Shark Attacks

[ramonmercado]

Shark kills fisherman in kayak off coast of Hawaii
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25196122

Maui, Hawaii, pictured on 9 November 1998

Eight shark attacks have been reported near Maui, Hawaii, in 2013 alone

A fisherman in a kayak has died after being attacked by a shark off the Hawaiian coast, officials say.

Patrick Briney, 57, of Stevenson, Washington, was paddling between the islands of Maui and Molokini when he was bitten by an unknown type of shark.

The man was taken by a friend to a nearby tour boat but died before reaching the Maui mainland.

It is the second fatal shark attack in Hawaii this year. A German tourist died following a shark attack in August.

Beaches closed
The fisherman was said to have been using artificial lures to attract fish when his foot was bitten by a shark on Monday morning, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

The man's friend, kayaking nearby, applied a tourniquet and flagged a nearby charter tour boat for assistance.

The man was later transported to a local hospital but died from his injuries.

Department of Land and Natural Resources officials closed several nearby beaches following the attack, and are expected to reopen them sometime on Tuesday.

It is the eighth reported shark attack near Maui this year.

But, prior to an attack in August that claimed the life of a 20-year-old German tourist, no-one had been reported killed by a shark in Hawaii since 2004.

 

[colinbaker32]

I'm surprise shark attacks make that much news, sharks need to eat and even if there has not been one in a certain place for ages then it is still not safe.

I suppose if there is one where there has not been an attack for ages then it's best to steer clear.

 

[ramonmercado]

Fought the shark off, stitched himself up and went for a beer.

New Zealand doctor 'stitches up leg' after shark attack
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25925081

James Grant, who is a doctor, describes the attack

A doctor in New Zealand has told the BBC how he fought off a shark attack with a knife, stitched up his wounds, then went to the pub for a beer.

James Grant, 24, was spear fishing near Colac Bay in New Zealand's southern coast on Saturday when - as he tells it - "something latched onto my leg".

He was able to fend off what he believes to be a sevengill shark by stabbing it with a knife.

He then swam to shore and stitched up his leg using a first aid kit.

"I had just gotten into the water, killed a fish and something latched onto my leg," Dr Grant told the BBC.

"I thought it might have been one of my diving buddies, turned around... big shark had latched on. What I did was I just put a couple of little stitches in to take it back together," he said.

Warren Bevin at the Colac Bay Tavern told Reuters news agency he gave Dr Grant a pint of beer.

Mr Bevin added that Dr Grant's "mates were kicking around laughing and he brought out the big first aid kit and got a little bandage out".

Dr Grant said the rest of the stitches were done by a friend who worked as a surgeon at a hospital.

He added that the shark bit into his wetsuit but did not do much damage to his skin. And while there were some punctures at the back of his leg, he did not have a scar, he said.

 

[ramonmercado]

Formula 1 star Eddie Irvine tells of battle with seven foot shark
By Nuala McCann
BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25969372

Eddie Irvine

Eddie Irvine was diving in the Bahamas when he had a close encounter with a shark

Former Formula One racing driver Eddie Irvine has described how he faced the chase of his life after he fought off a 7ft (2.1m) shark with a spear.

The retired racing star from Northern Ireland was swimming and spear fishing for dinner near his Bahamas home.

Suddenly, the 48-year-old came face to face with the shark.

"I hit a big snapper, but the spear went right through it. A big ray came past me and behind it was a 7ft lemon shark," he said.

"It was swimming more aggressively than I had seen before.

"My island is surrounded by them, but normally they are just three or four footers.

Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

There was nothing I could do until he got within about 3ft (0.9m), when I could jab him with my spear”

Eddie Irvine
"I watched him and started making for shore and he started to follow me - I swam backwards keeping my eye on him and he circled again - then he just came straight for me.

"There was nothing I could do until he got within about 3ft (0.9m), when I could jab him with my spear."

Irvine, who drove for Jordan, Ferrari and Jaguar over a nine-year Formula 1 career, said he hit the shark "somewhere on the nose" and it turned away but circled back. He said he scrambled on to nearby rocks as the shark returned once more.

"There are lots of sharks here," he said, "I saw a 12ft (3.7m) tiger the other day from the boat."

Earlier this month, Irvine, 48, faced trouble of a different kind when he was sentenced to six months in jail by an Italian court.

He was convicted after a brawl with an Italian man in a Milan nightclub.

Irvine, and Gabriele Moratti, the son of a former Milan mayor, were found guilty of "mutual injury".

