they saw the blood.’15 One eyewitness said that she had been swimming about 50 metres away from other people. Another local said that she had been swimming with her dog, which left the water and ran to its home in a ‘frenzied’ state and had to be locked up.16
Amity Point Beach has shark protection drum lines set with baited hooks beyond the beach breakers. However, Sarah Whiley had been swimming in an adjacent channel ‘that locals avoided because they feared shark attacks’.17 This is a purpose-built boat channel, its water on that day described as ‘very murky, dirty in fact’.18 A local fisherman said, ‘We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We’ve always thought someone was going to be taken here. I’m a crabber and at this time of the year massive bull sharks come over the [sand] bar. It’s nothing to see 10 or a dozen bull sharks under our boat when we are crabbing and they are really aggressive—they are not like normal sharks.’19
Valerie Taylor has been working with sharks since the 1960s and is famed for her underwater photography and her association with classic shark films including Blue Water, White Death and Jaws. She commented on the attack: ‘The sharks would come up that shipping channel, boating channel, to the beach on a rising tide, late afternoon, looking for any food that might wash off the beach and nature intends them to do this.’20 The extent of the victim’s wounds would suggest that an initial ‘bump and bite’ attack had led to what Taylor called a ‘feeding pattern’.
The locations of these two examples—a popular surfing break, a protected beach frequented by tourists—invite the question of why they, and others like them, haven’t experienced more such attacks. Furthermore, surfers, kayakers and windsurfers operate well beyond protected beaches, and countless numbers of people swim in unprotected waters that might be deemed risky. Shark experts are not joking when they say that humans are too bony and fat-free for the liking of sharks.
‘Big bite: Snr-Sgt Jason Elmer with Hannah’s surfboard.’ This caption accompanied the image of teenage Hannah Mighall’s surfboard. She was repeatedly attacked by a 5-metre great white shark on the east coast of Tasmania, in clear shallow water. Her cousin Syb Mundy wrestled and punched the shark away. Hannah made a full recovery. (Courtesy of The Mercury, 13 January 2009)
A horrifying but not fatal attack near Eden south of Sydney in January 2007 resulted in unlikely comedic headlines: ‘Shark survivor in a media feeding frenzy’; ‘Fish-food fears fuel dad’s fight for life; ‘From the jaws of a shark comes a ripping yarn’; and, neatly summing up the public’s relentless appetite for fear with a happy ending: ‘When Eric Nerhus escaped from the jaws of a great white shark, he joined an exclusive club: the people who have tangled with the planet’s most dangerous creatures—and yet lived to tell the tale’.21 Nerhus, an abalone diver, was operating in murky water off Cape Howe near a seal colony when the shark, about three metres in length, attacked without warning. Nerhus later described the incident: ‘I went straight into its mouth. My shoulders, my head and one arm went straight down into its throat. I could feel its teeth crunching down on my weight vest . . . I’ve never felt fear like it until I was inside those jaws.’22 The shark then began to shake him from side to side, in the typical manner designed to shear and tear flesh. With his free hand Nerhus used his abalone knife to feel for an eye socket, which he jabbed repeatedly. The shark let him go and he swam to the surface, where his son Mark was waiting in their boat. Other abalone divers in the area rushed to help. After an hour-long return trip to shore he was flown to Wollongong Hospital and treated for bites that required 75 stitches. A fellow abalone diver told a reporter, ‘I have had close encounters several times. I haven’t seen a shark in that particular area, but that’s where they are, because two oceans meet, the Tasman and the Pacific, and there’s an upswell. This is black water.’23
A similar act of desperate self-defence played out in clear shallow water off Middleton Beach in the south of Western Australia in May 2008. Jason Cull, 37, was swimming about 80 metres from shore when a dark shape that he thought was a dolphin approached him, but,
It was much bigger than a dolphin when it came up. It banged straight into me. I realised what it was . . . I sort of punched it, and it grabbed me by the leg and dragged me under the water. I just remember being dragged backwards underwater. I felt along it. I found its eye and I poked it in the eye, and that’s when it let go.24
Two features of this attack are noteworthy. The first is that the shark was a great white of about four or five metres in length and it was accompanied by two others, yet despite the victim’s blood loss he was not then subject to a group attack. Instead the sharks were seen to head towards other swimmers. The second is the heroics of Joanne Lucas, a local surfer:
This is a woman who is 50, and about four foot eight, five foot, not much of her, strong, very strong, a good athlete for the [surf] club. Mother of three, and without any hesitation, knowing there were sharks in the vicinity, swam right up . . . She got hold of the injured swimmer and brought him ba
ck to shore. There was a fairly comprehensive mauling of his left leg, lost a lot of his calf, severe lacerations.25
In 2009 Australia experienced its own ‘Summer of the Shark’, a sharp increase in attacks. The phrase had come into being in the United States in the summer of 2001, as a cover story of Time magazine capitalising on a frenzy:
The media coverage was prompted by a bull shark biting off the arm of an 8-year-old boy on a Florida beach July 6, 2001. Overnight, shark bites and sightings became major international news, triggering countless TV news reports and front-page stories and culminating in the Weekly World News tabloid declaring: ‘Castro trained killer sharks to attack U.S.’26
In fact there was no increase in shark attacks in the United States that year (and fewer shark attacks worldwide), but significant perceptional damage was being done to sharks, until the media value of the story came to an abrupt end on September 11. Australia’s 2009 Summer of the Shark, while having more of a basis in reality, with seven non-fatal attacks along the east coast over a seven-week period, nonetheless generated massive media coverage of the kind usually associated with national tragedies.
The irresistible attraction to the media included this faraway headline from the UK Guardian: ‘Monster munch: three shark attacks in 24 hours throw Australia into Jaws panic’.27 Much was made of the locations of two of the attacks—at iconic Bondi Beach, widely reported as the first attack there in 80 years, and in Sydney Harbour, the attack there described as within sight of the Sydney Opera House. More meaningful was the debate that ensued. Shark researchers believed that increased numbers of school fish such as salmon and kingfish—their numbers protected by controls on their commercial harvesting—had attracted sharks which might not otherwise be so plentiful in those areas. Other interested parties, including commercial shark fishermen, cited the attacks as proof of a rise in shark numbers to plague proportions, blaming state government protection of shark species considered threatened, especially Carcharodon carcharias, the great white shark.