Girl Killed by 3 Sharks in Bahamas

[cyan]

Originally Posted by Arthurwg

I grew up in Florida and spent lots of time snorkeling along the shore. Always saw sharks big and small. They are always there. If you want to be completely safe, don't go in the water.

Sure...Except that chumming the water for non-cage shark dives is a RECENT tourist explosion. It went from almost nothing to a $100,000,000 annual industry in the Bahamas in just the last 17 years.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by Arthurwg

I grew up in Florida and spent lots of time snorkeling along the shore. Always saw sharks big and small. They are always there. If you want to be completely safe, don't go in the water.

Actually, in Florida you are statistically safer in the water.

https://nypost.com/2019/08/03/forget...ters-on-earth/

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Group9

I was actually thinking of that when I wrote it! [emoji3]

I can envision the scene now...fully animated by Pixar! [emoji41]

https://youtu.be/Qi2h08xAN6Q

[Arthurwg]

Just saw this news story today. Three people have been injured in separate shark attacks in the last two days, including two surfers who were bitten within minutes of each other, New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

[motion30]

New Smyrna Beach is the shark bite capital of the world

[Hardhead]

As someone who has fished a lot, and reeled in more cleanly amputated fish heads than I can count, I've always had extreme respect for the teeth of any shark or barracuda, any at all. The power & slicing ability of those jaws is hard to believe - and actually frightening. One split second - your hand or foot is completely gone. I don't care if they are friendly while eating.


I was on the Florida panhandle coast one beautiful October afternoon about 2009, standing on the sandy edge of very calm beach surf - when a 6 foot + shark comes ambling down the beach, in about knee deep clear water, literally 7 feet from shore. I couldn't tell what type it was, as I was so shocked and taken aback, and it was a weird refracted angle because it was so close. Couldn't really see it from the side, and couldn't get a good look from the top perspective. The dorsal was occasionally & lazily breaking the surface. 10 minutes later, another one of similar size comes down the beach again, from the same direction. I've never forgotten that, it's burned in my memory... forever. I'd actually swum on that very same beach with my 2 young children numerous times - and the water was usually fairly muddy. No one got bit. So, for whatever meaning can be drawn from that... my personal assessment has been stay the hell out of the ocean water, basically.

[a64pilot]

Having been raised on the Gulf Coast of fl. It was likely a Bull shark. Tigers, and now Hammers worry me, but a Bull has me getting out of the water, especially if they get stiff and arch their back and the pectorals come down in the strong man pose.
If they do that, your in their territory and they are fixing to get aggressive to run you off.

[endlesspursuit]

Four of us witnessed a 8' plus Bull shark swim down the trough here on the east coast of Florida one summer night. About 4 feet off the sand we were standing on.

[Hardhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Having been raised on the Gulf Coast of fl. It was likely a Bull shark. Tigers, and now Hammers worry me, but a Bull has me getting out of the water, especially if they get stiff and arch their back and the pectorals come down in the strong man pose.
If they do that, your in their territory and they are fixing to get aggressive to run you off.

That's actually good to know. I agree about those Bull sharks - a few are usually caught every summer in Maryland in the Chesapeake bay - in commercial pound nets, which usually stretch straight out from shore a few hundred feet or so. I'm sure we must all have swum with Bull sharks quite a bit over the years, and likely never had any problems.

On the other hand, being a little older and (having fished more), I really don't want to push my luck. The more I've seen of what any shark can do - I don't want to be a victim of mistaken identity, by a prehistoric animal with a brain about the size of an hazel nut. No offense to the animal is meant.