It is not yet clear if the retired racing driver will actually have to serve time in jail.

 

[ramonmercado]

Just wait till they bite you?

Australian fined for killing great white shark
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26166901

The great white shark killed in Sussex Inlet, Australia

The shark was injured by the boat's propeller and then suffered several blows to its head

An Australian man who killed a great white shark by ramming it with his boat and beating it with a pole has been fined A$18,000 ($16,000; £9,000).

The 40-year-old man was found guilty of harming a threatened species by a court in New South Wales (NSW) on Thursday.

The incident occurred in January 2012 at Sussex Inlet, south of Sydney. One other man has also been charged.

Great white sharks are protected in Australian waters. Officials say they are important to the local ecosystem.

According to witnesses, the man herded the young shark into shallow water and deliberately hit it with his boat several times, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said in a statement.

The shark's main injuries came from the boat's propeller, the DPI said.

The great white shark killed in Sussex Inlet, Australia
Great white sharks are found along NSW's coastline
A rope was then tied onto the shark's tail and it was towed onto a boat ramp by a second boat, where it was beaten on the head with a metal pole multiple times, the DPI added.

The man was fined and required to cover court costs. The second man, who helped tow the shark, was also charged.

"This conviction sends a strong message that harming our threatened species will not be tolerated - everyone needs to know the rules and ignorance is no excuse," Glenn Tritton, director of fisheries compliance at the DPI, said.

 

[ramonmercado]

Shark kills woman swimming off New South Wales beach
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26863565

Mrs Armstrong was swimming between the wharf and the beach

A woman has been killed by a shark while swimming off a popular beach in Australia's New South Wales.

Christine Armstrong, 63, was swimming between the wharf and the beach in Tathra village when she was attacked.

Police said her husband saw the shape of a shark which looked between three and four metres long, reports said.

Police closed the beach while boats and helicopters searched for her body, but the search was later called off due to bad weather.

Partial human remains had been found, ABC News reported citing emergency services, but they had not yet been confirmed as linked to the missing woman.

View from a search helicopter combing the Tathra coast
Mrs Armstrong was part of a group that regularly swam from the wharf to the beach in Tathra
Local council general manager Leanne Barnes told the Associated Press news agency that Mrs Armstrong's swimming group met at the beach every morning to swim out to the wharf and back.

She was swimming with a group of people early on Thursday morning, but had turned back from the group and was on her own when she was attacked, police said.

Mrs Armstrong's family said in a statement that she had been swimming at Tathra Beach for 14 years.

"She will be sadly missed by all who loved her, especially by Rob, her husband of 44 years."

It is not yet clear what species of shark it was.

There have been several shark attacks off Australia's beaches in recent months.

In Western Australia, police say they believe a 38-year-old man who went missing while diving near Perth last week may have been taken by a shark.

Human remains have been found with evidence of shark bites, but it was not clear if these occurred before or after death, police said.

The Western Australia government recently ordered a cull of sharks, following six fatal shark attacks off the state's beaches in three years.

Baited hooks have been installed off Perth's popular beaches. Any shark more than three metres long - which could include Great White, Tiger and Bull sharks - will be shot.

The controversial move prompted thousands of people to take part in protests against the culls.

 

[ramonmercado]

Interesting perspective from a survivor: One opponent of the cull is shark attack survivor Rodney Fox. Fifty years ago he suffered a horrific attack from a great white in South Australia but since then has become a dedicated shark advocate.

"We just have to learn how to live with the sharks and not just kill them from fear," he told me. He thinks killing sharks deliberately is an unscientific and irrational strategy to try to reduce the attack rate.

Can science stop sharks attacking humans?
By Helen Scales
Science reporter
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26786142

Sharks have patrolled the oceans for at least 400 million years and evolved into a huge range of remarkable species.

There are deep sea lantern sharks that glow in the dark, wobbegong sharks that grow shaggy beards, and majestic, plankton-sifting whale sharks - the biggest fish in the sea.

Nevertheless, when many people think of these animals, one thing comes to mind: shark attacks.

As a beachgoer, diver or surfer your chances of encountering a shark, let alone being killed by one, are in fact incredibly slim; lightning strikes, bee stings and car accidents all pose far more of a threat than sharks.

In reality, people kill millions more sharks than sharks kill people.

A quarter of all shark species, and their relatives the rays, are threatened with extinction, according to a recent report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The main threat to sharks is overfishing and in greatest peril are the largest species.

