An Australian surfer Jodie Cooper has described the moment that she was attacked by a shark while surfing off New South Wales. She said it grabbed hold of her hand as she paddled out from South Golden Beach, biting into her knuckles.
"It just came up from underneath me and just bit me, just like in the movies," she told Australian Associated Press. But Ms Cooper says the attack by the 1.5m (five foot) fish will not stop her surfing, comparing it to a dog bite.
"I just went 'okay, I'm being attacked by a shark'," Ms Cooper, who achieved the rank of world number two on the women's surfing circuit in the 1980s, told the AAP news agency.
"It's pretty classic, except lucky it was a small shark, a little five-foot thing," she added. "I didn't even see the thing the whole time, it just gave me a good old chomp on the hand and took a couple of knuckles."
Ms Cooper said she managed to get the animal off and warn her fellow surfers before catching a wave back in.
But she is keen to play down any notion that she was brave, saying that she was afraid the shark would return to another try.
"It's one of those things in all honesty that we can laugh about now and I'm just laughing about it."
But despite her fear Ms Cooper, who was treated in hospital, says she is determined to get back out on the water as soon as possible.
"It's just like I've been bitten by a big dog, just down to the bone on two knuckles, and then about 10 teeth lacerations up my hand," she said.
"There doesn't appear to be any ligament damage... and I can sort of wiggle my hand - I'll give it a couple of days and then I'll go surfing for sure."
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Australian surfer unfazed by shark bite
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Moose Downs Helicopter in Alaska
Reno, NV - A moose downed a helicopter in Alaska Wednesday after the moose had been shot with a tranquilizer gun. Instead of passing out, the moose charged the helicopter used by a wildlife biologist, damaging the aircraft's tail rotor and forcing it to the ground.
While neither the pilot or biologist were hurt in the moose attack, the animal had to be destroyed after being mangled in the helicopter's blades.
The moose attack took place outside Gustavus, Alaska, a village with a population of only 459 people about 50 miles northwest of Juneau in southeast Alaska. Gustavus is considered a hot tourist spot during the summer season and may play into why the biologist was working near the area in his attempt to tranquilize the moose.
In a telephone interview, a Gustavus business owner told AXcess News that he didn't think the moose was a member of any terrorist organization nor that the helpless animal had entered U.S. territory illegally in any plot against the U.S Department of Wildlife Conservation, who had chartered the helicopter for the biologist. "To my knowledge, the moose was a U.S. citizen," he stated jokingly.
A Department of Wildlife Conservation spokesperson said the moose attack against the helicopter was a "quirky circumstance". There was no mention of what happened to the moose after it was destroyed and if you're wondering, the moose was said to be no relation to Bullwinkle, but AXcess News could not confirm the moose's last name as apparently it was not carrying identification at the time of the helicopter attack.
Rumor has that it that the Bear Track Inn in Gustavus, Alaska had moose on its dinner menu Saturday night (just kidding).
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
"The Shark Swallowed His Head"
By now everyone knows about this guy who got chomped in January. Here is some video, plus some great quotes after the jump.
Full Story: A diver escaped a 10-foot shark's attack by poking the animal in its eye after it had already chomped on his head once and was preparing for another bite, witnesses and officials said Tuesday.
Eric Nerhus, 41, was flown to a hospital with serious injuries to his head, body and left arm after the attack Tuesday off Cape Howe, about 250 miles south of Sydney.
The shark grabbed Nerhus by the head, crushing his face mask and breaking his nose, said Dennis Luobikis, a fellow diver who witnessed the attack.
"He was actually bitten by the head down — the shark swallowed his head," Luobikis said.
The shark, believed to be a great white, came back for a second bite, clenching its jaws around Nerhus' torso and leaving deep lacerations in his side, said Luobikis.
Nerhus wrestled free of the shark's jaws, and later told rescue workers he had poked the shark in the eye, spokeswoman Debbie Lowry of the Snowy Hydro Rescue Helicopter service told local media.
"Eric is a tough boy. He's super fit," said Luobikis. "But I would say that would test anyone's resolve, being a fish lunch."
Shark attacks are relatively common in Australian waters, home to some of the world's deadliest sea life. Scientists say there are an average of 15 shark attacks a year in Australia — one of the highest rates in the world — and just over 1 per year are fatal.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Weasel Attack
Woman recounts weasel's attack
By ANNE MILLER, Staff writer
GLENVILLE -- A frightening growl greeted Louise Scheuerman when she took out the trash. But as she turned to run inside her home, an animal followed, sank its teeth in to her right instep and wouldn't let go.
