Sharks - Figthing Back!

[Mr T.]

Strike one for the team!




SYDNEY, Australia -- A man attacked by a shark while snorkeling had to swim back to shore, walk to his car, and then drive to a surf club for help -- with the shark still attached to his leg. (02/10/04 WFTV image)

[Mr T.]

Teenage surfer ripped in half by pair of sharks
By Nick Squires in Sydney
(Filed: 17/12/2004)

An Australian teenager was killed by a pair of great white sharks yesterday in the country's second shark fatality in less than a week.

The 18-year-old was being towed on a surfboard by a speedboat off a beach near Adelaide, South Australia, when the sharks struck.


Shark attack: map of Australia

His three friends told police that one shark grabbed the teenager's arm and pulled him into the water. His body was torn in half before a second great white joined in the feeding frenzy, which was over in seconds.

They said the shark which initiated the attack was as wide as the speedboat.

"Apparently it tore him in half and the other shark came in and took the rest," Fraser Bell, a sea rescue official, said. The attack was seen by hundreds of people enjoying the sweltering weather at West Beach, six miles from the centre of Adelaide.

The first shark was said to be more than as 16ft long and the second 15ft. Great whites can grow up to 26ft long and weigh more than 3,000lb.

Shark experts said it was extremely unusual for two great whites to co-operate in an attack because the species is regarded as being solitary.

Police closed the beach as they searched for the teenager's remains but found only parts of his surfboard.

The boy's friends, aged around 16, were so traumatised that they were unable to give a detailed description of the attack.

Great whites are attracted to the waters off South Australia by large colonies of seals and sea lions. Three weeks ago two large sharks were spotted by aerial patrols which monitor Adelaide's beaches.

Yesterday's attack came just five days after a 38-year-old spear fisherman was killed on the Great Barrier Reef, about 45 miles north of Cairns in Queensland.

On average two people are killed by shark attacks in Australia each year.

Pair of great whites take teenage surfer - The Australian [17 Dec '04]

[Scubamad]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4103835.stm

A large shark in close proximity to the beaches, that is posing a direct threat to human life, should be destroyed," Mr Foley told reporters.

But the victim's father said he did not want his son's killer hunted down.

"We don't advocate the indiscriminate killing of any shark," Philip Peterson said after visiting the scene where his son Nick died.

Witnesses described seeing two great white sharks - one up to five metres (16 feet) long - at the scene of the attack

But police and rescuers now believe just one large shark killed the teenager.

- They are now hunting out the Shark - how can they do this and how do they know which one?

[Scubamad]

Choppy conditions hampered shark spotting efforts but also kept beachgoers away from the Adelaide coastline, three days after the death of surfer Nick Peterson.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=12246

So how exactly can the "real" shark be identified... the search continues

[Dr Stevil]

The real shark cannot be identified, all that would happen would be the indiscrimiate killing of the first GW they happen across.

There's an excellent info piece on the Shark Trust website, worth clicking this link to go read it. Jeremy Clarkson should stick to his penile-substitute boy-toy topics and leave environmental and ecological issues to real journalists who don't think crass stupidity is an appropriate reaction to such issues

http://www.sharktrust.org/sharkconservation.html

Excerpt: "The great white shark is threatened with extinction (www.iucnredlist.org). It is supposedly protected in Australian waters yet Mr Kevin Foley, the acting South Australian Premier, has announced that it is fine to hunt and kill the shark. Flotillas of boats are even now searching for it. "

Here's a link to expess your protest at the moronic "death sentence" response to the incident directly to Mr. Foley.

http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/Ministe...p?MinisterID=3

May as well CC it to the Hon Terry Roberts, (Government of South Australia Minister Assisting the Minister for Environment and Conservation)
http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/Ministe...p?MinisterID=7

[Lou]

An e-mail is on its way now..

The Foley fellow is plainly a prat (judging by his tv appearances) so I just did it to Terry Roberts, asking him to apply pressure in the right directions.

[Chris Hall]

I've sent an e-mail to Terry Roberts, we will just have to wait & see.

Man - The Creator of Endangered Species!