Shark-repellent wetsuits
The striped suit tells sharks a diver is not safe to eat, while the blue design acts as camouflage
But a controversial cull of sharks was recently ordered in Western Australia following a spate of attacks.

Scientists are now looking at other approaches to deal with the shark attack issue.

Prof Shaun Collin is leading a University of Western Australia (UWA) team of neurobiologists who are learning to think like sharks.

"We're trying to tread this very fine line of protecting both humans and sharks at the same time," Prof Collin told the BBC World Service programme Discovery.

By studying shark brains and shark senses, the team is developing and testing various non-lethal repellents. The aim is to manipulate the sharks' finely-tuned senses in ways that discourage them from approaching and attacking people.

One of these is a "shark-proof" wetsuit designed to make people look like poisonous, black and white banded sea snakes, something that many sharks tend to avoid.

The stripy wetsuit was first thought up years ago by marine biologist Walter Starck. Now a detailed understanding of shark vision is helping the UWA team to bring this idea up to date.

Nathan Hart, assistant professor at UWA, explained to me that sharks don't see as well as humans.

"We've made sure that the size of the bands can be detected by a shark from a certain distance," he says.

Tests of the new wetsuit design are currently underway. This involves wrapping the fabric around a barrel filled with dead fish and watching how sharks respond to it in the wild.

It is still early days, but so far, Nathan told me, the results have been encouraging.

"Based on what we know about the sensory systems of sharks, they should reduce your risk to some extent," he says.

"Just like a seatbelt in a car, it doesn't reduce your risk to zero; it's a matter of reducing your risk by a certain amount and by as much as possible," he adds.

Shark dive boat in Fiji
Divers in Fiji have trained the sharks how to behave in return for food
As well as trying to protect individual swimmers, another tactic is to make certain areas out of bounds to sharks.

"We can try and define areas on the beaches where people are confident they can go and swim," says Dr Hart.

Bubble curtains could be deployed to keep sharks away from popular beaches.

The idea is to lay perforated hosepipes across the seabed and pump air through them and create a plume of bubbles that sharks may decide not to swim through.

Sharks can see and hear the bubbles and also feel them with their lateral line, a system of sense organs many fish have.

"It's a system of what's known as 'distant touch'; it detects vibrations and very low-frequency sound in the water," Nathan explained.

Early tests showed that tiger sharks eventually pluck up the courage to cross a barrier of bubbles, suggesting they have the ability to learn.

Eugenie Clark, a veteran marine biologist at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida, pioneered studies of shark learning back in the 1950s.

Nicknamed "The Shark Lady", Dr Clark trained captive sharks to press targets with their snouts and ring bells for a food reward. She showed for the first time that sharks can learn and remember things.

Eugenie told me about the time she took a trained baby nurse shark as a gift for the Crown Prince of Japan who shared her fascination with fish.

"The airline gave me an extra seat for the shark. Most people didn't know, he was such a tiny thing he was less than two feet long. But he never made a mistake," says Eugenie.

Recently, I witnessed for myself the capacity sharks have to learn and in particular that they can learn not to attack people.

I went diving off the Pacific island of Fiji and saw my first bull sharks, notorious as one of the most aggressive shark species.

Locals from Beqa Adventure Divers have trained a population of around 100 bull sharks to approach a diver, one-by-one, and gently take a chunk of fish offered to them by hand.

The sharks have learned how to behave if they want food.

"They know us very well," Fijian divemaster Papa told me before I jumped in the water. "That's the good thing, they know what's going on."

Preparing for the dive, I wasn't exactly sure how I would react to seeing these giant predators. But as soon as I got down beneath the waves my nerves evaporated and I saw just how graceful and calm bull sharks can be.

Male tiger shark killed as part of Western Australia cull
The Western Australia government responded to a recent spate of attacks with a cull
There was no safety cage or any sort of repellent and I never felt in any kind of danger.

As well as helping to shift the sharks' bad reputation as insatiable killers, the Fijian divers are showing that a live shark in the water is worth far more than a dead one.

In Fiji and elsewhere around the world, sharks are under immense pressure from the demand in Asia for shark fin soup.

Back in Western Australia, the shark cull continues amid beachside protests.

The problem has been an abnormal high in shark attacks, with seven fatalities over the last three years compared with 20 in the last century.

The response of the Western Australia government has been to lay baited hooks offshore from popular beaches. Any great white, tiger and bull sharks that are caught and are larger than 3m long are shot and dumped at sea.

One opponent of the cull is shark attack survivor Rodney Fox. Fifty years ago he suffered a horrific attack from a great white in South Australia but since then has become a dedicated shark advocate.

