A History of a shark: Why they attack

The largest fish and the most feared by man. Sharks live in every ocean. The shark has no natural predator other than the killer whale. The physiology of the shark is beyond any other hunter, with eight amazing sensory organs and jaws so powerful, it remains unrivaled in the animal kingdom. The tenacity of their will to live is extremely impressive. Gaffed, harpooned, shot, torn open, they are still able to move swiftly and rip apart their victims. The evolution of the shark is amazing, considering they have remained unchanged for over 350 million years.

It's not surprising that sharks are the topic of many books, movies, and nightmares. It's also not surprising that there is such confusion between fact and fiction due to the fear of sharks.

Everyone is overly troubled by what is in our oceans but still we swim in the sharks domain.A lot of surfers are weary of going into the water but they are the ones who take that chance of having a shark attack, over the past 300 years there has been less shark attacks than there has been alcohol related deaths.It isn't fair that so many people think that sharks are cold blooded killers, thanks to movies like deep blue sea and jaws people are in constant fear of shark attacks but still enter the water.

Everyone knows that sharks will only attacked if provoked and when you think about its quite a lot, we are going into their own world doing god knows what to their food supply. They will attack when feel threatened.

Any shark attack in itself is dramatic and regrettable, but certain additional circumstances, conditions or parameters can make it even more tragic, or on the contrary comfort those optimists who think that every serious accident could have been even worse.

On October 27, 1937, at Coolangatta in New South Wales, Australia, it was half-past five in the afternoon and several men were bathing 200 meters off the beach. Among them were Norman Girvan, Jack Brinkley and Gordon Doniger, who were swimming in an area immediately above an underwater channel hollowed out in the sand by currents. The three friends were fooling around and joking about sharks and then decided to get back to the shore. It was at this moment that Girvan shouted to Doniger, "Quick Don, a shark's caught me." Doniger thought that he was still joking, but when Girvan lifted his arm there was blood everywhere. "It wouldn't let me go. It had my leg," he said. Doniger swam over to Girvan, just as he reached him, Girvan was torn from his arms and the enormous shark surfaced right next to him. Girvan moaned, "I'm gone, Goodbye." and almost immediately the killer dragged him underwater.
Doniger called Brinkley to come and help him, but, just as Brinkley was starting to swim towards them, a shark attacked him. Joseph Doniger, who had seen the first spectacle from the shore, launched himself into the water towards his brother. As he was swimming, he saw Brinkley being attacked by a second shark, slightly smaller than the first, and succeeded in catching hold of him beneath the chin and started to bring him back to the shore, but the shark charged again, and Joseph felt terrific jolts shaking his friends body. He now had a perfect view of the shark, which according to him was at least 2.5 meters long.

Norman Girvan had disappeared, but pieces of his body were later thrown up on shore in the days following the attack. Brinkley was taken to the hospital in Coolangatta with his left arm torn off and the whole of his left flank gashed. He was given blood transfusion and then operated on, but he died that evening. The next day, a female Tiger Shark measuring 3.6 meters and weighing 385 kilos was captured not far from the spot. When its stomach was opened up, undigested human arms and legs were found in it, and it was possible to identify Girvan's right hand from a scar. Dr. Birch, who had examined Brinkley's injuries, stated that they appeared to have been made with a razor, without the usual characteristic tearing. The conclusion was then drawn that the principal target had been Girvan and that there had probably only been one shark involved in this tragedy. It was only when returning to attack Girvan that the Tiger would have brushed against Brinkley with its sharp edged fins, thus explaining the linear form of his wounds. It is in fact quite exceptional for two sharks to attack at the same time, apart from during feeding frenzies, which call for very particular circumstances, and apart from cases where there are several sources of blood in the water (after shipwrecks).

It is very probable, then, that Joseph Doniger was mistaken in his judgment regarding the two sharks. The leading edges of sharks' fins are sharp and cutting, accounting for their ability to cause fatal injuries to a man stock-still in the water when the shark charges at great speed towards its prey.

