I know this is a few days old but I'm surprised there's been no discussion of this. Normally sharks don't eat humans after an attack but it appears this guy was feasted on almost completely by two great whites. I've always wondered why sharks don't usually eat humans after an attack. I don't see why a flailing human would be any different than a seal after the initial attack. Nontheless, this is the most gruesome attack I've heard about in awhile. Revenge for that one shark killed a little while ago?
Teen torn in half in double shark attack
Adelaide, Australia
16 December 2004 10:32
Two great white sharks attacked and killed a teenage boy on a surfboard off a packed Australian beach as his horrified friends looked on Thursday, in the country's second fatal shark attack in five days.
Police said the 18-year-old was being towed on a surfboard behind a speedboat off a beach in the southern city of Adelaide when the giant man-eaters struck.
The victim's three friends aboard the speedboat told police they saw a white pointer shark, also known as a great white, grab the youth's arm and drag him into the water.
He yelled at them to get his board to him as the circling shark closed in and renewed its attack. Witnesses on the beach said the boy's body was torn in half before a second white pointer joined in a feeding frenzy, which was over in a matter of seconds.
"Apparently it tore him in half and the other shark came in and took the rest," Sea Rescue Squadron spokesperson Fraser Bell told reporters at the scene.
The attack occurred in front of hundreds of beachgoers seeking relief from sweltering pre-Christmas weather at West Beach, just 10km from Adelaide city centre.
Bell said the first shark was described as 5m long and the second 4,5m. Great white sharks can grow up to 8m long and weigh up to 1 500kg.
One witnesses said the shark that initiated the attack was "as wide as the boat they were in".
Police closed the beach after the attack and launched an intensive search for the teenager, although they had no hope of his survival.
The youth's three friends, all believed to be aged 16, were being treated for shock. Police said they were unable to give a detailed description of the attack because they were so traumatised.
"They were just boys having a good time; the weather was perfect and they were just out doing what young lads do," Bell said.
He said the teenagers tried in vain to rescue their friend.
"They tried everything they could think of, but unfortunately the sharks had taken him by that stage," he said, describing the boys as "a wreck".
Bell said there have been recent reports of shark sightings off Adelaide's metropolitan coast and a shark warning was issued two weeks ago.
The waters off South Australia are a well-known habitat for great white sharks, although the last fatal attack in Adelaide was 14 years ago.
The latest death comes just five days after Mark Thompson (38 ) was killed by a shark while spearfishing on a section of the Great Barrier Reef, about 75km north of the Queensland state tourist town of Cairns.
I'm glad this didn't happen right before I was in Cairns and diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Someone duped me and said the GBR was mostly safe and the bulk of shark attacks occured on the other side of Australia near Perth so I didn't think anything of it while there.
It's more our large, calcium rich bones that get them.. Sharks have a lot of very sharp teeth, but nothing that you would want to chew through bone with.
Oh, and you stand a better chance of being hit by lightning than attacked by a shark, so don't go outside in your foil hat!
May 2003 - "Mission Accomplished"
June 2005 - "The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight"
-- G W Bush, freelance writer for The Daily Show.
Zaelath wrote:It's more our large, calcium rich bones that get them.. Sharks have a lot of very sharp teeth, but nothing that you would want to chew through bone with.
Oh, and you stand a better chance of being hit by lightning than attacked by a shark, so don't go outside in your foil hat!
That's generalizing quite a bit. I'd think a spear fisherman in Australia would beg to differ. On the other hand, if you never went near the ocean, you're pretty much assured of never being eaten by a shark unless you fall into a shark tank at Sea World.
We have a few attacks every year, but yes you can increase your risk. If I was you I'd worry far more about jellyfish in Queensland than sharks though.
The Box Jellyfish uses its tentacles to kill its prey. If a swimmer makes contact with the Box Jellyfish's tentacles, perhaps only 6 or 7 metres of them, death may result! Children may die after even less contact. The severity of the sting is relative to the size of the Box Jellyfish, the sensitivity of the victim's skin, and the amount of tentacle that has come into contact.
A very large Box Jellyfish has tentacles that, if placed end to end, would measure more than 60 metres, so it is not unusual for a rescuer to inadvertently become entangled in another section of the tentacles and suffer the same fate. Sometimes the victim somehow manages to get ashore only to die within a few minutes as friends look helplessly on.