Scheuerman on Tuesday recounted her harrowing encounter with a rabid fisher, a day after the animal -- a member of the weasel family -- attacked her at her home at 839 Sanders Ave.
Glenville police later tracked, shot and killed the 12-pound animal. The Department of Environmental Conservation announced Tuesday that the fisher was rabid, explaining its unusually aggressive behavior.
Scheuerman, 60, who was treated for the bite in the Ellis Hospital emergency room, said she figured the animal must have had rabies. For the next month, she will undergo a series of shots to protect her from the disease.
Scheuerman, said she had encountered feral cats in that county. But she said she never imagined anything like that here -- in a more urban area.
Monday evening, she decided to take out the trash and go for a walk, taking advantage of the relatively mild weather.
Instead, she heard a growl. She turned to run back inside, but was too late.
"It knocked me to the floor and just continued to bite," she said.
To fend off the attack, Scheuerman grabbed a fire extinguisher.
"I thought I could spray it, but then I thought, I don't have time to read the directions, so I just swung away."
The animal let go, ran into the house, lapped a room and dashed out again. Scheuerman closed the garage door and walked inside, only then noticing the blood pooling in her shoe.
She called her husband, who told her to call police.
"I was pretty hysterical," she said.
She didn't need stitches and can walk on her foot. By Tuesday evening, the swelling had receded, and she remained philosophical about the impending rabies shots after receiving the first one.
"It didn't hurt as much as the animal biting," she said.
As for taking out the garbage, she said her husband can handle that chore now.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
New Sharks, Rays Discovered in Indonesia
James Owen for National Geographic News
March 1, 2007
At least 20 previously unknown species of sharks and r
ays have been found during a survey of local fish markets in Indonesia, scientists say.
The five-year study focused on catches from tropical seas around the Southeast Asian country, which encompasses more than 17,000 islands (Indonesia map).
So far six of the new species have been described in scientific journals. These include the Bali catshark, the Jimbaran shovelnose ray, and the Hortle's whipray (see photos of some of the species found during the survey).
Scientists are preparing to describe a further 14 of the species.
In total more than 130 species were sampled between 2001 and 2006 at 11 ports across Indonesia.
The Australian-led team behind the study says their work will provide the first ever detailed description of Indonesia's sharks and rays, including information critical to the marine animals' conservation.
Indonesia has the most diverse ray and shark fauna in the world, said study co-author William White, of the marine research division of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) based in Hobart, Tasmania.
The island region also has the world's largest shark and ray fishery, White said, with reported landings of more than 110,000 tons (100,000 metric tons) a year.
"Good taxonomic information is critical to managing shark and ray species, which reproduce relatively slowly and are extremely vulnerable to overfishing," White said in statement.
"Before this survey, however, there were vast gaps in our knowledge of sharks and rays in this region."
Conservation Aid
In addition to cataloging new species, the Australian team's data will be used for estimating population sizes, assessing the impacts of fishing, and developing conservation measures for at-risk species.
Sarah Fowler is co-chair of the shark specialist group for the nonprofit World Conservation Union (IUCN).
Fowler said the survey is a "really important start toward the process of providing names for these animals and starting to draw people's attention to the fact they could be threatened almost before they are described."
More than 800 specimens collected during the fish market trawls are now lodged at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense on the Indonesian island of Java and at the Australian National Fish Collection in Hobart.
The survey also forms the basis of a new field guide called Economically Important Sharks and Rays of Indonesia that is available in English and Indonesian.
The guide represents the first in-depth report of Indonesia's sharks and rays since Dutch scientist Pieter Bleeker described more than 1,100 new fish species between 1842 and 1860, the survey team said.
At the time scientists in Europe rejected Bleeker's finds, saying they doubted such high levels of diversity could exist among marine life.
However, many of the species Bleeker described were rediscovered more than a century later in fish markets in Jakarta in the mid-1990s.
New Species Bonanza
Indonesia, the world's most extensive archipelago, is thought to have the highest diversity of native marine wildlife in the world.
A recent expedition to the seas of West Papua led by the nonprofit Conservation International turned up some 50 previously unknown species, including sharks that "walk" along coral reefs on their fins.
(See photos of the "walking" shark and other new species found during the 2006 expedition.)
"It's extraordinary—for large animals like this—just how many new species are being discovered," IUCN's Fowler said.
She noted, however, that in nearby Australia more than 30 percent of sharks and rays are found nowhere else.