Another comparable attack took place, this time in fresh water, 20 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the Maria river (Australia). This was in November 1947. Three brothers were diving in the murky waters of the river just in front of their house, when Rupert, aged 13, suddenly started to yell. The water boiled up furiously around him and he swam rapidly for the bank, leaving a reddish wake behind him. Almost immediately afterwards his brother Edwin, 12 years old, screamed and disappeared beneath the surface. As soon as he reappeared, his older brother Stanley grabbed him and tried to drag him towards the bank, but in vain. Suddenly Edwin appeared to have freed himself, but in fact the shark had just released him by cutting of his leg at knee level. Edwin died on the beach in his brother's arms. Meanwhile Rupert had managed to reach terra firma, with a deep gash from the thigh to below the kneecap, but he recovered from his injury. It is certain that Edwin was the object of the attack, and that his brother was wounded during the shark's charge by one of its fins.

On December 24, 1934, in the waters off Brisbane, 2 kilometers from the sea, three brothers and sisters were preparing to dive from the pontoon between their house and the landing stage. Joyce dived first and her brother, Roy, applauded her while decreeing that he could do better. But just as he dived Joyce began to scream as she saw a fin coming straight at her. She beat the water with her legs and then felt a pain in the region of her knee, like a cut. Then her brother disappeared in a swirl of foam, and she herself just had time to reach the pontoon ladder a meter away from her. Their mother, who was watching the scene from a distance, began to run towards them, reached Roy, who had just reappeared screaming and splashing about with the energy that comes of desperation. She just had time to touch him before he was again dragged beneath the surface. And although they searched for hours, he was never to be found again. In this last case, again the target was a single child, and the survivor was only unintentionally wounded by the shark.

On December 29, 1961, Margaret Hobbs, aged 18, and Martin Streffens, aged 24, stood motionless in the water, 5 meters from the shore in a depth of 1 meter, not far from the town of Mackay, Australia. They had been flirting about in this way for about twenty minutes when the young girl was abruptly torn from her friend's arms, in a shower of water that prevented him from seeing whatever it was. Martin succeeded in grasping Margaret's Body, but the killer was stronger. When the two poor wretches were rescued, it was already too late for Margaret, whose right arm was cut at the shoulder level, the left forearm above the wrist, and the right thigh ravaged down to the femur. Martin had to have his right hand amputated, as it had been lacerated by the shark as it kept after its victim. Here again, the "accessory" victim was injured only because he found himself in the path to the chosen prey. Potential rescuers should be aware that the risk of going to help a victim who is already wounded is very limited, for in the great majority of cases the shark, if it attacks again, will harass the same victim. The number of rescuers who become victims of their own courage is infinitesimal, which is easily explained when we remember the multiple and extremely sophisticated neurosensorial means which the shark has at its disposal for finding its prey again at short range, even in the dark.

Iona Asaï (pictured below) was an Aboriginal island pearl-fisher to whom his companions attributed the power of communicating with the gods. the unique adventure that he experienced in 1937 did not diminish him in the eyes of his companions, indeed the opposite. He himself later wrote: "During 1937, one Friday just before 11 o'clock, I dived for the third time and walked along the bottom towards a small mound. The shark was on the other side; initially I couldn't see it and it couldn't see me. I saw a stone like a pearl oyster on the north side and, when I turned around, I saw a shark two meters from me. It opened its mouth. I had no chance at all of escaping from it. It came and bit me on the head. As my skull was too hard, it then swallowed my head and placed its teeth around my neck. And then it bit me. When I felt its teeth sink into my flesh, I put my hands around its head and crushed its eyes until it let me go, and then made for the boat as best I could. The skipper hauled me into the boat and I passed out."

Three weeks and 200 stitches later, Iona developed a small abscess in the neck region, from which emerged a Tiger Shark tooth that must have been at least 3 centimeters long. Nineteen years previously, Iona had been attacked off Cairns, subsequently confirming the biblical congruity of his name: Iona is the local name for Jonah or Jonas. ----



People need to realise that by killing sharks isn't going to solve a personal fear. Its a risk you take when you surf or swim in the ocean if your going to be in there world you have to deal with the consequences.