Shark attacks

I've heard Speilberg say in interviews he wishes he'd never made Jaws as it led to mass persecution of sharks.

While I know what he means and probably agree, I still don't find them as cuddly as most conservation subjects...the horrible Inianapolis incident as alluded to in the film didn't exactly do a lot for their PR.
 
Hmm. It's interesting to me that SWMBO always replies to my gentle criticism of her 'assistance' in the boat, by remarking how much better a swimmer she is than me...

...which irritates me because it's so very rare for a yachtsman ever to need to be able to swim. I've heard that great naval men for centuries didn't or couldn't swim...and for yachtsmen generally, unless there's rope around the prop, it can't be commonplace for swimming ability to affect one's competence.

Likewise, I suppose shark-infested waters needn't be a consideration for yachtsmen unless the boat's construction is regrettably lightweight and the crew slaughter cattle on deck.

Not so confident I'd feel that blasé about it if I saw the big grey presence sliding along beside the dinghy, a mile or two off the Isle of Wight. :rolleyes:
 
dancrane said:
..... I suppose shark-infested waters needn't be a consideration for yachtsmen .....:
Click to expand...

I am not disagreeing, but when I was bit by a shark it was definitely boat-related.
We had a mobo when my dad was stationed in Singapore and regularly used it from Seletar Yacht Club in the Straits.
We, (Mum, Dad and me aged about 14) had been out to one of the pulau for the day when on the way home the Chrysler packed in. Then the stand-by Seagull took the huff and refused to start.
No problem says the old man. The club's just round the headland and across the river. So we paddled inshore and over the side goes I to pull the boat by its painter, waist deep in the water, African Queen style.
Half way home I felt something wriggle and pain above the ankle. A sand shark had its teeth into me. With blood in the water I could only think of all his brothers, sisters and cousins waiting in the queue - I was back on board faster than a fast thing.
Ironically the seagull started first pull on the re-try.
Since then I have dived with nurse sharks in the Carib, Reef sharks in the Arabian sea and regulalrly dive the spot where the biggest Great White on record was landed without any qualms - more a sense of guilt about the wholesale slaughter of all shark species which continues - intentionally or otherwise.
A couple of decades ago we used to sail through pods of hundreds of baskers off South West Scotland. Despite protection under law now I rarely see even individuals.
 
Thanks for that Gordonmc.

I'm certainly appalled by the Far Eastern inclination to kill sharks (and other species) without good reason.

I believe the concerning increase in jellyfish is reckoned to relate to the reduced numbers of sharks which prey upon them.

I don't much fancy encountering either, although a wetsuit might be better defence against venomous jelly-tentacles, than against serrated teeth. :rolleyes:
 
dancrane said:
Thanks for that Gordonmc.

I'm certainly appalled by the Far Eastern inclination to kill sharks (and other species) without good reason.

I believe the concerning increase in jellyfish is reckoned to relate to the reduced numbers of sharks which prey upon them.

I don't much fancy encountering either, although a wetsuit might be better defence against venomous jelly-tentacles, than against serrated teeth. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Sea turtles feed on jellyfish. The massive decline in med turtles probably has a lot to do with the increase in jellyfish.
 
I think the world wide deaths from shark attack is something like 9 a year. Mosquitoes is about 2.5 million.

When I was a young lad spearfishing in South Australia I had a close encounter with a large bronze whaler, scared the **** out of me. Couple of years later in the same spot a white pointer bit a young mother in half then swam back and ate her while her family watched! The action shots with real sharks in Jaws was filmed in the same place[Point Bolingbroke].

After 20 years in the navy I spent 26 years as a fisherman on the East coast. Several months a year I made a lot of money catching whalers and hammerheads and a few makos and the odd tiger. I set lined for them and they generally came up dead. My father was out with me one day giving me a hand. This particularly big whaler came up with the line and I gaffed it in the mouth and secured the tail. i was struggling to get it aboard and i asked my father to reach down grab the gaff head near the mouth. He did so just as the boat rolled and his fingers went into the dead sharks almost closed mouth. This gave him a bit of a fright and he pulled his hand back, the serrated teeth sloping in ripped his fingers to the bone. Had to cart him off to the hospital for stitches. My name was mud for sometime after this and the story around our home town was some what embellished.

