“Without warning at about 12:40PM, when I was around 5 nautical miles from Gaviota State Beach, a great white shark, which I estimated to be at least 15 feet long, bit and held onto my kayak. It attacked from my left side, with its head coming up from the water only a few feet from my kayak. There was not a hard impact. It bit my kayak where my left foot was located inside the hull, and its mouth wrapped half way around the hull. My left foot was actually inside the jaws of the shark but protected by the kayak.

The shark held onto my kayak for 10-15 seconds, during which it seemed relaxed and was not moving. Its head was huge, and I remember seeing its eye and a hole on the side of its head, as well as its gray skin. I put the left tip of my paddle against the shark’s head, and I thought about hitting the shark, but I didn’t want to anger it or make it thrash. The whole time the shark was latched onto the kayak with my foot inside, I was screaming like a little girl.”

Truly an amazing tale, and a reminder to steer clear of the natural habitat of these voracious predators! There seems to be a fifteen-foot-plus local Great White Shark off the Gaviota Coast…. Holy Shit!

Pictures by Duane Strosaker

Gaviota Locals Fear Great White Shark Attack

Duane Stosaker's Shark-Bitten Kayak

From KEYT.com: “Pismo Beach officials say a surfer is recovering from a shark bite. The 19-year-old surfer says a shark bit him on the foot shortly before 7:00 p.m. Friday night at Shell Beach near Silver Shoals. He says the shark was about 4 feet long, and was brown with dark spots. Officials say advisories are now posted, but beaches in the area will remain open.”

Cojo Ranch's Shark-Infested Waters Claim Another Victim

Our dedicated readers are familiar with our on-going coverage of the Bixby and Cojo Ranches, and the prolific quantities of Great White Shark activity associated with the area.

Cojo Ranch Shark Attack Carcass

It has long been the position of this website and its employees that the risks of entering the water anywhere in between Goleta and Pismo Beach is virtually suicide – with the frequency of massive Great White Shark sightings and their propensity for consuming the locals, even walking on the beach is an insane risk. Not worth it.

Anyone who treats life with such a cavalier attitude deserves to become the next meal of… the Fear Beneath.

A flurry of shocking Great White Shark activity has Santa Barbara residents staying out of the water, fearing for their very lives as a series of shark attacks and sightings have rocked this normally peaceful beach town and shaken ocean-goers to their core.

Over the weekend, a badly mauled sea lion was discovered hanging from a buoy off the “family-friendly” and extremely popular East Beach. The pinniped’s injuries were so extensive that it had to be euthanized at the local Marine Mammal Center. It’s good thing the sharks have yet to acquire a taste for volleyball players and homeless people…

This poor creature was the victim of a hollow-eyed remorseless killer. (Credit: Peter Howorth)

Soon after the poor sea lion was dispatched in gruesome fashion, the body of a Great White Shark was found washed up on the beach near the infamously shark-y Rincon Point. Surfers beware – even the directors of Santa Barbara’s Junior Lifeguard program have suspended operations because of the attack’s close location to shore. It appears that every time someone steps into the ocean in Santa Barbara County, they are leaving their life in the hands of Carcharias Carcharodon.

A day later, Rincon beach-goers rescued yet another shark pup and sent it back in to the ocean. Given the sheer quantity of shark pup sightings, it sounds to us as if the Santa Barbara coastline is a Great White Shark breeding ground. Who wants to dive in and do the research?

If one thing is clear, it’s this: Santa Barbara residents are advised to stay out of the ocean as much as possible – that is, if you don’t want to be lunch for the next Great White Shark that comes along.

(Photo credits to Peter Howorth.)

Two boats full of tourists got the photo opportunity of a lifetime after the 16-foot crocodile’s decisive win on a river in Australia’s Kakadu National Park Saturday morning, the country’s Northern Territory News reported.

“Nearly 100 people saw it all…and they were jumping for joy,” tour guide David Cameron told the newspaper. “They said this had made their Kakadu trip.”

The loser, a bull shark that had meandered up the aptly named South Alligator River in search of food, was about 10 feet long before it was bitten in half. The croc had the home-field advantage because the seagoing shark was swimming through fresh water at the time of the attack.

Cameron, a former park ranger, told the newspaper it’s not the first time he’s seen the two species fight for a berth at the top of the food chain.

“With the wildlife here, you just don’t know what you’ll get to see,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it.”

Shark Slaughter at Hope Ranch Beach

The seal intestines —spilling out a cavernous hole in the pelt of this once proud and magnificent animal— depart the blubbery body, just as the tragic seal’s soul departed from this rotting chunk of flesh in a fit of spectacular violence. Here at the Fear Beneath, we wonder – why would humans choose to risk a similar fate?

