The whale died after desperate efforts by up to 50 people who rushed to Twin Waters on a rescue mission. The 3.8 metre female was first spotted at 6:30AM south of Mudjimba Island.

Originally thought to be a pilot whale, it was later identified by an attending Australia Zoo rescue team as a “pseudorca crassidens” – a false killer whale.

Workers Attempt to Revive False Killer Whale

The rescue team brought the whale into the shallows to conduct the identification, and efforts then continued to save the distressed mammal, which was believed to be an adult.

The injured whale had a damaged dorsal fin and evidence of “superficial” shark bites.

The rescue efforts stretched well into the morning as volunteers and veterinarians fought to keep the stranded mammal alive.

Australia Zoo veterinarian Tim Portas conferred with Sea World veterinarians during the rescue efforts.

A rescue unit spokeswoman said staff and volunteers were able to move the large whale from the beach and transfer it to a truck for transport to the Australian Wildlife Hospital at Beerwah.

“Unfortunately, despite everyone’s best efforts, the whale did not survive,” she said. “It underwent a necropsy at Australia Zoo to identify the cause of the stranding. The full cause of the stranding will not be known until the pathology results are completed.”

Those involved in the rescue were said to be devastated over the death of the whale.

Sources said sightings of the extremely sociable false killer whales are not common on the Coast. They prefer deeper waters away from land.

Source: Nikkii Joyce, Sunshine Coast Daily

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

Giant Squid moments before it ate the cameraman

“I don’t know if it’s tied or not to the earthquake.” According to the lifeguard, swimmers should be wary of the creatures and keep their distance.

“The Humboldt squid can be very big and very powerful and they may be dangerous,” Sgt. Rains said.

“It’s just something I wouldn’t mess with until you’re sure that it’s dead. They’ve got a lot of suckers and claws and a parrot-like beak and they can inflict some damage.”

Komodo Dragon Attacks Are On The Rise

KOMODO ISLAND, Indonesia

Komodo dragons have shark-like teeth and poisonous venom that can kill a person within hours of a bite. Yet villagers who have lived for generations alongside the world’s largest lizard were not afraid — until the dragons started to attack.

The stories spread quickly across this smattering of tropical islands in southeastern Indonesia, the only place the endangered reptiles can still be found in the wild: Two people were killed since 2007 — a young boy and a fisherman — and others were badly wounded after being charged unprovoked.

… Main, a 46-year-old park ranger, was doing paperwork when a dragon slithered up the stairs of his wooden hut in Komodo National Park and went for his ankles dangling beneath the desk. When the ranger tried to pry open the beast’s powerful jaws, it locked its teeth into his hand.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBmIIr9ZgIE

A faithful Fear Beneath reader passed along what look to be an entertaining read -- a new book coming out that “is a must for any shark enthusiast!”

“Steve Alten will be releasing his fourth installment of the ‘MEG’ series on May 19, 2009. The series focuses on the possibility that carcharodon megalodon is flourishing in the deep sea trenches of the Pacific Ocean and has managed to make the transition to coastal waters. The latest installment is entitled ‘MEG: Hell’s Aquarium’. I believe the series is a MUST READ for any shark enthusiast. Alten has also created a trailer for the new horrific tale which can be viewed at the following YouTube link.”

Giant Goonches want to feast on your tribal villages

By Shawn Lindseth at Heckler Spray

If you live in a Filipino village with an economy primarily based on fishing, it could present quite a problem if five monsters suddenly show up in your water keeping everybody land-locked out of fear. Some say this is what caused the current world-wide economic meltdown. Others claim we just made that up right now.

Still others claim five snake-like black beasts did show up in the local waters of a Philippine island of Luzon.

In November of 2002 a Filipino boy reported seeing a big black creature swimming near his village. He thought he was seeing a log until the thing moved – showing off a little more of its shape. The description now given it is that it looked like a cross between a catfish and a shark. The boy screamed, bringing other locals to his aid – but the creature was gone.

About two months later a a whole bunch of people reported seeing the same thing at the same time – a creature measuring three feet wide and seven feet long. Their description was that the creature seemed to be rolling as it swam down stream.

Pandemonium ensued. As the website American Monsters puts it:

“Although there are no accounts of malicious river monsters in any Aeta lore, the tribal leaders have taken drastic actions in order to avoid any civilian casualties. In the small village of Labuan, children are no longer allowed to bathe or play in the river and men and women have ceased fishing altogether, forcing the members of their community to subsist on a diet whose sole source of protein consists of captured frogs.”

Via a local newspaper tribal leaders requested the Philippine government to send a scientist for the purpose of getting their people mostly off of the all-frog diet. Their request was granted, and without seeing anything, said scientist determined a school of fish was causing the madness.