"We just have to learn how to live with the sharks and not just kill them from fear," he told me.

He thinks killing sharks deliberately is an unscientific and irrational strategy to try to reduce the attack rate.

But Western Australia's government says the cull is in place to protect swimmers and surfers. Premier Colin Barnett has said: "The West Australian government is absolutely confident that the policy in place is the right policy and we intend to continue it."

An open letter from more than 100 scientists has urged Mr Barnett to reconsider the cull, highlighting its environmental impact and the low chance of catching the individual sharks responsible for the attacks.

"Every scientist that I've heard of and talked to all agree that it's not the thing to do," says Mr Fox.

 

[Loquaciousness]

Apparently a woman was killed off the coast of Australia by a shark this morning. I don't know what the answer is to the 'shark problem' is. I can see the sense in selectively culling shark who have gone feral, as they might well pass on their newly learnt behaviour to future generations which might cause a bigger problem. However, I am not sure how this would work in practical terms of getting the right shark.
Personally, I stopped swimming in the Med when I discovered it had one of the biggest breeding populations of great whites. That and the fact that there were slicks of rubbish and what I suspect was human excrement....

 

[rynner2]

I don't know what the answer is to the 'shark problem' is. I can see the sense in selectively culling shark who have gone feral, as they might well pass on their newly learnt behaviour to future generations which might cause a bigger problem.

What? :shock: Sharks don't 'go' feral, they are born 'feral'; that's their nature, and has been for millions of years.

Evidence for the existence of sharks dates from the Ordovician period, 450–420 million years ago, before land vertebrates existed and before many plants had colonized the continents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark#Evolution

 

[Loquaciousness]

Feral was a poor choice of words. I meant a very small percentage of sharks have become conditioned to seeing humans as food. Yes, they have always been feral, every wild animal is. I meant feral more in a colloquial sense, in terms of going rogue.

 

[ramonmercado]

'Distressed' great white shark attacks swimmer off Californian coast after getting caught in fishing line

Steven Robles, 40, was one of a group of long-distance swimmers off Manhattan Beach

A swimmer has survived being bitten by a 7ft great white shark off the Californian coast.

The attack happened after the shark got caught in a fisherman’s hook for half an hour, with the carnivore growing increasingly distressed at not being able to free itself.

Fifteen unsuspecting long-distance swimmers then neared the shark, with one man, Steven Robles, 40, getting caught in the fishing line.

He was bitten on the side of his rib cage about 270m off Manhattan Beach in southern California at 9.30am local time yesterday.

Eye witness Eric Martin said that the shark’s mouth had been opening and closing as if trying to shake off the hook.

Mr Robles Injured Mr Robles was placed on a surfer’s board after fishermen cut the line.

He was attended to by Los Angeles County lifeguards before paramedics began treating him. His injuries - lacerations and puncture wounds - were not life threatening and he was taken to hospital conscious.

A video of the incident seemingly has the swimmer's cries of pain as others shout "shark" and attempt to usher people out of the water. "It already bit someone!” somebody else is heard saying.

A lifeguard at the beach said that it’s not uncommon for sharks to get as close as it did, but that this case was unique because it was agitated. ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 87407.html

 

[Cyclops]

Poor shark. Its mouth was probably opening and closing because it was struggling to breathe - they have to move through the water to keep water passing over their gills. I'm not surprised it bit the nearest biteable object. It must have been panicking and asphyxiating.

 

[ramonmercado]

Poor shark. Its mouth was probably opening and closing because it was struggling to breathe - they have to move through the water to keep water passing over their gills. I'm not surprised it bit the nearest biteable object. It must have been panicking and asphyxiating.

Sharks have been known to attack and even eat swimmers in the past.

 

[Cyclops]

Poor shark. Its mouth was probably opening and closing because it was struggling to breathe - they have to move through the water to keep water passing over their gills. I'm not surprised it bit the nearest biteable object. It must have been panicking and asphyxiating.

Sharks have been known to attack and even eat swimmers in the past.

I'm aware of that, although often their "attacks" are actually them using their mouths (their most sensitive tactile organ) to find out what this strange thing is, and whether it's edible. They often don't continue the attack because our percentage of fat is too low and of bone is too high. In this case I actually feel quite sorry for the creature.

 

[ramonmercado]

Swim with a sea lion, its safer ... for you.

Australia shark 'chokes on sea lion'

A great white shark that washed up on an Australian beach may have choked on a sea lion, fisheries officials said.

