>>> > I have heard of one attack in FL from a kayaker who was fishing. Left a few > teeth in his plastic yak. That was Ken Johnson of Corpus Christi. The shark bit the stern but I do not recall Ken stating there were teeth left in the kayak (I could be wrong, though). I only recall his stating there were teeth "marks." >>> No, it was a guy in Pompano Beach. I've forgotten his name. >>> > I was practicing rolling in the Intracoastal and as I rolled up, a large > Bull Shark cruised by, just under the surface, about 2 feet from the end of > my paddle. Experts never rely absolutely upon species identification by untrained eye witnesses. Even experts say it is often difficult for they themselves to know absolutely type shark they are looking at above water and need to have the animal brought on board to make an absolute id. >>> I've been diving this area for the past five years and have seen all the local sharks "eye to eye" The only sharks that are common in the area are nurse, reef and bull sharks. We also have migrating spinners in early spring and late fall. Nurse sharks are bottom dwellers and hang out on the reef. Reef sharks are quite rare and are never found in the brackish intracoastal waters. In addition they are slimmer. That leaves bulls, which fit both the description of size and bulk that I witnessed, as well as the fact that it was in brackish water. Some friends who were diving less than a mile away also reported seeing bulls at about the same time. There used to be tigers in the area but they haven't been seen for more than 10 years. Occasionally a large white shark will be caught off shore, maybe one every couple of years. >>> > I followed it at first because I thought it was a porpoise but > soon saw the dorsal and paddled over to the tourists and suggested they get > their toddlers out of the water. Which begs the question... if you thought it was a porpoise that passed withing two feet of your kayak, how do you know it was a bull shark just by the dorsal fin (porpoises have dorsal fins... the "2nd dorsal fin" identifies it as a possible shark (there are rare exceptions to this but the bull is not one). >>> We have a lot of porpoises here in Delray, and it's easy to tell the difference. As I said, I was only able to identify the shark after I rolled up and got a good look at it. It was swimming in an area where incoming crystal clear water (100' plus vis) was mixing with tannic Intracoastal water so it would be clearly visible for 5 or 10 seconds, then disappear into the murk, then return into the clear water. It appeared to be looking for fish. Some fishermen were catching tarpon not far from where I was rolling. >>> > The shark cruised around for 10 minutes then headed out the inlet. I have > always wondered what would have happened if I blew that roll?! If it actually *were* a shark, statistcally, nothing. The vast majority of sharks are harmless. And attacks on humans are *extremely* rare among those that could be harmful. Millions of people go into the water every year, world-wide. However, there are only about 50-75 shark attacks reported annually world-wide with *maybe* 8-12 fatalaties (see http://www.mote.org/~rhueter/sharks/attacks.phtml ). >>> Based on the 25 shark attacks already this year in Florida alone, I would question those statistics. If you add South Africa, Australia and some of the pacific islands, that would significantly increase those numbers. If you spend some time on the local dive charter boats, you'll see a fair share of scars, albeit, mostly on spear fishermen. As for my situation, I believe had I blown my roll, I would have been at least bumped or possibly "tasted". The area I was rolling in had at least 100 foot visibility at the time, so I don't know how the shark would have reacted. Many of the Florida attacks occur in the surf where spinners and smaller sharks are chasing fish and mistake the flash of a palm or sole of a foot for a fish. I used to wave ski in Cape Town, South Africa in the early 70s. The ecology is almost identical to California. There were a lot of whites but very few attacks because of the abundance of seals. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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