"So it's not a surprise that as people go through the markets in Indonesia that they find these new species," she said.
Many of the smaller sharks living in the waters around Indonesia are not found elsewhere, she added, because they are not good swimmers.
The main threat to such populations comes from small, intensive coastal fisheries and subsistence fisheries.
Together, she said, both fishing practices "take very, very large quantities of sharks and rays."
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Volusia County Still Shark-Bite Capital
Florida, and Volusia County in particula, holds on to its title of shark bite capital of the world.
According to to a study by the University of Florida, the state saw 23 shark bites in 2006. Of those, 12 were in Volusia County, compared to nine in 2005.
Florida’s number of bites increased by four between 2005 and 2006, but remains low compared to the state’s average of 33 between 2000 and 2003.
Australia had seven bites, South Africa had four and Brazil had three. None of Florida's attacks were fatal and the report said attacks in Volusia County are seldom serious. However, deaths resulted from four of the 62 worldwide attacks, one each in Australia, Brazil, La Reunion and Tonga.
The report attributes the long-term decline in attacks to overfishing and increasingly cautious swimmers. It also noted that many vactioners are not taking precautions when traveling to remote areas of the world with primarily native populations. For example, tourists often don't ask about the areas that are dangerous for swimming.
Shark Bite Sinks Shrimp Boat
February 6, 2007 FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. -- Capt. Roger Schmall said a group of sharks had been slamming into the Christy Nichole's hull for four days, But then a 14-foot bull shark broke the boat's tail shaft, leaving Schmall and his crew of two adrift about 100 miles off the coast.
Schmall radioed for help, and another vessel picked the crew up about two hours later. He remained aboard his ship to pump water out while the other boat pulled it back to land. Schmall said it was working for a couple of hours, but the waves eventually took their toll on Schmall's boat and the boat sank. The crew made it to shore safely.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Dinosauric shark-eel thingy!
Just seen and video'd in Japan.
Wow. Wonder if it bites?
Type rest of the post here
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Marin: Surfer Survives Shark Bite
Monday Dec 11: Royce Frailey, a 43-year-old from Guernville, was surfing with friends before he was attacked around 11:50 a.m. off Dillon Beach in northwest Marin County, according to Marin County fire Capt. Rick Wonneberger.
The great white shark attack was the first to happen in that vicinity in about 10 years, a fire captain said.
Before Sunday's incident, Wonneberger said he could recall only one other shark attack in the area, a nonfatal bite occurring about 10 years ago.
Frailey suffered minimal wounds, as the predator apparently sunk only one jaw's worth of teeth into the surfer's surfboard.
The board showed teeth marks from the attack, and Frailey himself was pulled 15 feet under the waves before the shark let go of his thigh and leg, the captain said.
"He is very lucky to be alive," Wonneberger said.
Frailey was paddling facedown when he felt a surge of water and then a bite, the fire captain said.
A friend who was surfing 10 feet away from Frailey said it was a great white shark measuring between 12 and 15 feet.
Backpackers save shark bite man
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 British backpackers helped a surfer after he was attacked by a shark off Australia's famous Bells Beach.
The 25-year-old surfer was out at dusk and had his left leg mauled before he managed to reach shore.
Peter Galvin was surfing a shallow reef called Winki Pop, just near the Bells surf break on Australia's south coast, when the shark attacked him from below, authorities said.
"The victim was sitting on his board with his legs dangling over the side and the shark has come up from underneath and grabbed his left leg in the calf and thigh area," senior police constable Lisa Kearney told local media.
Galvin received puncture wounds to the top of his calf and a major gash under his knee and, after being treated by fellow surfers and the unknown English banckpackers on the beach.
He was flown to hospital in Melbourne where he was in a serious but stable condition.
Just over two weeks ago another surfer had his leg bitten off by a shark off a remote beach in Western Australia.
The latest attack in the southern state of Victoria has again sparked debate on whether to kill the attacking shark.
Sharks, even Great Whites, are a protected in Australia.
Australia's peak surfing body wants the shark hunted down to stop it attacking again at the popular Bells surf break, which hosts a professional surfing contest each year.
"It is not a nice thing (to hunt down the shark), but I don't think any surfer wants it hanging around," said Steve Robertson from Surfing Australia.
But Victoria's state premier, Steve Bracks, ruled out hunting the shark. "The reality is that shark could be anywhere. There could be new sharks in the area," Bracks told reporters.
"The reality is that this is obviously a random attack and a regrettable one," he said.