The 4m-long (13ft) shark was filmed thrashing about in shallow waters at Coronation Beach, north of Perth.

The Western Australia Department of Fisheries said in a statement that it found "no visible signs of injury or disease" but discovered "a large Australian sea lion" in its throat.

Scientists said the shark could have been trying to dislodge the blockage.

"This could explain why the shark was exhibiting such unusual behaviour," principal research scientist Rory McAuley said.

"Such a large object may have damaged the shark's internal organs or impeded water flow into his gills, contributing to his death."

"Alternatively, the shark may have accidentally become stranded in his attempts to get rid of the obstruction." ...

Eyewitness Brad Tapper, who had been at the beach at the weekend with his family, told the Western Australian newspaper that the shark returned to shore despite efforts from some beachgoers to tow it out to sea.

"When we spotted it, it was about 50m off shore and we thought it was a diver or something," he said.

"We went to look at it, it started kicking and thrashing around again so we thought it was time to leave."

The shark, which officials said had been fitted with an acoustic tag in South Australia this year, was found washed up on the sand on Tuesday.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28339886

 

[ramonmercado]

An eco-friendly way to reduce shark attacks

Last month, a great white shark nearly killed a surfer off the California coast. Stopping such attacks is tricky: Slaying sharks angers environmentalists, and, according to research, it doesn’t actually reduce the attack rates. Shark nets, meanwhile, kill large numbers of by-catch, such as dolphins, seals, manatees, rays, turtles, and birds.

So officials in Recife, Brazil, sought another solution to address the abnormally high numbers of shark attacks—55 incidents resulting in 19 deaths between 1992 and 2011—along a 20-kilometer stretch of the country’s shoreline. In May 2004, the newly created Shark Monitoring Program of Recife installed nearly two dozen drumlines and two longlines—two types of specialized fishing gear—with hooks sized to target seven potentially aggressive shark species: tiger, bull (pictured), blacktip, silky, Caribbean reef, scalloped hammerhead, and great hammerhead. When caught, fishermen hauled these sharks onboard and released them away from swimmers and surfers.

Although these species accounted for just 7% of overall catch, most were tiger and bull sharks, the most likely culprits in the attacks. Marine catfish predominated the by-catch, along with snappers, moray eels, groupers, nurse sharks, blacknose sharks, and stingrays, but only 22% of this by-catch died and virtually no endangered species were killed.

Over the initiative’s 8 years, shark attacks declined 97%, compared with the years before the program began and during the five intervals when insufficient funding suspended the program, researchers report this month in Animal Conservation. This method is labor-intensive and costly when scaled up, but compared with other tactics, it has the lowest ecological impact—other than doing nothing—while reducing shark bites and protecting endangered species, the researchers say.

http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-anima ... rk-attacks

 

[ramonmercado]

More bloody chauvinism.

Sharks are 'nine times more likely' to kill men than women in unprovoked attacks

A study shows men have been the victims of 89% of all recent fatal shark bites

Sharks are nine times more likely to kill men than women, a new study has revealed.

Research examining unprovoked shark-attacks found men were the subject of 84 per cent of all unprovoked shark attacks, and were the victims of 89 per cent of all shark bite deaths between 1982 and 2011.

The team at Australia’s Bond University were so surprised by the data they had to double check their results, the lead author Daryl McPhee told The Telegraph.

Professor McPhee said the study focused specifically on unprovoked shark attacks, as there have been a surprising number of ‘provoked’ incidents recorded.

Describing examples of provoked shark attacks, he said: "People patting sharks on the head, making them angry, putting their hand in the shark's mouth to get a fishing hook out. Jumping on sharks and trying to ride them.

"There are provoked shark attacks that should win Darwin Awards.”

He said the disparity between the number of attacks on men and women could be because men spend more time in water, and are more “risk-prone”. ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 16418.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Vid at link.

Man dies after Australia shark attack
Attack at popular tourist spots prompts authorities to close down the beach

A man has died following a shark attack at one of Australia’s most popular tourist spots in New South Wales. Officers and paramedics were called to Main Beach in Byron Bay after the man, believed to be in his 40s, was bitten on his right leg, police said in a statement. He was seen floating in shallow water close to shore and dragged onto the beach, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. There have been about 170 fatal shark attacks in the past 100 years in Australia, according to researchers at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.

Channel 9 television showed footage of an estimated 2-meter-long shark off the Byron Bay beach not long after today’s attack. ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/as ... -1.1922694

 

[McAvennie]

If you must swim in their kitchen don't be surprised to end up on a plate...