People would be amazed at the number of sharks along the coast you never see.
 
I'll swing the lamp again about our silvery friends..:)

Back when the Persian Gulf was still the Persian Gulf, I was AB in a tanker lying on the waiting bouys at Mina Al Ahmadi oil terminal. Two of us, me and a rather dim ordinary seaman were over the bow on a stage painting the outside of the Foc'sle bulwark. We had been watching a couple of Hammerhead sharks cruising around in the ship's shadow below us but the ship's boat was afloat by the lowered gangway midships and the junior Engineer was in it playing with the engine, so in theory if we fell in...we should be rescued fairly quickly....

Had I known that Lofty the OS didn't know how to render the gantline round the stage end when I said 'lower away,' I wouldn't have got on the stage with him...

He just threw the turns off and his end of the stage fell suddenly. The order of fall was Lofty, a drum of white paint, roller trays and rollers, brushes...then me, just couldn't hold on, the sudden jerk had almost pulled my arms from their sockets. It's a long long way down from the bow of a big tanker, especially when she's light ship. All these years later I still remember the terror I felt because I knew the sharks were below us. I landed in a huge spreading slick of white paint slightly tinged pink by Lofty's blood because his hands were bleeding where he'd grabbed the Gantline and it had rope burned him to the bone.

I still think it was hours before the Engineer in the boat got to us, although I was told it was only a minute or two. I was bruised and covered in white gloss, as was Lofty, but he was taken ashore by the Ship's Agent for medical treatment because his hands were in a shocking state. He never rejoined us before we sailed bound for the Isle of Grain with Crude about 24 hours later. And the Sharks never came near..I think..but the feeling when you're in the water is not to be recommended.
 
dilly said:
balls
Click to expand...

Why, please explain? What Seajet said is well documented. Also, the shape of a human on a surfboard looks like a turtle from the sharks perspective, therefore it attacks thinking it's food.
When I was a commie diver, we were working in waters that were was reputed to be shark infested. We only saw them from a distance as maybe the noise from the air tools kept them away.
Another time we had a newbie diver straight from the dive school who was on his first overseas job. He asked if there were any problems with sharks, we said no. Afterwards, we asked if he saw any, the reply was no. That's because the crocs ate them all I replied :D
Another time, we were sailing when somebody noticed a shark in the water. A girl asked if she fell in the water, would it eat her whole? No, was the reply, it will spit that part out :D
Anyway, as a repellent, I have the jaws from a 10' Tiger shark, I suppose I could dangle them into the water to frighten the shark away, or I could wear my 'England for the World Cup T-Shirt' not even a shark would swallow that :D

Tin hat on and duck for cover :D
 
Speaking of fish attacks there are some tiny fish that bite the dead skin off your toes, the feeling is like small needles biting. It happened in St John USVIs and other places we can't remember. Has anybody else come across that?
 
I think that used to be available in paddling-pools at Stansted airport, until someone suggested the little nibblers could transfer unpleasant diseases from one foot to another. :rolleyes:
 
dancrane said:
Not even sure why I'm asking this, except that big scary oceanic predators are one thing that I tend not to worry about whilst on the boat...but the pleasant winter idea of heading into warmer waters must encompass the terrifying possibility of an encounter...so I wonder how much, if at all, it crosses the minds of yachtsmen?

Here are some compellingly terrifying acounts, not yacht-based: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ca/6984067/Worlds-10-worst-shark-attacks.html
Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken I do believe having read somewhere that our own Suse, when acting as a diving instructor, has actually been attacked by a Great White but was wearing a chain mail protective suit at the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top