Not much of an answer, right? Well don’t fret – the Sci Fi channel is on it. Their show Destination Truth reportedly investigated things. They didn’t find anything either. Now you can fret.

Lastly – there is at least one strange guess as to where the creatures came from. There is an abandoned gold mine relatively close to the village with the sightings. While it was operating it dumped tons of mercury into the water. According to PinatuboMonster.com:

“Another theory often disregarded is that the Pinatubo Monster is the product of toxic waste dumped into the river creating new mutant hybrid creatures…Since the locals have stopped fishing for safety reasons, we have yet to hear of any reports of fish being toxic or causing birth defects in villages.”

The Fear Beneath covers Savage Wilderness territory:
A man-eating leopard is on the loose in Baramulla!

Alright, first crocodiles, now leopards and bears… What the hell is going on here? We’re trying to spread the word of the Savage Wilderness, that’s what! Last one, we swear. Then it’s back to our usual shark attack song-and-dance. And yes, we read The Kashmir Observer regularly.

SRINAGAR

A six-year-old boy is missing since yesterday after a leopard dragged him into the forests in a hilly hamlet of the Baramulla district.

Search parties organized by villagers, and assisted by the police, have been combing the woods since the incident, and today came upon blood stains at two places and the torn clothing of the child, making them fear the worst.

Reports said that a large leopard had descended on the Pahal Wajji village in Narwaw, Baramulla on Monday afternoon and pounced on a six-year-old boy, Imtiyaz Ahmad Jatal, who had been walking on the road. The leopard dragged the boy into the forests, and when villagers heard his screams, hundreds of them set off in hot pursuit.

But despite frantic searches, they found no trace of the boy till late at night. Nearly 300 hundred villagers, accompanied by the Sheeri police, headed into the woods again this morning, where they were said to have found blood-stained spots, and the boy’s torn clothing. This had raised fears that the leopard might have killed the boy and dumped the body somewhere.

A leopard was sighted again near the locality today, throwing the people into terror. A large number of the people, accompanied by the police, have launched a massive hunt for the boy covering a vast forest tract, but found no clue to what had happened to the victim.

Locals said that this was the sixth incident of its kind this year when a life had been lost in attacks by wild animals.

A gigantic brown bear with a bad, bad, attitude can be your worst day - and your last.

Meanwhile, a massive bear, who injured one villager in an attack, has taken refuge in a field in Tulla Mulla after being driven out from the Barsu locality of Gandarbal on Monday morning.

The bear had appeared in the area in the early hours, but had headed for the Hayat Nagar swamp after being chased by villagers. As villagers tried to dislodge the bear from the field, it struck back, injuring one Imtiyaz Mir severely in the face. The victim had to be hospitalized at the SKIMS.

The bear remained the centre of public attention for the entire day as it was besieged by huge crowds, with wildlife personnel and the police trying to capture it.

Jeremy Wade is Hunting the Man-Eating Catfish
Better Him Than Us

Great headline; if it is aquatic, carnivorous, and has opportunities to eat humans, there’s an excellent chance we’ll be covering it at The Fear Beneath.

By Benny Bleiman

Researchers have been dispatched to the Great Kali river in India to study whether a form of giant catfish called “goonches” have taken to preying on humans. The Indians traditionally burn their dead in the river, which, according to local lore, has led in two ways to the fish attacking humans: #1 – because the fish have dined on a steady diet of corpses they have grown unusually large; #2 – eating dead humans has resulted in their developing a taste for flesh which may be leading them to see live humans as a viable source of food.

The first supposed incident of a goonch attack came in 1988 when a 17-year old Nepalese boy was pulled under by an unknown animal when he was cooling himself in the water. Only a few months ago, however, an 18-year old Nepalese boy was killed by what witnesses called an “elongated pig” while swimming in the river. Could it be that the goonches have taken to attacking humans? Could it also be that they only eat delicious teenagers from Nepal?

The story is aggressively pursued by English angler/biologist/television personality, Jeremy Wade. He has already caught a specimen that was 161 lbs. and over 6 ft. long, large enough probably to maybe drown a swimming human.

Wade has immediately discredited the theory that crocodiles are responsible for the attacks, saying, “If a crocodile were to have perpetrated these attacks on humans, stories about me would not have appeared in a few crappy newspapers, thereby making it highly unlikely that crocodiles are to blame and much more likely that giant mutant catfish who normally subsist on a diet of small prawns and insects are the culprits.”

Bloodthirsty Crocodiles Invade Costa Rica

By Mireille Darras

Choosing a spot on the white sand, looking forward to a swim in the tranquil water of this magnificent beach in Punta Leona, Costa Rica. Plenty of trees for shade, not too many people, perfect, paradise on earth… but is it really?

Just as I was about to dive with my grand daughter in June of 2007, I stopped her and we looked in awe at the giant prints of a very large lizard in the sand.

