Shark Attacks Man on ski

Don't know if you've seen this but a guy has been knocked off his ski. Looks like he'll be OK.

Shark attack at Hallidays Point on NSW coast

Fully expecting this to happen one day with the time I spend paddling in the ocean, and then relying on the fact that the shark will get a mouthful of composite material and swim off to leave me trying not to succumb to shock

Hmm, we've had several guys knocked off their skis and the skis bitten over the last 10 years or so (none in the last 4 years) but no-one has been hurt by a shark (except for one clown who voluntarily jumped onto a shark, thinking that it was some other sort of fish) here in South Africa.

So this is really bad news.

But there does seem to be quite a bit of uncertainty about just how badly this paddler was bitten... Did the shark bite him, or did he get cut when he was thrashing about in the water... usually a bite does a lot of damage. I'd love to know the actual facts about that.

But well done to him for not losing it, and for getting himself out of the water. Phew!

Wow! Scary stuff, but, looks like he's going to be OK and good luck to him.
This article is really fascinating due to the fact that we have had
a school of juvenile white sharks recently take up residence here in Ventura. They showed up last winter when the harbor was being dredged and haven't left. At first the surfers were pretty shook up and nervous, but, no one has been bit. Almost daily sightings with sharks passing within reach of surfers. The local surfers seem to be pretty cavalier about it now and just point them out as they swim by.
The water is incredibly warm from the "El Nino" possibly even record setting. There have been a rash of shark sightings and encounters recently off the California coast where encounters used to be quite rare. Large hammerhead closed beaches in San Diego and a kayaker was attacked by a large white North of Santa Barbara, he was uninjured. There have been other encounters off central CA. Probably not that unusual for some of you guys, but, I even saw about a 2 meter white breach while paddling near shore, amazing. Just so unusual around where I live.
Very common at some of the offshore islands though. (Where my wife and I are headed today for the holiday weekend loaded with surfboards, ski, fishing poles and libations. Life is good).


Look out! "Sharknado" is coming to a beach near you!

We have a Sharksmart website in Western Australia to keep tabs on tagged sharks - see image attached. Clicking an item brings up details of the shark if available and when spotted. There's a range of sonar buoys along the metropolitan and some coastal towns, generally about 1km off the beach identifying tagged sharks. Twitter sightings also logged. While this screen grab apparently shows multiple sightings, some of these are the same shark moving up or down the coast.

A local had a big scare three years ago a few kms up the coast from where I paddle, not far off the beach (www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/shark-attacks...-20120620-20n74.html). Pretty scary morning for him but apparently he's still gets out on the water albeit not far from shore. As AR Convert points out, on the cards to at least sight a Noah (Noah's Ark - shark) one day are pretty high, you just hope you have the balls to deal with it in as composed a way as one can B).

Old adage of always paddling with a partner is sound advice, but who always follows own advice ? Sometimes it's just you and the sea.

Just re-reading the post for edits and recalled last Thursday evening ski training out of Hillary's Marina and up Pinaroo Point way (within a couple of kms of the above attack) and there would have been maybe 50-60 skis out in a couple of training groups, so given the high number of boats on the water over an extended period of time, these events are pretty few and far between. Then again, the risk is known and in a sense there's one of the reasons for doing this sport - see last line from Helen Keller below.

...so I went for an ocean swim this morning (south of Forster - not too far away from Hallidays Point) when people told me that there also was a shark attack down here (south of Forster) a few days ago and yes, the shark attacked a larger, seaworthy Dinghy.

Maybe I should paddle on flat water for the next few days...

I could be mistaking…
It could be linked to the Internet diffusing information faster today than ever before…
Still, I really feel like sharks attacking surfskis and even outriggers is on the rise.

Sharks attacking swimmers always made sense to me (just go under water and look at how clumsy we look).

Sharks attacking a kayak when fishing (with blood every where) almost makes sense too.

Sharks attacking a paddler (surfski or outrigger) makes absolutely no sense; it seems as a "desperate" act for sharks.

photofr wrote:
Sharks attacking a paddler (surfski or outrigger) makes absolutely no sense; it seems as a "desperate" act for sharks.

We've all seen the footage of sharks launching themselves out of the water in their attacks on seals.

I think what the media reports as "attacks" are often sharks just being curious, for want of a better term "mouthing" surfboards, skis and legs.

How else do you explain just a series of teeth marks. If the shark bit and then thrashed about there's no way they'd just leave a few teeth marks.

Totally agree… I always compared sharks to babies: where they put everything in their mouth to "see" what it was. We've all seen them do it.

Here, though, I am a bit shocked at the number of "curious" sharks wanting to take a little bite out of composite shells - seems to be more than EVER BEFORE.

More details emerging on this one.

The paddler was on an ocean ski. (There goes my assumption that a 7m object would be too daunting for most sharks).

