Shark attack deaths

Well, one of those tagged Great Whites that you could track via the Ocearch Global Shark Tracker site has been killed & eaten.

The research team posted a statement on its blog site on Tuesday confirming the demise of the 3.6 metre female shark, which had been named Brenda Fassie.

"Caught in a gill net, the shark given the name Brenda by the Ocearch team was harvested by village fishermen who gave the meat to the village and sold the fins," the team said.

A Mozambican non-governmental organisation, a diving company and a volunteer travelled through remote areas to determine what had happened to the shark.

They eventually documented what had happened and retrieved the transmitter which had been attached to the animal's fin on March 8 in Mossel Bay.

Using the Ocearch's global tracking system, it appeared that the shark made a long journey up the Mozambican channel. It left the vicinity of Maputo on September 20 and was last tracked in the ocean near Quissico on October 4, before the tag started transmitting signals from the mainland.

Ocearch team leader Chris Fischer said the story had "opened the eyes" of the public to the threat to shark populations around the world.

"Tens of millions of sharks are harvested every year, the overwhelming majority of whose fate is neither tracked or revealed," he said in the statement.

"This event should demonstrate it is crucial for South Africa and Mozambique to work together to protect these threatened apex predators."
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Source

If you visit the site and track her, you can see that her last few pings did indeed come from onland.
 
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Do some sharks intentionally hunt humans? Do some sharks go rogue? Tune in to Animal Planet right now to find out.
 
I 'think' I might have have gotten lucky this morning due to a dolphin. Two bodies popped out of the water about 2-3m from me this morning with a splash and I saw a dolphin exhale from it's blowhole. It looked as if it was twisting it's body around another body. I got a bit of skrik but thought it's probably just two dolphins playing or mating. Now that I think back the behaviour just seems a bit strange to me, there were no other dolphins around (we only saw a pod come by 15-20min later), I was sitting further away from the crowd, they saw a splash and then my one mate saw a big 'thing' under water racing out of there. They though it was a shark but I told them it's two dolphins. I had also just cut my head (more like a scrape) a bit on my board but I did not see any blood although the skin was broken. Could also have been two dolphins fighting..

It was probably just two dolphins but I'm getting that eerie sensation where your hair stands up right now.
 
ponder said:
I 'think' I might have have gotten lucky this morning due to a dolphin. Two bodies popped out of the water about 2-3m from me this morning with a splash and I saw a dolphin exhale from it's blowhole. It looked as if it was twisting it's body around another body. I got a bit of skrik but thought it's probably just two dolphins playing or mating. Now that I think back the behaviour just seems a bit strange to me, there were no other dolphins around (we only saw a pod come by 15-20min later), I was sitting further away from the crowd, they saw a splash and then my one mate saw a big 'thing' under water racing out of there. They though it was a shark but I told them it's two dolphins. I had also just cut my head (more like a scrape) a bit on my board but I did not see any blood although the skin was broken. Could also have been two dolphins fighting..

It was probably just two dolphins but I'm getting that eerie sensation where your hair stands up right now.
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See look at the paranoia. This is what happens when people are exposed to sharks only through the media. As has been said millions upon millions of people get into water containing sharks each year and yet there were only 8 fatalities this year.

The insane fear of "omg something splashed in the water! It was a shark come to eat me!!" is irrational. There are so many things you are more likely to be killed by than a shark and you don't worry about those. Lightning springs to mind yet we don't have people irrationally fearing being struck by lightning. For instance you are for more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark yet nobody goes "omg I was in a wood and I heard the bushes rustling. It was probably a cow coming to kill me!!"

I really despise how the media has demonised these animals. Worse though is that people swallow the crap even after having seen the pathetically low attack figures.
 
porchrat said:
See look at the paranoia. This is what happens when people are exposed to sharks only through the media. As has been said millions upon millions of people get into water containing sharks each year and yet there were only 8 fatalities this year.

The insane fear of "omg something splashed in the water! It was a shark come to eat me!!" is irrational.
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You know as someone that has spent most of his life in the water, seen sharks before on many occasions quite close by and not have an issue with them I don't think it's fair to label me as paranoid & irrational.
 
porchrat said:
See look at the paranoia. This is what happens when people are exposed to sharks only through the media. As has been said millions upon millions of people get into water containing sharks each year and yet there were only 8 fatalities this year.

The insane fear of "omg something splashed in the water! It was a shark come to eat me!!" is irrational. There are so many things you are more likely to be killed by than a shark and you don't worry about those. Lightning springs to mind yet we don't have people irrationally fearing being struck by lightning. For instance you are for more likely to be killed by a cow than a shark yet nobody goes "omg I was in a wood and I heard the bushes rustling. It was probably a cow coming to kill me!!"

I really despise how the media has demonised these animals. Worse though is that people swallow the crap even after having seen the pathetically low attack figures.
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I get your point, but it seems like you have replied to the wrong post. I think Ponder is completely rational in his feelings given the circumstances described.
 
Spizz said:
I get your point, but it seems like you have replied to the wrong post. I think Ponder is completely rational in his feelings given the circumstances described.
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He is rational in seeing 2 things in the water and automatically thinking it was a shark coming to eat him and a dolphin saved his life?

Come on just read that sentence back to yourself and just try to tell me that is a rational conclusion to draw.
 
ponder said:
You know as someone that has spent most of his life in the water, seen sharks before on many occasions quite close by and not have an issue with them I don't think it's fair to label me as paranoid & irrational.
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Firstly, unless your job directly invovles you being in the water I highly doubt you have spent most of your life in the water in any literal sense.