Shark Slaughter at Hope Ranch Beach

At 7.30 on an overcast evening, Orgias was paddling for a wave in the centre of Australia’s most famous beach when he felt a tugging on his left arm. He thought it was a surfer jostling for position.

”I thought another surfer had grabbed me and was trying to stop me getting the wave,” the 34-year-old says. ”Then in a split second it all changed and something really powerful and massive dragged me straight under and started shaking me around.

”It bit straight through the wrist but the way it latched on it couldn’t bite through the elbow. It shook and it shook and it couldn’t get through so then it let go.”

After an estimated seven or eight seconds underwater, Orgias was released and popped to the surface. Scrambling on to his board, he saw the sea turning red. His left hand was dangling by a piece of skin. As he paddled frantically back to shore, he kept thinking about his pregnant wife. When he finally reached the sand, two surfers applied a makeshift tourniquet.

Glenn Orgias lost a hand after he was bitten by a great white shark while surfing at Bondi Beach.

”The great white is probably the best kind of shark to be attacked by,” Orgias says. ”They do one of two things: they bite and test, which is what happened to me, or they just decide they’re going to eat you and they swallow you whole. Bull sharks are more aggressive. They’ll bite something and then just because it’s injured they’ll go it again.”

In coast-loving Australia, the shark occupies a special place in the collective psyche. A scary monster for adults, it’s a creature from the depths of prehistory and our own unconscious, a dark shadow with dead eyes and razor teeth.

”As humans, we do not view it as acceptable to be eaten alive,” says Dr William Figueira, a keen diver and marine biologist at the University of Sydney. ”And we’re just very vulnerable in that realm [the sea].”

The surprise is how rarely sharks attack. According to the Australian Shark Attack File compiled at Taronga Zoo, there have been 24 recorded Australian fatalities due to shark attacks in the past 20 years. There has been, on average, one fatal attack a year since 1791.

Not that the figures have been stable. In the 1930s, with Aussies starting to embrace beach culture, 38 people were killed by sharks. In response, shark nets – or ”shark meshing” – were introduced in NSW in 1937. The meshing is still there, put in place each year from September to April. Costing the State Government $830,000 annually, the nets catch an average of 140 sharks a year – not to mention the turtles, rays and dugongs.

Since 1937 there has been only one fatality at a meshed NSW beach, Newcastle’s Merewether in 1951. In Sydney Harbour the last fatality occurred in 1963, while the most recent NSW death was at an unmeshed Ballina beach in 2008. And for every fatal attack, there are two non-fatal attacks. Of those attacked by a shark, about 70 per cent survive.

A marine ecologist at Macquarie University, Dr Iain Field, says the slim chances of being attacked by a shark can be further reduced by choosing when and where you swim.

”I don’t go out into the water at dawn or dusk if it’s a really grey day,” Field says. ”I don’t go out at cloudy river mouths and I tend not to go where there are great schools of fish.”

As Amy Wilkes from Sydney Aquarium says: ”If you see schools of fish behaving erratically it could possibly indicate the presence of a shark in the water. The safest option is to calmly exit the water.”

Many shark attacks are cases of mistaken identity. ”Being the cleaners of the sea, sharks take the infirm,” Field says. ”And a surfer splashing about on the surface can indicate an animal in distress.

”The other time attacks can occur is when sharks are being territorial. Sharks can have distinct home ranges, whether there’s a resource there or it’s babies they’re protecting, that’s when they attack to defend themselves.”

Australia has an amazing abundance of shark species, Field says, but we have detailed biological information for only about 10 per cent of them.

”We are still discovering new species and new subspecies,” he says.

Numbers are hard to gauge but Field says there is compelling evidence the populations of most species are in decline.

In recent years, dramatic innovations in shark repulsion include the Shark Shield, which creates an electromagnetic field around the user. Some universities have made them mandatory for underwater researchers. In the future, such technology could potentially be used to create electromagnetic shields around beaches.

At Bondi in February, Orgias never saw the shark that attacked him. He survived, he says, because of his pregnant wife.

”She’s the reason I got in to shore,” he says. ”The whole time I was thinking about her and not wanting her to have to go through having a baby by herself.”

Orgias and I are having lunch in a CBD courtyard full of pin-striped predators. In between mouthfuls of chicken schnitzel, he shows me his prosthetic left hand. It’s the same type of hand that de Gelder now has.

”My arm comes to there,” he says, pointing to his forearm. ”It’s got these little electrodes. I can open and close the hand and move the thumb around. It’s like having 25 per cent of your hand.”