More intriguingly it is being reported that the shark launched itself out of the water to grab the paddler on the ankle before shaking its head from side to side.

[From the SMH this morning]: "His best mate for more than 40 years, Gary Jones, said the former Newcastle Surf Club ironman told of having his paddle knocked from his grasp by the shark after it leapt from the water about 50 metres off shore.

"He said the shark has literally just jumped straight out of the water and grabbed onto his left ankle," Mr Jones said. "His paddle is gone so he has no way of defending himself.

"It has momentarily let go only to get a better grip and then started shaking its head as it bit down.

The paddler apparently lost a reasonable amount of blood from a severed artery and is now recovering.

Sharks have survived millions of years: perhaps by being "smarter" than we think, and perhaps because they adapt so well to the evolving environment.

Part of that environment is us fishing on kayaks. While I think the concept is excellent, it may bring sharks closer to paddlers, hoping that all paddlers will have a free meal handy.

This is just a thought, but a shark launching at a surfski paddler, bitting the ankle and splitting afterwards is remarkable.

On the other hand, we are sitting here on a forum trying to figure them out a little more… Sharks may have figured us out already - without computers.

Food for thoughts (okay, I didn't mean those last three words)

We protect the dominant predator of the ocean, then we fish a lot of their food source. They have to be growing in population, they have to be more resourceful with where they hunt. We are seeing more sighting and attacks. more people are getting involved in water sports and activities. Doesn't seem to surprising to me.

Surely with all the scientist/inventers in the world and all the amazing technology someone can invent something that detects, deters, keeps out sharks. There would be a hell of a lot of money in it!

Giant fish finders with alarms???

Will still be taking my chances but i'd love a bit more reassurance than the old "go out with a mate and reduce you chances by a further 50%".

So, since my last post on this topic, a kayaker had his foot bitten. Just off the coast of Malibu while fishing, by a hammerhead. A local spear diver was bitten in the leg, again by a hammerhead. And a kayaker in Goleta (pretty far north for tropical species) had to fend off an aggressive hammerhead by repeatedly bashing him in the face with his paddle.
We were fishing recently down the the coast, just a km or so off the shore and slaying yellow tail, when someone hooked up a large hammerhead. After it was released it went and aggressively circled a guy fishing from a kayak.
This is insane, never heard of this happening before - hammerheads this far north.
Getting a little nervous about my ocean swims! I quit eating shark a long time ago and avoid harassing them in any way! I hope karma is real.
Photofr, I think your right. They'er probably a lot smarter than we give them credit for.
Yeah greggy.d, last year I was surfing at an offshore island about 50 miles out, completely by myself for an hour or so, till a boat pulled up and two surfers paddled out. They apologized for ruing my "Chi" and asked if I wouldn't mind them surfing with me. I said "sure no problem, you guys just reduced the odds of me getting eaten by a shark by 66%.

Pretty simple really, the past 10 years has really seen a big increase in fisherman buying and fishing from kayaks, in fact most kayak shops sell these fishing kayaks in very large numbers in comparison to any other kayak be it sea kayak and surf ski, we see them out there when we are out on the water just about every day. These fisherman are putting bait in the water, hooking fish and reeling them in, sometimes there is blood in the water, fish remains, sometimes its just a fish on the end of a line giving out distress signals. The sharks have learned this, they are associating kayaks and food, hardly surprising that encounters between sharks and kayaks are increasing.

Kayak fishing's popularity has grown quite a bit of last few years. Essentially you've got a bunch of folks chumming the waters around them with bait and fish bits.

There was vid that came up very recently with a young hammer head that was pretty aggressive/inquisitive

Boy! Sure seems like shark sightings and encounters are on the rise!?

www.surfline.com/surf-news/us-coast-guar...ites-spotted_132920/ :ohmy:

Increasing number of incidents at US coasts, too, even east coast and also Great Whites. Said to be caused by warmer&saltier water which attracts sharks + more bait in such warmer water. Also mentioned here before by photofr,kayakerGreg kayak = where food is + more people doing water sports/kayak fishing + more action cams around + viral nature of the internet. Besides ... shark feeding divers have also caused the association of diver = thats where the food is.

However, I Guess that gives a different twist to "sport fishing" ...

Statisticially still more likely to be involved in a deadly car accident on the way to the beach though than being killed by a shark ... (or in the US ... being randomly shot by whoever at the parking lot?), I guess.

I really do respect you folks that paddle those parts of the world, where sharks cruise under your hulls.

Here's a follow-up article about the guy in the original post. Good to see he's on the mend.

http:// Link

What a man!

bringing shark attacks into perpective though ...

more people died this year while making selfies than severe shark attacks happend

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/selfie-deat...c0c5e4b0fde8b0d09cbe