On the whole Australians don't spend a lot of time worrying about this stuff, given we have something like 9 out of the 10 most deadly spiders and the most deadly and agressive snakes in the world, we're not all dying from bites. Driving is still more dangerous
May 2003 - "Mission Accomplished"
June 2005 - "The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight"
-- G W Bush, freelance writer for The Daily Show.
When you enter the domain of huge predators, accidents like this will happen. It is sad and i feel for the guy and his friends but it simply cannot be helped.
I am sure people can go into a rage about how bad sharks are but it is just ridiculous, it is not the shark that is evil, it is simply following its instincts and that is how it is really.
Tegellan wrote:When you enter the domain of huge predators, accidents like this will happen. It is sad and i feel for the guy and his friends but it simply cannot be helped.
I am sure people can go into a rage about how bad sharks are but it is just ridiculous, it is not the shark that is evil, it is simply following its instincts and that is how it is really.
Well, besides the kid getting ripped in two, his two friends actually saw it happen up close which had to have caused some permanent psycho trauma.
It's not the shark's fault. if you could relocate sharks, that would probably be the best solution. I don't think that's an option though.
Another thing Aussies need to worry about is warm beer. I noticed a lack of refrigerators while I was there!
Just kill all the sharks possible and round the rest up and put them in shark reservations. If you need pointers the US can help you out on some of that.
There will be a press conference today from the UN showing slam dunk evidence that these sharks were part of Al-Qaeda. The sharks also can carry WMD's and deliver them for detonation in any US port.
Aslanna wrote:Just kill all the sharks possible and round the rest up and put them in shark reservations. If you need pointers the US can help you out on some of that.
Or maybe the Australians can help they had a shitload of practice with the Aborigines, Or maybe the Brits in India, How about them Krauts with the Jews, Or maybe the Japs in China or Bosnia, so fuck you there is plenty of help out there.
Feel bad for the kid. But what the hell, you drag a surf board with a human aboard through waters known to have Great Whites and it becomes nothing more than trolling.
They showed this exact thing on National Geographic where a research vessel towed a surf board with a dummy dressed in a wetsuit and the Great White literally breached (rare occurrence) such was the ferocity of the attack.
Must have been terrifying to see this happen.
Atokal
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Aslanna wrote:Just kill all the sharks possible and round the rest up and put them in shark reservations. If you need pointers the US can help you out on some of that.
Or maybe the Australians can help they had a shitload of practice with the Aborigines, Or maybe the Brits in India, How about them Krauts with the Jews, Or maybe the Japs in China or Bosnia, so fuck you there is plenty of help out there.
Stick with your one liners. You were better at that.
Cartalas wrote:Or maybe the Australians can help they had a shitload of practice with the Aborigines, Or maybe the Brits in India, How about them Krauts with the Jews, Or maybe the Japs in China or Bosnia, so fuck you there is plenty of help out there.
Stick with your one liners. You were better at that.
Actually I thought that was the best Cartalas post I've ever seen....
/bite
Atokal wrote:Feel bad for the kid. But what the hell, you drag a surf board with a human aboard through waters known to have Great Whites and it becomes nothing more than trolling.
They showed this exact thing on National Geographic where a research vessel towed a surf board with a dummy dressed in a wetsuit and the Great White literally breached (rare occurrence) such was the ferocity of the attack.
Must have been terrifying to see this happen.
I saw that.. jesus if the same thing happened to the kid..
Also saw those videos of orca torpedoing great whites out of the water and exploding them... should just import orca to australia since they are human friendly!
Read this and the only thing I could think of was "Fatality".
Seriously though, those kids are going to have serious psych issues comming out of this. You just don't watch your best friend get bit in half, watch his floating corpse linger in the water for a minute as his insides become his outsides, and then watch THAT disapear as another shark comes and scoops him up like a wet/dry hoover vac.
Akaran of Mistmoore, formerly Akaran of Veeshan I know I'm good at what I do, but I know I'm not the best.
But I guess that on the other hand, I could be like the rest.
Aslanna wrote:Just kill all the sharks possible and round the rest up and put them in shark reservations. If you need pointers the US can help you out on some of that.
Or maybe the Australians can help they had a shitload of practice with the Aborigines, Or maybe the Brits in India, How about them Krauts with the Jews, Or maybe the Japs in China or Bosnia, so fuck you there is plenty of help out there.
Sorry Cart, no can do on the brits, most of us europeans only got expertice in sending our problem people away.
Funnily enough to the US (and a lesser degree Australia, UK used to ship criminals there).
"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich"
