Shark Attack In CA

[Rachel Bunting]

I heard about the Great White attack that happened to a woman who was swimming with the seals just south of San Luis Obispo, CA. Sounded pretty bad.

From an email from my brother, Ron (who, incidentally, is a wildlife biologist, so doesn't know quite as much about marine life as he does about birds and such):

that shark attack happened just south of san luis obispo. pretty gnarly. ping had a patient that day that was on the ambulance crew that responded to the scene. the woman was dead when they got there. he was saying that she was missing most of her thigh muscle, had a lacerated sciatic artery, and her hip was crushed. that shark got her good. she died minutes later.

sharks are taking a beating out here right now. everyone is overlooking the fact that after biting her the shark swam away. he didn't try and eat her. poor shark made a mistake... thinking she was a seal, and now the reputiation and the species as a whole will suffer.

Ping is a doctor; he's also my brother's future father-in-law.

I've heard people shark-bashing, of course, but also saying it was the woman's fault for swimming there. It was just a terrible accident, IMO.

Any other thoughts?

Rachel

[Kaem]

Do people really taste that bad that we aren't worth eating but seals are? Talk about adding insult to injury.

[MSPav]

Swimming with seals is asking for trouble unless you're in a tank. You'd be safer swimming with sharks on their own.

Although sharks are becoming endangered there were more attacks in Australia last year than we've had for as long as I can remember. It's probably because overfishing depletes the supply of sharks' food. Most of the times when people are attacked in Australia it's when they are swimming at a secluded beach known for shark activity.

I think that all-in-all it's easy to remain safe.

[Rachel Bunting]

MSPav said:
I think that all-in-all it's easy to remain safe.

Yeah, swim in a pool.

Rachel
who has a deep-seated fear
of the ocean and all things in it.

[pimpy moon]

15 times more people die every year from falling coconuts than from shark attacks.

Vanda

a fervent coconut basher

[Scavella]

Not to mention from getting into cars.

I've been swimming in the ocean for ... well, a long time. Never been attacked by a shark. Never seen one in the same water as me. Some tips from this part of the world:

Swim in the daylight. In my world, the water gets too hot for sharks and so they don't come in close to shore. Different at night though. At night you're looking for trouble.

Don't be stupid. Keep a good watch out if you're spearfishing or doing anything with blood.

Rachel don't worry. I have an irrational fear of bears.

Scavella

[burner]

You know my thoughts.
For others see Another General CC

Nature is cruel

[phantom member]

It seems a bit harsh to blame the sharks - they were here first.

[earthshoes]

The shark was just being . . . well . . . a shark. As for as the poor woman, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. How very sad for all of those she left behind. I'm sure there are many broken hearts.

Here we have black bears. They are extremely shy; I've lived in the Ozarks since I was twelve, have hiked, horseback ridden, and camped in these hills, but I've never seen anything more than a few rather impressively large tracks (No one would ever confuse me with a Native American. I'm fairly sure I can be heard from miles away when I move through the woods). I'm fairly confident that I've been in close proximity more than once--they smell terrible and I've caught a whiff of what I'm sure was bear on at least one occasion. It gave me pause enough to turn around and go back the way I came. Though extremely rare (like two or three in ten years), attacks do happen.

It is never the bear's fault. He or (usually) she is just being a bear. It is more often the human's (as the supposedly more sentient creature), usually springing from foolishly attempting get close to some cubs, because they are "just so darned cute". But, even then, the average human can be forgiven ignorance.
The only thing we can do as humans is learn to pay attention to our environment and know the risks before we approach the situation.

I am truly sorry for her family and friends. What a horrendous death.

[Roge]

Originally posted by Scavella
I have an irrational fear of bears.

Scavella

I have a fear of not enough beers. Oh hang on you have an 'a' in yours. Never mind.

I feel for the shark in this case. Hungry shark sees a group (pod, school, whatever) of seals and picks out the weakest (slowest) and chomp. All to reinforce the thoery of the survival of the strongest. What this woman may have done is preserved some weaker gene in the seal colony by being the substitute weakest seal for the day. While I do feel for the woman's family this incident just proves that we still are just part of the food chain.

I do wonder what Rachel's workmate made of this?????

TTFN
Roge

[cookala]

It's unfortunate she got et, but the ocean is the SHARK'S domain, not ours. The shark was only obeying it's empty stomach. I'm sure it wasn't a personal thing, just a case of mistaken identity.

What the hell was she doing swimming with prime shark food anyway?


cookala
swim at your own risk

[Rachel Bunting]

Roge said:
I do wonder what Rachel's workmate made of this?????


Workmate: Yeah, I don't go in the water anymore. I don't really trust the water. It's all dark, and you can't see anything.

Anyway, I was watching this show about sharks on the smart channel, you know, the one about discovering. What is that?

R: Uh, the Discovery Channel?

Workmate: Right, that one. Anyway, it was gross.

[Roge]

You gotta laugh or you'd cry. Jees Rachel I could listen to that sort of thing all day - well one or two days a year. Free entertainment.

I am sure if 'man' (or woman in this case) was not at the top (or nearly the top in the case of the shark story) of the food chain then your workmate might not be there, and then your days would be soooo boring.

Roge
'watching the smart channel' LOL