Seven deadly fins
After coming face-to-face with a ‘mostly harmless’ Grey Nurse Shark off Birubi Point the other day, I’ve been reading up on shark attacks. Whites and Tigers are obviously the most dangerous, given that they are big, sneaky and fast. The former likes to attack either at high speed from behind and below, or by circling it’s prey at the edge of visibility - before taking a chomp. In fact, whites appear to ’see’ the world through their mouth, biting things to check out if they’re tasty etc. Tigers on the other hand are powerful and scary.
Either species will land you in hospital faster than you can say, “Crikey, look at that bad boy” - although you are likely to survive. Apparently, while only 20% of victims see the shark before it attacks, 90% are released after the first bite. In addition, evidence from seal research suggests that whites don’t actually eat their prey until it stops bleeding (I don’t know if this makes me feel better or not).
Nonetheless, it’s all very concerning, given that I was planning on going blue-water spearfishing with Max - maybe I should just cruise the Bay for flathead and whiting instead - particularly as I’m a complete novice!
As an aside, what is the deal with the headline for this story in the smh? Such obvious links with other recent events gone to waste.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Hey Tom.
Don’t worry about the big things with teeth. you are about a 1000 time more likely to die in a car crash or by falling off of a cliff. Anyway I thought that you were like wolverine now that you had metal bones
Lewis
December 12th, 2006 at 9:47 am
So I guess what you’re saying is that, seeing as I’ve already fallen off a cliff and survived, the chances of dying from a shark attack are pretty remote… Still it’d be pretty grizzly, wouldn’t it? Mind you, it’d be interesting to see a shark try to bite off my titanium leg! Or I could just bite him back - although I’ve read that it doesn’t work that well.
December 12th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Hey Tom/Zoe,
got a question for ya… What dates will you be in Sydney for xmas and new years? And, what is your address there (wink, wink etc)??
By the way, being eaten by a shark would suck, be painful etc, but you’d be in shock pretty fast and possibly thus miss a lot of the harsh reality. At least you might not remember much if you do live to tell the tale.
But yeah, considering you’re down a few lives after your near miss, maybe it’s best not to go there. Although staying out of the water for the foreseeable future when living in Oz is pretty hard. A tough life really!
December 13th, 2006 at 8:45 am
I don’t care how ‘harmless’ a 8ft grey nuse is. I’m sure she/he means well but when they’re lurking of Burubi and your by yourself then you gotta ooooo leg it!
I was packing it when that dolphin was ‘playing’ with us just out of sight. You know it’s a dolphin, but there’s always that little bit of doubt that tells you if it wasn’t a dolphin then it was a large thickly set shark that isn’t happy!
& yes that SMH is random, I know they’re trying to be smart but I don’t see how sins are related to surfing and never have 7 fins been associated with surfing. I mean that would just be silly. On the otherhand I’m watching the Pipe Master online. Productivity = zero!