Secondly, I'm not saying you are in general paranoid and irrational I'm saying you seem to behave that way when it comes to sharks and I blame this response on the media, not you.

I too have been in water with sharks many times and while I wouldn't jump into the water knowing there is a species near me that is known to attack humans unprovoked, I wouldn't assume that when I saw a shape in the water it was a shark and worse that it therefore posed an immediate danger to me. That is just strange.
 
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porchrat said:
He is rational in seeing 2 things in the water and automatically thinking it was a shark coming to eat him and a dolphin saved his life?

Come on just read that sentence back to yourself and just try to tell me that is a rational conclusion to draw.
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As I said, I get your point and it would probably apply to someone like me, but reading his story, it doesn't seem to apply here. For one he didn't automatically think it was a shark coming to eat him, his first impression was it was two dolphins and his friends said it was a shark.

So in retrospect as it was, and in the circumstances described, is it irrational to think it could actually have been a shark? Those 8 people a year are actual people and not just numbers, so no matter how slim the chance, is it irrational or stupid to think he will not be one of the unfortunates?
 
Spizz said:
As I said, I get your point and it would probably apply to someone like me, but reading his story, it doesn't seem to apply here. For one he didn't automatically think it was a shark coming to eat him, his first impression was it was two dolphins and his friends said it was a shark.

So in retrospect as it was, and in the circumstances described, is it irrational to think it could actually have been a shark? Those 8 people a year are actual people and not just numbers, so no matter how slim the chance, is it irrational or stupid to think he will not be one of the unfortunates?
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Is it irrational to worry about being attacked by a shark and then not worry vastly more about being struck by lightning or being killed by a cow? Yes.

We don't make big blockbuster movies about cows killing people like we do with sharks despite the massive disparity when it comes to the likelihood of injury. Sharks have a terrible and undeserved reputation.

The man now thinks a dolphin might have saved his life. His friends hint that it might have been a shark and suddenly in his mind it is a monster predator that wanted to eat him. Even if it was a shark that doesn't mean it was coming to eat him. As demonstrated by the statistics very very very few sharks, even amongst the few species that are known to have attacked humans unprovoked, actually attack. To think you were in danger when it is very very much more likely that you weren't is pretty darn irrational.

I wasn't there and so obviously am just giving my opinion but considering the information we have been given and how uncertain he was about what had actually happened the fact that he would entertain so prominently a scenario that is so bloody unlikely speaks volumes about what the media has done to our perception of sharks.
 
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porchrat said:
Is it irrational to worry about being attacked by a shark and then not worry vastly more about being struck by lightning or being killed by a cow? Yes.
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If he was surfing and there was some unexplained activity in the water nearby, yes. If he was playing golf in a thunder storm or dressed in a suit of grass unconscious in the middle of a massive herd of starving cows, then perhaps I'd be more worried about the other two.

porchrat said:
We don't make big blockbuster movies about cows killing people like we do with sharks despite the massive disparity when it comes to the likelihood of injury. Sharks have a terrible and undeserved reputation.

The man now thinks a dolphin might have saved his life. His friends hint that it might have been a shark and suddenly in his mind it is a monster predator that wanted to eat him. Even if it was a shark that doesn't mean it was coming to eat him. As demonstrated by the statistics very very very few sharks, even amongst the few species that are known to have attacked humans unprovoked, actually attack. To think you were in danger when it is very very much more likely that you weren't is pretty darn irrational.

I wasn't there and so obviously am just giving my opinion but considering the information we have been given and how uncertain he was about what had actually happened the fact that he would entertain so prominently a scenario that is so bloody unlikely speaks volumes about what the media has done to our perception of sharks.
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And generally, I agree. In this case, and I obviously wasn't there either, I disagree.

It sounds quite possible there may have been a shark in the water and in that case, it is surely not irrational to schit your pants. Even if, as you say, the chances are very slim that nothing would happen. Is that down to the media? It could be argued yes, but the fact that he's a surfer and attacks by sharks are not unknown, I'd say no.
 
porchrat, whatever dude. You are are right, I'm paranoid & irrational, every time I watch a shark documentary or hear about an attack I nervously look around my feat in the water the next day out of fear that Jaws is gonna get me. Every time I see a dolphin, whale shark, manta ray, turtle etc I actually see images of sharks in my mind and hastily make my way to the shore to avoid the monsters in my mind. Meanwhile the actual sharks I've been close to before I kinda ignored and we do see them occasionally.
 
We've all scared ourselves in the water. I've scared myself right out of the water. I experienced the same feeling of being "watched" when on vacation in the bush. This particular camp bordered the KNP and had wild animals in it and on a number of occassions Hyenas and Lions had been sighted in it. Suffice it to say when I wnt for a walk I was watching my back.
 
Seems like Sharks are now following people inland too. People in Vyf Brakke Fonteinen better be on the lookout

Sharks.jpg
 
Type RSA said:
Seems like Sharks are now following people inland too. People in Vyf Brakke Fonteinen better be on the lookout

Sharks.jpg
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Two weeks ago a 3.6m Great White was pinging on the Mozambiquan mainland and upon investigation they tracked the tracking beacon down to a village and learnt that the shark had been caught, finned and eaten.
 
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