Orgias doesn’t want notoriety. He gives interviews to promote the blood service that saved his life. ”I don’t support the culling of sharks,” he says. ”I support clean oceans and good ocean management and that means helping shark populations. It’s up to people to be aware of the risks. The one thing that I promote is the blood service. When you get attacked by a shark, what you need is blood.”

All in all, it’s been a big year. In July, his daughter, Bronte, was born. ”I’m so happy to be alive,” he says. ”The shark attack was horrendous but it’s been a great year.”

And, like de Gelder, Orgias is surfing again. He gets out into the line-up as often as he can at Bondi or Maroubra.

”I knew I’d be able to force myself into the water,” he says. ”What worried me the most was that I wouldn’t enjoy it. But I had fun. And sure, I worry about sharks. I just acknowledge it and say, ‘Right, I’ve got a fear but I’ve also got the ability to go out there and enjoy myself.’ I have no grudge against sharks.”

Source: Sacha Molitorisz, Sydney Morning Herald

Mr. Sojoski, 55, of Copacabana, was teaching his visiting granddaughter Summer, 12, to surf at Avoca Beach, when he struck trouble about 11am on Saturday. “I stepped on it originally,” Mr Sojoski said.

“But then when I stepped off it, it latched on straight away and it was the weirdest sensation. It was like a vice squeezing and squeezing. Then it started shaking my leg and moving it off the ground.”

John Sojoski of Copacabana was bitten by a shark while surfing at Avoca Beach.

Mr Sojoski managed to kick the shark away and still send Summer in on a wave, without telling her what had happened. “She didn’t know until we got back to the clubhouse,” he said. “I figured if I freaked her out, she might fall off the board.”

Water and air patrols were unable to locate the shark, with the beach reopened mid-afternoon on Saturday.

Mr Sojoski, a surf board manufacturer, counted 36 punctures in his lower left leg and was told to stay away from the water for 13 days. But as soon as he gets the all-clear, he’ll be back.

“I’ve surfed for 30 years and haven’t seen a shark – I didn’t even see this one,” he said. “But the water is the sharks’ domain and we have to respect that.”

The incident hasn’t dampened Summer’s enthusiasm for the water, with Mr Sojoski’s girlfriend Amanda her likely replacement “surf coach” for the rest of her holiday.

John Sojoski, Avoca Beach Shark Attack Survivor

Mr Sojoski couldn’t praise enough the actions of the people who helped him, thanking surf lifesavers, ambulance officers and Gosford Hospital staff – who he said were “so understaffed but still managed to have smiles on their faces”.

Source: Emma Herd, Central Coast Express-Advocate

The Copacabana resident fought off the shark by kicking his leg in and out of the water. He was taken to Gosford Hospital with deep cuts to his lower leg.

The beach was closed while lifeguards and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter searched the water, but there was no sign of the shark.

Source: The Post News

Avoca Beach, Shark Attack Site

The skipper from Simply Scuba, Wayne, and James a staff member from Scuba Adventures were busy working in the launch area when they saw this guy come stumbling out the water bleeding heavily. They immediately rushed to assist and phoned Sandy from Brittlestar Guesthouse for assistance. At that stage Sandy was in Manguzi but she referred them to Karl who immediately got hold of oxygen and rushed down to the beach where the guy had already collapsed because of shock and blood loss.

He had been attacked by the shark and was bitten on the upper arm/shoulder area and on his hand. Fortunately the wounds were not severe, but the poor guy was in shock and had to be stabilized. Wayne and Petro from Simply Scuba stayed with the victim while he was taken to the local clinic for attendance. Daryl, a paramedic and skipper for Gozo Azul helped to get the patient stabilized but failed to get a drip inserted into the victim’s arm. He then decided to just stop the bleeding and bandaged up where needed.

Ponta da Ouro Beach, Post-Shark Attack Chaos

The local commandant of police, arrived at the scene and gave permission for the patient to be airlifted by helicopter and taken to hospital in Manguzi. Colin, a resident of Maputo who owns a holiday home in Ponta fortunately had his helicopter in Ponta and could assist immediately. The man was flown to Manguzi Hospital and transferred to Empangeni Hospital from there. He is fine.

After the incident holiday makers were furious with the shark and tried to catch it with their fishing rods from the beach right in front the Beach Bar. The Tiger launched out the water twice and the spectators enjoyed the view although with aggression. The shark remained in the shore breaks for the rest of the day where it was visible to all, while fishermen tried to catch it. They had it on their hooks twice but both times the shark escaped.

