GW bites swimmer off Manhattan Beach Pier

[danvolker]

In NC the fishing pier has some priority since they cannot move and swimmers and boaters have the rest of the beach/ocean. There is supposed to be an exclusion zone around the pier. But a big fish can easily be over 200 yds out on line after being hooked.

Steve, I get that.....but....
Take some parents that are very protective of their kids....they are very critical of who baby sits to avoid child molesting, they don't let the kids do things that they believe are dangerous--they try to create a protected environment for their children.....
Now if this family wants to go to a beach, the careful parents have to be concerned about the safety of their kids in the ocean...They will NOT allow them to get to far from shore, they will make sure the kids understand rip currents and the kids will be STRONG swimmers before they will ever be allowed in the ocean without a life jacket and parent at their side.....So HOW could these parents possibly allow the kids they love, to be swimming 200 to 600 yards from a baiting zone for sharks, where feeding frenzy behavior is commonplace daily...and where sharks are being attracted from many miles away....

Kids can survive being allowed to walk along the shoulder of I-95 for miles, and this could happen many times....Should they be allowed to do this? should they be encouraged to do this?
A kid may survive playing in a playground that has 4 or 5 child molesters embedded in the group of adults that frequent this playground daily--and many kids will avoid ever having any interaction with these child molestors...the question is, if the parents KNEW that there were 5 child molesters at this playground every day, looking for targets---what kind of parents would they be if they took their kids to this playground and then let the kids go off on their own, while the parents left for coffee or something else that would mean their protection was impossible? This brings us to what kind of parents bring their kids to a shark baiting beach....which is a beach next to a fishing pier.
I think most, check their IQ at the car, and decide that the city/government would never allow the swimming beach to be in a critically dangerous location where sharks are being attracted constantly--the parents just will figure the pier is a non-issue, or the city would not have allowed it....the thing is....it is NOT a non-issue....it changes the danger level from less than the chances of having a meteorite fall on your head--to something more like the chances of having a flat tire.....( of having a dangerous shark swim within 100 feet of the swimmer due to baiting).

So we have Dumb and Dumber...the parents, and the City where the pier/swimming beach is....Who IS Dumb...and who is Dumber ?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The worst part is that Great Whites are protected in California. Juveniles have been seen in growing numbers in the area for the past five years. These "fishermen" had to know what they were doing. Even if nobody had been bitten the fishermen should still be arrested.

 

[FinnMom]

A great white is a rare and normally deep water fish. A fisherman could hardly have expected to catch one while fishing from a pier, even if fishing for sharks. Once you know you have a protected fish on the line, all you can do is release it in a proper manner. I can see no grounds for a fine to the fisherman.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

They are spotted at the surface nearly every day off the Manhattan Beach Pier. They were likely casting their hooks right in front of the sharks.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Why then were the swimmers there at all?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

These are mostly juvenile GWs. They don't have the serrated teeth yet to eat mammals. They feed on smaller fish for several years and pose no danger to swimmers unless provoked. The caught shark last week was likely thrashing to escape. You cannot target Great Whites in California, and if you catch one by mistake you are to release it. There are videos of fishermen on other piers in SoCal who are obviously targeting the sharks, and one even brings one to the deck of Newport Pier and gaffs it.

 

[FinnMom]

That's amazingly many sightings. No wonder they don't seem too endangered to many people.

It sounds like the law needs a little work to better discourage targeting no-catch animals. you would think fisherman would get behind enforcing better behaviour now that fishing on the pier has clearly been threatened.

 

[danvolker]

They are spotted at the surface nearly every day off the Manhattan Beach Pier. They were likely casting their hooks right in front of the sharks.

Ok...Here in parts of S Florida, there are the "brainless" that run out into the road, with cars coming, and try to make it across---perhaps assuming the cars will be paying attention and avoid hitting them. The morons that cross like this, and swimmers in a place with all the sharks passing through, would seem to be roughly equivalent.

 

[drrich2]

I think most, check their IQ at the car, and decide that the city/government would never allow the swimming beach to be in a critically dangerous location where sharks are being attracted constantly--the parents just will figure the pier is a non-issue, or the city would not have allowed it....

It's a reasonable expectation. At least in some areas, when registered sex offenders are released from prison, they are under requirements to not reside within some fixed distance from some types of places, such as elementary schools, where children congregate.

Also witness the recent controversy over shark feed diving out of Florida, and the big debates that went on about that.

A lot of the 'beach public' aren't into marine biology, don't research great whites, and don't study the varied factors that impact it. If it's a public beach, then it's assumed to be appropriate for public use.

Attempts to educate them otherwise could backfire. A number of us here value great white sharks and would like to see their numbers increase substantially, although there would probably be a small increase (in absolute numbers) in worldwide fatalities if that happened. But there are people who would be skeptical of deliberately increasing numbers of a potential man-eater. How many people in the U.S. like to mouth off with that stupid cliche' - 'The only good snake is a dead snake...'? What do they think of great whites? Now, you're going to tell thousands of these people that they should be wary of a section of public beach because escalating numbers of great whites have gotten so numerous they're coming in by the beach and posing a health hazard...

If you warn people and they should be concerned, there must be a significant threat. If there's no significant threat, why are you warning them & why should they be concerned? Which is it?

Richard.

 

[danvolker]

It's a reasonable expectation. At least in some areas, when registered sex offenders are released from prison, they are under requirements to not reside within some fixed distance from some types of places, such as elementary schools, where children congregate.

Also witness the recent controversy over shark feed diving out of Florida, and the big debates that went on about that.

A lot of the 'beach public' aren't into marine biology, don't research great whites, and don't study the varied factors that impact it. If it's a public beach, then it's assumed to be appropriate for public use.

Attempts to educate them otherwise could backfire. A number of us here value great white sharks and would like to see their numbers increase substantially, although there would probably be a small increase (in absolute numbers) in worldwide fatalities if that happened. But there are people who would be skeptical of deliberately increasing numbers of a potential man-eater. How many people in the U.S. like to mouth off with that stupid cliche' - 'The only good snake is a dead snake...'? What do they think of great whites? Now, you're going to tell thousands of these people that they should be wary of a section of public beach because escalating numbers of great whites have gotten so numerous they're coming in by the beach and posing a health hazard...

If you warn people and they should be concerned, there must be a significant threat. If there's no significant threat, why are you warning them & why should they be concerned? Which is it?

Richard.

Richard,
My point was that if they are essentially baiting and chumming at the beach--AKA a Fishing pier.... then the act of swimming there is a sort of Darwinian selection factor.....