 

[ramonmercado]

If you must swim in their kitchen don't be surprised to end up on a plate...

I don't think Ozzies would agree that all of the seas around Oz are a kitchen.

If someone made such a joke about how Scottish fishermen should expect to be drowned if they decide to work at sea then I doubt if you would be amused.

 

[McAvennie]

If you must swim in their kitchen don't be surprised to end up on a plate...

I don't think Ozzies would agree that all of the seas around Oz are a kitchen.

If someone made such a joke about how Scottish fishermen should expect to be drowned if they decide to work at sea then I doubt if you would be amused.

Not really a valid comparison though is it. And it wasn't made in jest.

Going fishing as a human in boat, higher up the food chain than the fish you are catching I wouldn't expect the fish to have any impact on whether I drowned. Going into territory that is known to be the home of larger predators which, maybe not intentionally, might have a bite at me is a far greater risk and presenting yourself as a potential catch for any sharks that are in the vicinity. As enjoyable as going in the sea is, and however rare shark attacks may be, I still feel it is too big a risk to take going swimming in those seas at depths in which such large predatory sharks could be present.

Shoddy repair-work by my fellow humans or catastrophic weather might be factors that would lead to my demise as a fisherman, but given that it is a semi-regular occurrence for fishing boats to be lost off the Scottish coast it is something that I would be aware of as an occupational hazard and a risk that I would also be taking into account before accepting a job as a fisherman.

In both cases, unless in extreme circumstances, I'd not take the risk of doing either.

 

[ramonmercado]

Sharks are found in the sea just off beaches near major cities in Australia. Basically you are saying that Australians should stay out of the water.

Theres only room for one at the top of the food chain. Time for shark culls.

 

[McAvennie]

Sharks are found in the sea just off beaches near major cities in Australia. Basically you are saying that Australians should stay out of the water.

Theres only room for one at the top of the food chain. Time for shark culls.

Australians can do what they want. I personally would stay out of the water, as the only culling going on will be sharks culling those who choose to swim in their territory.

Not sure how you managed to twist what I said into me claiming humans were above sharks in the food chain and that they should be protected by a mass culling of sharks.

 

[ramonmercado]

Sharks are found in the sea just off beaches near major cities in Australia. Basically you are saying that Australians should stay out of the water.

Theres only room for one at the top of the food chain. Time for shark culls.

Australians can do what they want. I personally would stay out of the water, as the only culling going on will be sharks culling those who choose to swim in their territory.

Not sure how you managed to twist what I said into me claiming humans were above sharks in the food chain and that they should be protected by a mass culling of sharks.

No, I'm saying that that.

You do seem to hold sharks in higher esteem than Ozzies though. Some Scots emigrate to or go on holiday to Oz as well you know.

 

[McAvennie]

Pretty sure sharks don't do passport checks before having a nip at someone swimming in their domain.

 

[ramonmercado]

Pretty sure sharks don't do passport checks before having a nip at someone swimming in their domain.

But you seem to think that anyone who swims in the sea off Australia deserves it if they get eaten by a shark.

 

[ramonmercado]

Paul Wilcox killed by shark at Byron Bay, Australia

Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

Paul Wilcox's mother said he was "very loyal, cheerful and considerate"

The mother of a man killed by a shark in Australia says he died "doing what he wanted to do".

Paul Wilcox, 50, suffered severe leg injuries during the attack off a beach in Byron Bay, the most easterly point on the mainland.

His parents, Marie and Bryan, of Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr in north Wales, spoke to their son hours before he died on his regular morning swim. Ms Wilcox said of her son: "I adored him". She added: "Paul and I - I can honestly say - since he was an adult....never had a cross word.

"I absolutely adored him and I want people to know that."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north- ... s-29132909

 

[McAvennie]

Pretty sure sharks don't do passport checks before having a nip at someone swimming in their domain.

But you seem to think that anyone who swims in the sea off Australia deserves it if they get eaten by a shark.

I wouldn't say deserve, but they are certainly making tentative enquiries about their eligibility for a Darwin Award.

 

[dreeness]

A bear comes into town, shoot it. Simple as that.

 

[ramonmercado]

Pretty sure sharks don't do passport checks before having a nip at someone swimming in their domain.

But you seem to think that anyone who swims in the sea off Australia deserves it if they get eaten by a shark.

I wouldn't say deserve, but they are certainly making tentative enquiries about their eligibility for a Darwin Award.

You are a nasty piece of work.