There was no doubt that the marks had belonged to a huge crocodile and that it had come from the sea. No need to say that swimming after that did not seem like such a good idea! Soon, in fact, we realized that guards were walking along the beach warning people and advising them not to go into the ocean!

Flash forward to Sept. 19 of this year, 13-year-old Dakota Kilbride was having fun surfing in Playa Hermosa, just south of Jaco. Dakota was suddenly attacked by a huge crocodile, and only the will to survive and fighting spirit saved his life as he struggled to stay on his board while the crocodile was trying to pull him into the water and to drown him. Dakota suffered severe bites on this ankle and leg and is now trying to recover from the terrifying ordeal.

Another youth, Brynan Sandi, literally ran for his life in Playa Azul and came out unharmed, a lucky escape! The crocodile chased him out of the water and onto the beach where he was able to get away. This, within three weeks of the first attack in the same Central Pacific region of Costa Rica.

The whole coast, from Puntarenas all the way to Esterillos is full of huge crocodiles during the mating season. Normally, the reptiles do not stray far from the rivers and estuaries of the region, but it is said that the crocodiles that show up in the ocean are the ones who lost a fight over a female crocodile during this season. They leave the rivers and cross through the sea in search for another river, maybe still looking for a mate. Some researchers also blame this new occurrence on development, stating that the natural habitat of the crocs is being destroyed, forcing them to move on to less inhabited regions. Crocodiles do not normally attack humans and this aggressive and frightening behavior is certainly out of the ordinary.

In Punta Leona, there are guards because the beach is part of a private beach club. At more popular Costa Rica beaches, signs have been posted stating the dangers of swimming during this season. There are other beaches however that are not protected or marked and surfers and swimmers go into the sea at their own risk, often unaware of the fact that crocs do occasionally go into the sea, in order to find the mouth of another river.

More and more surfers report the sighting of a few crocs passing by as they try and keep motionless on their boards. These crocodiles are huge and reach six meters in length. It is said that some crocodiles have been seen in swimming in Guanacaste and in the Caribbean as well, where there are no warnings either. It is therefore recommended to keep an eye out while swimming in the areas favored by the big reptiles! A crocodile of this size could easily catch and drown an adult in the worst scenario, or give the poor soul the freight of his or her life.

While neighbors of the danger areas and representatives from the Ministry of the Environment acknowledge that crocodiles do not attack humans out of the blue for feeding purposes, the recent attacks were due to the crocodiles feeling threatened by the presence of surf boards or swimmers in their path.

Source: Costa Rica Pages Blog

An excerpt from the second page: “The photos of the damage inflicted on Dakota are horrific, stomach-turning images. Surreal, yet hauntingly realistic, too gruesome to post here.”

By Adrian Gianatti

So you’re in Costa Rica, surfing the renowned Playa Hermosa. The water’s warm, the waves are fun and the sun’s out. Surfing don’t get much better than this. You get a nice wave, kick out and begin paddling out through the trail of broken whitewater. Then it hits you. Searing pain shoots through your right leg and before you realize what’s happened you’re being dragged and thrashed around in the water by one of nature’s most perfect killing machines.

This is what happened to 13 year old Dakota Kilbride just a couple of days ago. “Whoa, another shark attack in Central America?” you might be thinking, “gnarly.” But you’d be wrong. As it turns out, crocodiles hang out in the nearby rivermouth at Playa Hermosa. And while croc attacks on humans in the area are virtually unheard of, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a few renegade crocs out there who decide to break the rules.

The photos of the damage inflicted on Dakota are horrific, stomach-turning images. Surreal, yet hauntingly realistic, too gruesome to post here. You can almost plot the points on his leg that the crocodile’s teeth pierced his skin moments before the croc performed its infamous ‘death roll’, which opened up Dakota’s leg like a tin of sardines. Like one of those alien autopsy videos, you’re not quite sure that what you’re seeing is authentic. But when you realize it is, you find yourself with jaw agape, wondering how anyone could survive so much trauma. Especially a kid. But Dakota’s strong. There was a special delivery of skin tissue from Miami to graft onto his leg, but it turns out he didn’t need it.

Close family friend Jim Hogan was one of the first on the scene and has been bedside with the Kilbride family throughout the ordeal. “Everything about this situation is a little miracle. From Dakota not losing his leg, to not needing the skin graft. It’s been a series of million to one things that have gone his way.” Hopefully a couple more minor miracles are on the horizon for Dakota too, because now he’s got some big hurdles ahead of him; months of rehab, muscle atrophy, not to mention complete loss of muscle tissue in the first place. All this physical preparation is before he even considers getting in the water again and the massive psychological battle this would entail. But for now Dakota’s being a kid again, checking out internet sites from his hospital bed with Mom and Dad by his side. And probably feeling like the luckiest 13 year old in the world.