News – Swimmers, surfers and casual beachgoers know now a great white shark might be lurking below the glassy blue surface of the ocean here.
Great whites typically hunt by swimming 20 or 30 feet down, looking up to spot something that appears to be a seal or an elephant seal. When they spot a target, they swim up with great force and attack, taking a big enough bite out of it to disable the seal. They then retreat to avoid injury while it flails around. After it bleeds to death, they return to feed.
Unfortunately, to an inexperienced great white, given their poor vision, a human in a black wet suit can look rather like a seal when viewed from 20 feet down. Surfboards can also look attractive.
We need to develop wet suits and surf boards that make us look VERY different from a seal. Even better, look like something the a great white would avoid, say a boat with a propeller.
well compared to the thousands of sharks that humans slaughter each year, one human life is a small in comparison.
Good point, except it's not thousands. Try 100 million sharks bitten by humans each year. 70 humans bitten by sharks. http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWa...
From my days of swimming in Hawaii, I've always had a healthy respect for sharks and avoid swimming where they may be present. Fortunately, in Hawaii, there are numerous beaches with protective reefs that discourage sharks from crossing. However, there are also numerous areas without reefs where sharks appear. The State posts warning signs that many ignore (mostly surfers). Local lore says to avoid swimming/surfing at dawn or dusk as that's when sharks do their feeding. Most attacks in Hawaii are by tiger sharks as great whites don't frequent the waters of Hawaii. For proper perspective: there are an average of 3 shark attacks in Hawaii a year while an average of 60 people drown in the waters of Hawaii each year.
I don't mind swimming in the ocean when I can see what's around me. It's exciting and fun, like rock climbing. But, to swim at NIGHT, with a full moon, NOT be able to see what's down below you while you dog paddle...man, you have GOT to be suicidal, or, wishing some mind-less fish to take you out, BUZZsaw style. I'll never forget the time I was swimming off the shore of Maui. I was having a great time looking at all the cute and pretty fish (best part of a lousy trip, actually), and a current carried me into a coral canyon. I was on an air-raft I had blown up. Well, I saw this shark swimming behind me (it didn't seem interested in me being that it was swimming away) and, although I was trying not to panic, man, I CLAWED my way OVER the coral and practically ran on water. It was as if I had become a kid posessed. Well, it WAS two years after I had seen "Jaws".
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Typically, humans do not have enough fat on them to attract a great white shark as a meal. This was probably a juvenile just learning to hunt for warm blooded prey, like a seal or a dolphin. Up to puberty, (16 years) sharks do not reproduce, and they are very important to the ecology of the ocean, so it is important that folks don't panic and start killing sharks because they are afraid. A Great Whites eyesight is not all that great, so this was proabaly a mistake!