Why a Great White Shark killed a NZ swimmer
Read Time:3 Minute, 19 Second
Many news organizations are calling the meeting between a Great White Shark, an endangered species, and a film director swimming at a New Zealand beach an “attack.” I don’t like to call what sharks do, which is eat, attacking. An unsuspecting soul is swimming about in the water, the shark’s water, and the shark is hungry. What happens next is often inevitable as the cruising shark senses the noise, and the smell of potential prey.
Humans aren’t the natural food of sharks, simply because the water isn’t the natural home of humans. On the contrary, water is deadly to people, so it has to be navigated carefully, by swimming or diving, and either activity can trigger impulses in the shark’s brain, making it curious. In the vast, vast majority of cases sharks investigate by swimming by, taking a look, and rejecting outright the food potential. This is more often the case with SCUBA divers, who don’t kick up a fuss beyond the bubbles from the tanks, which the sharks don’t particularly like anyway.
Swimmers, on the other hand, splash about, pee in the water, yell and generally make a whole lot of noise, which interests the shark prompting yet another investigation. Under the water, looking up, swimmers, especially surfers and body boarders, often resemble seals, the natural prey of sharks, particularly Great Whites, and add to that the splashing and carrying on, the shark may consider the playing human a food source. When that happens a battle is about to ensue between the unsuspecting swimmer and the confident, practiced shark. In most cases the human loses to the shark, which, after a couple of bites often moves away, realizing this was no seal. Unfortunately for the human just one bite could mean a massive loss of tissue and blood, and death almost certainly follows.
Shark ‘attacks’ are rare, very rare, although they get a lot of press attention when they happen. In point of fact when there are people in the water, where sharks live, such events are inevitable. Most incidents occur at bathing beaches where there are hundreds and hundreds of people splashing about in the water, at about knee depth.
(Newser) A swimmer was killed by what witnesses say was a “huge” shark in a rare ‘attack’ in New Zealand today. Police in inflatable boats shot at and hit the shark, which is believed to have been a great white around 14 feet long, but they say it swam away afterward, the New Zealand Herald reports. A fisherman says he saw the shark attack the man when he was about 650 feet off the popular Muriwai beach near Auckland.
“All of a sudden there was blood everywhere,” says the fisherman, who saw the shark swim off after a struggle with the man before returning for a second attack, which attracted several more sharks. “I yelled at him to swim to the rocks. There was blood everywhere. The water was red. It’s pretty scary,” he says. Great whites are often seen in New Zealand waters at this time of year, but there have been just 15 fatal attacks recorded since records began in 1837, with the last confirmed one in 1976, reports TVNZ.
You can take some precautions while in the water. First don’t urinate, as sharks can smell urine up to a mile away, and certainly don’t enter the water if you’re bleeding, as that will also draw sharks from a long way away. Avoid unnecessary splashing as all that racket you’re making will draw curious, unwanted visitors. Finally, never ignore official warnings of sharks in the vicinity.
If you would like to learn more about sharks, up close and personal, check out and ‘LIKE’ Avi Bernstein’s Fins4Fins Facebook page. Avi is a marine activist and author for MadMikesAmerica.
Follow MadMike’sAmerica on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to visit our HOME PAGE.
If you liked our story please share it at REDDIT.COM and PINTEREST as well as TUMBLR.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Does the no-pee rule apply to kids in swimming pools? Or at least, can we tell the kids that they need to practice, just in case?
I get your point about the term “attack” but we use that word for all sorts of predators-eating-prey scenarios, so I doubt it is going to go away.
I should have thought of that. Just tell them that, to pee in the water attracts sharks. That should do it. 😀
I agree Greg that ‘attack’ is commonly used in animal/people conflicts, but eschewing it for the purpose of writing this post seemed to work, although not using it was tough. As to kids peeing in the pool: we’ll never be able to stop that 🙂
I’m not afraid of sharks either James, but I do have a great deal of respect for them. When I lived in the Keys I had several occasions to share space, their space, with them, and I was keenly aware of that.
It would be foolish not to respect any large predator on their home ground or not. If I encountered a bear or lion in the street outside my condo, I’d certainly show some respect. I may not be brilliant all of the time, but I am not voluntarily stupid, either.
When delivering sailboats around the world, one question I was frequently asked by non-sailors was, “Aren’t you afraid of sharks?”
I’d always say, “No, I am not. The water is their home and thus their dining room. The boat is my home. We have an agreement, I will stay out of their home and they will stay out of mine. It’s working well for both of us.”
I always laugh because the media is incapable of using any phrase but “shark-infested waters.” Again, the water is their home. The infestation is people.