Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Incident Mar. 24, 2012 - Florida - Joey Coppola
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March 24, 2012
Joey Coppola
New Smyrna Beach, Florida
At approximately 2pm, Joey Coppola, 21, was surfing in about 4-feet of water near the south jetty at New Smyrna Beach when he was bitten on the foot by an unidentified shark. He had minor lacerations and declined medical treatment after the bite but planned on having a friend drive him to the hospital.
Source:
www.news-journalonline.com
Incident Mar. 20, 2012 - Australia - Billy O'Leary
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March 20, 2012
Billy O'Leary
Nobbys Beach, Gold Coast, Australia
Billy O'Leary, 20, was surfing at Nobbys beach on the Gold Coast with his best friend Tyson Kolkka. O'Leary attempted a trick known as a "floater" but when he fell he landed on a large shark. The shark turned and bit O'Leary on the back of his left leg. Noel Kolkka, Tyson's father saw a comotion down on the beach and came to see what had happened:
"I just ran down the beach and I saw Billy lying on the sand. The lifeguards had got to him fairly quickly and were binding up all of his wounds and stopping the blood flow."
O'Leary sustained two significant lacerations to his leg. See a picture of his injury here.
Warren Young, chief lifeguard, said the suspect shark was probably a bull shark, lured in by baitfish and murky water.
Source
Source:
www.news.com.au
Monday, September 17, 2012
Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas)
Bull Shark Carcharhinus leucas
The bull shark, also known as the Zambezi shark in Africa, gets it's name from it's stocky build, it's broad snout, it's aggressive nature, and a tendency to head-butt it's prey before attacking. Bull sharks are arguably the most dangerous shark of all. They are among the top 3 most dangerous sharks in the world, alongside the tiger shark and the great white. Because the bull shark is very common, and lives in coastal shallow waters, often murky waters, they are considered responsible for most of the shark attacks that take place near the shore, even when the actual type of shark is not clearly identified. Due to it's agressive nature this shark has been nicknamed "The Pit Bull of the Sea."
Description
The bull shark's body is compact with a snout that is short and broad which gives it a somewhat blunt appearance. Bull sharks are short, wide and heavy fish, with a very powerful bite. The bull shark is grey with a white belly. They are a chunky species and the dorsal fin is relatively far forward on the shark's back. They have small beady eyes, making scientists believe that their eyesight is poor, hence their ability to thrive in the murky water that is commonly found in rivermouths and rivers. An adult bull shark's teeth are triangular, serrated, very sharp, and approximately 1.5" long.
Bull sharks grow at about 11 inches a year for their first four years, and then at about six inches a year until fully mature. Females tend to be larger than males, mostly due to their longer lives; females live to be about 16 years old and reach maturity at about 10 years old and seven feet long, males live to about 12 years old, and reach maturity at 9 years and six feet long. The largest bull shark on record was 13 feet long and weighed close to 1000 pounds.
Range and Habitat
Bull sharks are commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers, they prefer warmer equatorial, tropical and subtropical waters. Bull sharks are one of the very few sharks that have the ability to live in both salt and freshwater. They can be found in fresh water that connects with salt water (rivers and lakes) and have been caught in the Mississippi River as far upstream as Illinois.
Off the Atlantic coast of the United States, bull sharks are found from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico and are common off southeastern Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico. Off the Pacific coast, bull sharks are found from southern California (rare) to the Gulf of California.
Here is an interactive map depicting the worldwide range of the bull shark.
Diet
Bull sharks are typically solitary hunters, they are very territorial and can be highly aggressive. They are known to make sharp turns, unpredictable bursts of speed (up to 11 mph) and often utilizes the "bump and bite" technique to capture prey, during which it first head-butts prey before attacking. Bull sharks are not picky eaters, they are opportunists and will eat almost anything they see: bony fish, turtles, birds, mollusks, crustaceans, dolphins, other sharks, and rays. They have also been known to eat birds, sloths, dogs, rats, cows and antelope! Like other sharks, they're able to find their prey with their keen sense of smell.
Source
Human-Shark Encounters
"Bull sharks inhabit quite shallow waters, which means that they do have a great opportunity to interact with humans, because the two species tend to share the same areas," said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
According to the International Shark Attack Files, there have been 104 recorded bull shark attacks in the last 150 years, and out of those, 33 fatalities. While this number is probably under-reported due to the wide habitat of the bull shark which includes many third-world countries which do not report attacks, it is still an incredibly low number when you consider the number of people that enter the ocean every year.
Humans are a far greater threat to the shark population than they are to us. We fish them for sport as well as commercially, and their fins are also prized in Asian markets to turn into shark's fin soup.
Incident Mar. 15, 2012 - Florida - Frank A. Wacha Jr.
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March 15, 2012
Frank A. Wacha Jr.
Jensen Public Beach, Florida
61 year-old Frank A. Wacha Jr. has been surfing for the past 50 years. Thursday was the first time he had ever been bitten by a shark. Wacha was surfing in choppy, murky water 120-150 yards off of Jensen Public beach when he felt something attach itself to his left arm.
"It felt just like I had been hit," said Wacha "My arm was out of the water," he said. "I looked over and saw this shark. We were eye to eye."
Immediately after biting him, the 5-foot bull shark let go and disappeared beneath the murky water.
"The first thing I thought was, 'I need to get a wave and get to shore,'" Wacha said. "Then I thought, 'I hope I don't lose function in this arm.' I knew I wasn't going to lose the arm because it was still attached."
Wacha was able to stay on his surfboard and paddle into shore. Lifeguards were able to stop the bleeding and his wife drove him to the hospital. The bite mark reaches from his forearm to his upper arm, thankfully there was no permanent damage.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Incident Mar. 14, 2012 - Florida - Sydney Levy
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March 14, 2012
Sydney Levy
New Smyrna beach, Florida
Valeh Levy and her 15-year-old daughter Sydney had just paddled out on their surfboards when Sydney was suddenly pulled off her board and disappeared beneath the water.
She surfaced again, a moment later and got back on her board as her mother watched in horror.
"She got back on her board, and there was her ankle … She put her ankle up, and she looked at it, and there was blood coming off of it"
The shark then grabbed her a second time.
Valeh Levy then sprang into action:
"I said, 'There's no way this thing is going to kill my daughter,' and I grabbed her shoulders, and I pulled her up on my board."
Mother and daughter were assisted back to the beach by two other surfers who saw the attack and came to their aid.
An ambulance was already at the beach because another surfer, 17-year-old Nick Romano, had been attacked be a shark moments before. Sydney was rushed into surgery but relased later that night.
Sources:
www.huffingtonpost.com
www.news.com.au
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Incident Mar. 14, 2012 - Florida - Nick Romano
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Nick Romano, 17, was surfing in chest-deep water near the jetty at popular New Smyrna Beach in Florida, when a shark bit him on the back of his leg.
"I sat on my board and felt this tug, and I kind of jerked over and the shark bit on my leg. He said his first reaction was to try to bat the shark away. "I caught his tail, and I kind of pushed him off."
Romano recieved nasty lacerations to his calf. He was able to drive himself to the hospital and was released later that same night. Romano needed 17 stitches to close the eight inch gash on his calf. Here is video interview done by WFTV Channel 9 with Nick Romano.
Minutes after Romano was bitten, 15-year-old Sydney Levy was also attacked by a shark. The most likely suspects are Bull sharks.
There are more incidents of shark attacks in the concentrated area of New Smyrna Beach than any similar length of coastline in the world.
Source:
www.wftv.com
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