Great White Shark Incident @ Catalina

[Scuba Lawyer]

I am surrounded by attorneys - Am I safe?

NO

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Good thing they cleaned up the brown stains from that kayak before posing for photos.

If you re-read the article, the debated quote seems to have come from Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach.

Bill Powers and Danny McDaniel were the kayakers. Lowe was apparently interviewed to fluff up the article.

Lowe might have made the statement in the context of a larger conversation which changed its meaning. It is an article written by a professional journalist so you can be sure the article has fluff in order to get the most views rather than to present the actual details of the news in question.

Actually, having seen several of Chris's lectures (he was on my M.S. thesis committee and we still speak on a regular basis), I think the gist of that quote was correct and it's important in the context of the story.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

A GW can tell from a bite if there is enough fat in an object. The yak didn't meet the min. fat content so the attack was stopped.

I will not be able to cite or produce the source but that general theory was challenged a number of years ago by a shark researcher at the Farrallons who didn't think the idea of "Ooops, I bit the wrong thing" made much sense since sharks don't have tongues and we may ascribe too much to their tactile abilities. His impressions after watching shark attacks on sea lions over a summer was that the shark came in a bit once, backed off to see how wounded the "victim" was, and then either left the victim alone if not hit much or came in and finished him off. His conclusion was the sharks were being cautious and didn't want to risk injury.

In this instance - and the caveat is that I've got a number of question about the veracity of the whole thing, although I'm sure the shark teeth are legit and real - these guys basically paddle off after the initial alleged bite so the shark may simply not have come back in to finish the job.

 

[drrich2]

This sort of incident bothers me. On the one hand, being far from the mindless killing machines they've at times past been billed as, sharks are more intelligent than that, have substantial senses and thus it's been pointed out before that despite the fact some of us look a bit like a seal or sea lion in a black wetsuit, as long as the viz. is decent sharks can tell we're not their instinctual prey, and the overwhelming majority of the time even large sharks of the 'man-eater' species generally pass people by.

And I believe that.

Then one goes and bites a kayak. If it'd bite a kayak, why wouldn't it bite me?

I get the 'test bite' concept, but do they swim around taste testing strange things they come across, or does the kayak look like something they'd eat? A large dead fish of some sort?

Richard.

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

I will not be able to cite or produce the source but that general theory was challenged a number of years ago by a shark researcher at the Farrallons who didn't think the idea of "Ooops, I bit the wrong thing" made much sense since sharks don't have tongues and we may ascribe too much to their tactile abilities. His impressions after watching shark attacks on sea lions over a summer was that the shark came in a bit once, backed off to see how wounded the "victim" was, and then either left the victim alone if not hit much or came in and finished him off. His conclusion was the sharks were being cautious and didn't want to risk injury.

In this instance - and the caveat is that I've got a number of question about the veracity of the whole thing, although I'm sure the shark teeth are legit and real - these guys basically paddle off after the initial alleged bite so the shark may simply not have come back in to finish the job.

If I recall correctly, my old dive buddy John McCosker (California Academy of Sciences- Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco) wrote a really good peer-reviewed paper on that subject many decades ago that he gave me. I'll have to see if I can dig it out. M

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I will not be able to cite or produce the source but that general theory was challenged a number of years ago by a shark researcher at the Farrallons who didn't think the idea of "Ooops, I bit the wrong thing" made much sense since sharks don't have tongues and we may ascribe too much to their tactile abilities. His impressions after watching shark attacks on sea lions over a summer was that the shark came in a bit once, backed off to see how wounded the "victim" was, and then either left the victim alone if not hit much or came in and finished him off. His conclusion was the sharks were being cautious and didn't want to risk injury.

In this instance - and the caveat is that I've got a number of question about the veracity of the whole thing, although I'm sure the shark teeth are legit and real - these guys basically paddle off after the initial alleged bite so the shark may simply not have come back in to finish the job.

My thinking is that if it was an "attack" - e.g., the shark viewed the kayak as a possible live prey item - it would have been a lot more violent. If it is food, you don't want it getting away or worse, turning around and scratching your eyes out. There's no penalty in the shark world for collateral damage. Going by the account the sequence of events was shark surfaces -> bumps kayak relatively gently -> bites, but not hard enough to inflict serious damage (I've seen a 300 lb bull shark chomp right through a plastic milk crate; a 5,000+ lb white shark could easily chop a yak in half) -> lets go without much struggle from the kayaker or any attempt to saw a chunk out of the kayak. Depending on how slow they were paddling, the shark might have thought the kayak was some kind of carcass or decided to take a test bite of something that was unfamiliar. Once it realized it was inedible, it let go and swam off.

Last I checked, the thinking was that a lot of white shark bites on humans are investigatory in nature. Otherwise, the survival rate wouldn't be nearly as high as it is. When they're going after prey items - including humans in some cases - they hit like a proverbial freight train from hell. The clearest human example I can think of would be Lewis Boren near Monterey back in 1981; he was hit by a white shark about the same size as the one reported here while surfing. That wasn't a nudge and a nip; the shark bit clean through most of his torso and the board in one bite.

 

[lexvil]

Try to not look like this

 

[Hatul]

My thinking is the shark needs dental implants.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Sam, I never leave home without my safety equipment!

View attachment 544237

Worked for my dad on me so seems legit that it would work on a shark!

 

[AfterDark]

Try to not look like this
View attachment 544303

You mean hope the GW doesn't think you look like that.