This incident was discussed in all earnest with the head of marines (MPA), Miguel and Antonio the Port Captain for Ponta do Ouro. This incident was due to happen some or other time, due to the negligence of fishermen throwing fish remains over the sides of their boats after cleaning their catch in the Bay of Ponta do Ouro. Of course this will attract sharks, and if this is not going to stop immediately more unfortunate incidences like this might happen in future.

Ponta do Ouro is a very safe and tranquil village with no shark attacks for the past 15 years since 1994 when a guy lost a foot. This is because we are naturally protected by the school of dolphins permanently staying in Ponta area. They will drive away all sharks from their territory. People must not get upset about this unfortunate incident, but fishermen have to be informed of the dangers when they throw the remains of their catch out into the water in the bay.

Source: African Diver

John Costello at the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI ) said the board later washed up on the shore but there were no signs of the unnamed lifeguard. He said: “The witness said before he disappeared he threw his hands up in the air and was pulled down and a pool of blood was left.”

The weekend attack was the second this year and the fourth in the past two years at the beach which is popular with South Africans and tourists. In January off-duty lifeguard Sikhanyiso Bangilizwe, 26, was attacked and killed by a bull shark which hunts in shallow waters and can be aggressive. Mr Costello added: “People are constantly being warned not to swim in murky waters, but they continue to put their lives in danger by not behaving responsibly.”

Lifeguard Abongile Maza, who was paddling a few metres behind the victim, said the attack had been sudden and vicious, adding that the water turned blood red. He said: “I could not believe what I saw with my own eyes, because it did not seem real.”

Coastguard chief Khaya Mjo said: “He was riding the waves on his knee board with another lifeguard who was riding from a distance. The other lifeguard said he only heard him scream, then he saw him raise a hand and there was only blood.”

The shark could not be identified because it was impossible to make an analysis without seeing the bite marks.

Bull Shark Killed Lifeguard in January 2009

The NSRI said police were investigating the disappearance but no body parts had yet been found.

Source: The Sun Online

The 19-year-old suffered deep lacerations to his wrist and lower forearm while spearfishing at the reef, 44 nautical miles east of Gladstone.

After receiving treatment from medical staff on Heron Island he was flown to Rockhampton and airlifted to Brisbane for surgical assessment.

Diving with fellow Curtis Coast Spearfishing members David Jenson and Nat Keene, it was their first dive of the day when the shark came from below and bit Mr Pengelly.

“There were two guys together and to the shark they probably looked like a turtle,” said Mark Brookes, president of Curtis Coast Spearfishing club, who was also diving at the time.

Source: Miranda Cashin, Brisbane Times

A Great White Shark

At first the 24-year-old gardener thought it was one of his mates having a laugh as they enjoyed a dip in the ocean under the warm Spring sunshine. But when Mr Brougham turned around he saw what every ocean dweller dreads the most: the face of a ferocious shark staring straight back at him.

“I came up, as soon as I got to the surface I felt someone, something pulling my leg and I thought it was just someone being a smart a**e and I turned around and just saw the big face looking at me,” he recalled earlier today from his hospital bed where he was being treated for shark wounds to his ankle.

“And then I just started beating it, just trying to get rid of it and then it let me go and then I was just [swimming] straight towards the cliffs [beach].”

Mr Brougham was swimming about 20m off the shore looking for shellfish at a cove near the town of Normanville on SA’s Fleurieu Peninsula when he was bitten by the shark, which was estimated to be almost 3m (10ft) long.

He said he was resurfacing after diving down to the ocean floor to see if there were any fish to catch when he felt something bite. After fighting off the shark he swam to the cliffs where the brother of his girlfriend was fishing, to raise the alarm. “The swim from where it happened to the cliff felt like forever,” Mr Brougham said.

He was treated by doctors at a nearby hospital and will need further surgery on his ankle after his Achilles tendon was almost ripped off in the attack, but Mr Brougham said he is simply happy to be alive.

“I’m lucky to be here, I’m lucky to have all my limbs attached,” he said. When asked when he would get back in the water, he said: “not anytime soon”.

The manager of the nearby Wirrina Resort, Aaron Batts, told The Times there had been a number of bronze whaler sharks sighted over the weekend, which may have been attracted to the large schools of salmon which are regularly seen off nearby beaches.

“There’s also a resident great white that comes through every summer,” Mr Batts said. “He’s about 6m (19ft) long, but as far as I know he hasn’t attacked anyone yet.”

The attack on Mr Brougham was the first of Australia’s current summer season, but the 50th attack in South Australia’s history – 19 of which have been fatal.

Last summer there were a number of shark attacks all around the country, one of which was fatal.

