know anyone bitten by a shark?

duncsuss

duncsuss

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I've been a diver since 2000 and used to hang out on a lot of scuba chat forums, but none of the people I knew through dive trips or the interweb had been bitten by a shark.

Today I read there was (yet) another incident in North Carolina yesterday -- and I know the victim, he was editor of the Boston Herald for the first 10 years I worked here.

Story link ... HERE
 
duncsuss said:
I've been a diver since 2000 and used to hang out on a lot of scuba chat forums, but none of the people I knew through dive trips or the interweb had been bitten by a shark.

Today I read there was (yet) another incident in North Carolina yesterday -- and I know the victim, he was editor of the Boston Herald for the first 10 years I worked here.

Story link ... HERE
Click to expand...

I made my first "dive" in 1975 skipping school one in a green murky mudhole in Norfolk VA. I didn't start diving semi regularly though until '83 - 85, the started back again in 96. I didn't see my first shark until 1999 off Davis reef between Islamadora and Tavernier. A huge sleeping nurse shark which I hovered about 3' over for 5 minutes both of us ebbing and flowing in unison in the gentle surge on the bottom. If I had reached down and touched it, it may have well spun on me in a flash and given me a little love bite even though nurse sharks do not generally attack. But I knew better than to do that of course. That's the closest I ever came to being bitten and it wasn't even close because I was never stupid enough to play with the killers of the deep, and practically everything down there can kill you in the right scenario.

I never met a diver that had been bitten either. There may have been a diver that I didn't meet because they had been eaten before I had the chance to meet them. :unknown:
 
My father in law was one of the cinema photographers on the first and second Jaws Movies. He saw plenty of shark bites :cool:.
 
When I used to surf in Cali we had a 10 footer swim next to us. We skidded out of there for a while.

Then a couple of years ago in fla there was kid who got bit on the foot as we got to the water. Nothin serious but still...it's a shark bite....probably was a sand shark or something small lookin for food in the murky water...
 
Although they look mean as hell, sand sharks aka sand tigers don't bite humans - I'm unaware of a single attack or bite on a human by one. It may have happened but I never heard of it.
 
Whatevwr it was...it was small. The mouth size was about as big as a half dollar coin...
 
If you ask any helo pilot or aircrew that spent any time at all cruising coastlines they'll tell you we see sharks near swimmers fairly regularly. The swimmers rarely know they are there.
 
The first 4 bites were in SE NC waters. #2 & 3 were both treated initially at my hospital before going to Chapel Hill. Both lost arms. One is the niece of a colleague who was visiting the area on vacation.

I grew up in these waters... surfing, fishing, swimming in them since I was 5 or 6. I saw plenty of sharks over the years, including while swimming and surfing, but never gave it a worry. Every so often someone would report a shark bite, but often they were later thought to be bites from a bluefish ornsomething much smaller. I've never seen/heard if maimings like this in this area.

Everyone is trying to figure out "why"... my hunch is it is a somewhat random group of causes that have lined up perfectly that will probably not be duplicated in the future. It doesn't worry me much in the water... though it is a bit freaky as the kid said in the article. My son (big, mature 16 y-o) said he was bumped by something bigger than a fish in the ocean a few days ago. I believe him.
 
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Latest news is that Andy is doing okay, the hospital saying his condition is "fair."

Here's a link to the TV coverage, including a phone interview with the first person to reach him -- he yelled at her to get out of the water. Astonishing, but completely in character, that in those circumstances he'd be concerned for the safety of others.

WRAL television story
 
...a few time when I used to travel to NY/NJ.
Then it dawned on me to quit asking for a loan.
 
Shark week is coming sunday!! I love shark week...maybe the sharks are gearing up to boost ratings?
 
I blame the discovery channel. Seriously, they couldn't have asked for better publicity for shark week. I still laugh at people who insist it's dangerous to go in the water now. When I tell them how many sharks there actually are in the water every day they freak out. Meh, just more waves for me and mine to enjoy if they don't get in the water.
 
I'm glad I live about as far away from the ocean as you can get. Everything in there either bites you, stings you or stinks. My grandparents lived in Miami and we went there every year when I was growing up. I saw sharks but never while swimming. The last shark that bit me was the Kubota salesman. Gary
 
I used to dive lakes and the Cali ocean and the only sharks that I saw real close up were the little sand sharks near Monterey. The biggest of these were only about 2 1/2'. I was never bitten and don't think they even will, but they would come up and bump their heads into you, which is still very un-nerving and you don't get used to it either.
 
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