A couple of things on this incident............ I don't believe it would have been a white pointer - they are cold water sharks and they generally only move up the NSW coast with the cold winter currents. In a previous life I was involved with shark meshing off Newcastle beaches and over 3 years we never caught a white during the summer months. Our biggest shark was a 14' tiger - all the whites were less than 10' in length. I think it would've been a mako - they are well known for chewing on outboard motor legs and berley buckets. They also like to play out of the water and are known for their spectacular leaps if hooked. If you pick one up on a troll line - even a littlie, cut it off.........otherwise it may join you in your cockpit! 5 metres is a very big animal. Any shark of this length is extremely rare. The paddlers were lucky Mr Pilka wasn't with them! -----Original Message----- From: Whyte, David <david.whyte_at_amsa.gov.au> To: PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net <PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net>; nswseakayaker_at_nswseakayaker.asn.au <nswseakayaker_at_nswseakayaker.asn.au> Date: Wednesday, 24 January 2001 13:55 Subject: [nswseakayaker] Just when you thought it was safe ... This was in our local paper this morning - The Canberra Times. This follows an attack a couple of weeks ago on a Sea Kayaker in New Zealand where the paddler was glad he was in a plastic boat. "SYDNEY:A huge shark, presummed to be a white pointer, attacked and overturned the Sea kayak of a Queenslander on a fund-raising trip in NSW at the weekend Mark Elkinton, 35 was whipped in the air, lost his paddle and was left dangling upside down underwater by the shark he estimated to be 5 metres long. Mr Elkinton was paddling near a popular dive site off South West rocks on the NSW mid-North coast on a trip to raise money for cancer research. He shouted for help from his kayaking for kemo kids team and the group of four braced the sea kayaks together in a bid to firghten off the attacker" David Australia *** NSW Sea Kayak Club ... comments are the authors' *** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jan 25 2001 - 04:02:29 PST
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