Brian Guest, 51, disappeared while snorkelling off a beach in Western Australia in December. He was last seen in the area where a 14ft great white shark was seen thrashing around. His body has not been found.

As a result of Mr Guest‘s death, the West Australian premier Colin Barnett has announced extra funding to allow for daily shark patrols on the state’s most popular beaches over the peak summer season from mid-December until the end of February.

“It is important the community feels safe while swimming and enjoying our beaches,” Mr Barnett said.

Source: Times Online Reported by Sophie Tedmanson in Sydney

BIG FUCKING SHARK TERRORIZES AUSTRALIA

The image –showing a great white bitten in half– is causing a buzz on the Web. The violent shark-on-shark attack is raising fears along the Queensland coast. Authorities have warned swimmers to stay out of the waters around Stradbroke Island, a popular tourist destination for Australians, while the giant shark remains on the prowl.

“It certainly opened up my eyes. I mean the shark that was caught is a substantial shark in itself,” Jeff Krause of Queensland Fisheries told the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

In one swift bite the larger shark, estimated to be 5 feet longer than the fictional shark in the movie “Jaws,” apparently tore into the side of a 12-foot great white that had gotten tangled in netting near north Stradbroke Island.

“That cannibal thing is what great whites do. They’ll eat anything, including their own kind,” shark expert Hugh Edwards told Channel 7 News in Australia. “It would be sensible not to swim in that area for some little while because obviously the big shark has been there.”

The big bite is not settling well with the local surfers. “Whatever attacked and took chunks out of this big shark must be massive,” 19-year-old surfer Ashton Smith told the Courier Mail. “I’ve heard about the big one that’s lurking out there somewhere. We’re all being very, very cautious.”

About 500 feet from the shore, shark nets line the popular beaches of Queensland to protect swimmers from the violent sea predators. Environmentalists have complained the nets are taking the lives of migrating whales.

Australian Marine Conservation Society Director Darren Kindleysides told the Courier Mail that “recent figures on the number of sharks caught showed the nets were working but at huge cost to whales, dolphins and turtles.”

Shark hunter Vic Hislop also told the Courier Mail he “believes shark nets are too damaging to the overall marine environment, and that methods should be explored to scare away sharks rather than capture and kill them.”

Source: ABC World News

NOAA’s analysis of El Niño indicates that we can expect this cyclical phenomenon to appear this winter – “Synopsis: El Niño conditions will continue to develop and are expected to last through the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2009-2010.

During June 2009, conditions across the equatorial Pacific Ocean transitioned from ENSO-neutral to El Niño conditions. Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies continued to increase… Subsurface oceanic heat content anomalies (average temperatures in the upper 300m of the ocean, Fig. 3) also increased as the thermocline continued to deepen. Consistent with the oceanic evolution, the low-level equatorial trade winds were weaker-than-average across much of the Pacific basin, and convection became increasingly suppressed over Indonesia. This coupling of the ocean and atmosphere indicates the development of El Niño conditions.”

Across the Atlantic, the world is watching and waiting… The Independent reports: “A new El Niño has begun. The sporadic Pacific Ocean warming, which can disrupt weather patterns across the world, is intensifying, say meteorologists. So, over the next few months, there may be increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, heavier rainfall in South America and increased extremes in Britain, of warm and cold. It may make 2010 one of the hottest years on record.”

Scientists present a number of theories for the increase in shark-human interactions: “Dr. George Burgess of Florida University, a shark expert who maintains the International Shark Attack file, states ‘As the population continues to rise, so does the number of people in the water for recreation. And as long as we have an increase in human hours in the water, we will have an increase in shark bites.’

Some experts suggest that an abundance of seals has attracted high numbers of sharks, while others believe that overfishing has hit their food chain. ‘I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s a convenient excuse,’ Burgess said. Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. ‘You’ll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn’t in the past with some regularity,’ he said.”

NOAA has documented scientific evidence of El Niño’s impact on ocean life: “The more tropical pelagic thresher shark generally moves into California waters during periodic warm water episodes relating to El Nino conditions, being more abundant to the south off the Pacific coast of northern Mexico. When it occupies epipelagic habitat within the U.S. West Coast EEZ, it usually does not range north of southern California waters. Associated with sea surface temperatures 21EC and warmer.”

“There were also secondary problems caused by the 1982-’83 El Niño… Snake bites became more numerous in Montana, as the hot, dry weather drove mice from high elevations downward in search of food and water and the rattlesnakes followed. A rise in bubonic plague in New Mexico resulted from a cool, wet spring providing favorable conditions for flea-carrying rodents. An increase in shark attacks off the Oregon coast was due to unseasonably warm sea temperatures.”