Attack Behaviour Of The Great White Shark example essay topic

The serious attacks are mainly by four species. The Bull shark. the Tiger, the Great White and the Oceanic White tip shark. The Grey Nurse (Sand Tiger) and the Bronze Whaler have for many years been blamed for many attacks but it seems nearly all were mistaken identity. The Grey Nurse is now protected in most States in Australia. The Great White is the largest and has a high percentage of fatal attacks.

The Bull shark is responsible for a lot of attacks on swimmers and people in shallow water. From reports it seems a lot of these attacks were only one bite but a large percentage of the victims died of blood loss and shock. It is likely to be the worlds number one killer shark on swimmers. I have heard of a lot of encounters with scuba divers but have so far been unable to find any attacks. The Tiger shark usually spends daylight hours in deep water and comes into shallow areas around reefs and coastline during the night. It has been responsible for a large number of deaths.

This includes swimmers, surfers and scuba divers. Many divers swim with these sharks with no problem but a large Tiger shark is more than capable of killing a human. Overall, there are very few fatal attacks on scuba divers. I have not been able to find any over the last twenty years except for one in 1991 and two in 1993.

Ironically these were both in the same month. They were all by Great White sharks. According to the book, Shark Attacks by Mac Mc Diarmid, 9 out of 10 shark attacks happen within 1.6 metre's of the surface. One third of attacks are fatal. Most victims are male. Although there have been very few fatal attacks on scuba divers, there have been quite a few on spearfisher man and abalone divers.

Many of these fatal attacks have occurred in South Australia in areas well known for Great Whites. Abalone divers nearly always work in areas where seals are present and the water is cool. This is ideal for attracting the Great White. Add to this the fact that they spend an enormous time in the water and it is a recipe for disaster. It was noticed in California USA, that Abalone divers were only attacked north of Point Conception.

It was later discovered that the law in North California did not allow abalone divers to use scuba equipment, which meant they spent much more time at the surface. In southern California scuba was permitted! Spearfishing has two major negative factors. The first is that they are working on the surface as it is illegal to spearfish with scuba equipment. It is well known that the Great White usually attacks on, or very close to the surface, coming up from below its intended prey. The second problem with spearfishing is obviously the dead fish and blood attracting sharks.

Even usually non-aggressive species of sharks will attack a spearfisher man if he has killed a fish. The book 'Shark Attacks' by Alex MacCormick (1996) also wrote of this incident. It seems this information was taken from 'The Adelaide Advertiser' newspaper in 1962. The book wrote the following:' In a gallant rescue bid a fellow spearfisher man tied the injured youth to his surf ski and beat the shark off for ten minutes with a paddle before making it to shore. The dead youth was Geoffrey Martin Corner, son of Mr and Mrs A.M. Corner of Nautilus Road, Elizabeth East, who were on the beach at the time of the attack...

The shark circled several of about sixteen other spearfisher man within 200 yards of Mr. Corner before lunging at him as he made his dive. The shark, be lived to be a fourteen foot Bronze Whaler, grabbed the boy's right leg between the calf and the thigh in it's two-foot jaws and shook him violently before releasing him... The attack was seen by fellow club member Allen Phillips, 27 of Reed le Street, Henley Beach, who was about ten yards away, towing a surf ski... Mr. Phillips climbed on his surf ski and paddled over to the boy's body only half out of the water, he lashed it to the ski with a piece of plastic wire he was carrying, while at the same time beating off frenzied lunges by the shark. The battle lasted ten minutes before Mr Phillips could make for the shore with the shark still following and circling him. In the meantime, Murray Bampton, a member of the Knights of Neptune Underwater Club, who had just brought in a man with cramp to shore, saw the struggle and went out on his surf ski to help.

Mr. Bampton kept the shark away with his paddle, while Mr. Phillips continued in. When in a few feet of water, the two men carried the boy on Mr. Phillip's ski to the beach. Sister Heather Jones, who was on the beach, ran over to help. ' The book 'Great White Shark' by Richard Ellis and John McCosker (1991) wrote the following about the incident. You will notice the name of the area is spelt differently, the breed of shark is different, there is no mention of Mr. Bampton and his holding the shark off nor the frenzied shark battle that lasted ten minutes. Also in this report the surf ski was shared by Corner and Phillips.

' The next year while 16-year-old Geoff Corner was participating in a spearfishing contest in about 25 feet of water off Caracalinga Head, South Australia, he was attacked by a large white shark. His companion, Allen Phillips, banged the shark on the head with the paddles from the surf ski they had been using, and the shark released its grip and lay below the surf ski waiting. When Phillips then tried to pull Corner onto the ski, he found that he was already dead. The shark followed them into shore, but never attacked again. Phillips recognised the species by its pointed snout and black eye, and in retrospect the shark seems to have exhibited the 'bite-and-wait' tactic that seems to characterize the attack behaviour of the great white shark. ' The next report comes from the book 'Sharks - Silent Hunters of the Deep'.

(1995). This report This report has different spelling for the victims name and the area. Also in this version Mr. Bampton becomes Brampton. You will also notice that instead of tying the victims body to the ski with plastic wire stated in another report he hooked his leg around him and paddled to shore.

It is also interesting that Phillips could see the shark in the water laying beneath the ski looking at them when the water was reported to be covered in blood. ' Death came more rapidly to another youngster, 16-year-old Jeff Corner, while spearfishing with a friend, Allen Phillips, at Caracalinga Head on the South Australian coast on 10 December 1962. Corner was the state junior spearfishing champion and the pair were about 180 m (197 yards) offshore while taking part in a competition. Phillips was pleased when, surfacing after a dive, he saw a commotion in the water around Corner, thinking " Jeff's got a big one.

' Seconds later, he saw a large sharks tail break the water and thought 'it's probably pinching fish off the float'. He swam over to his friend and found himself in a cloud of blood. Sick with horror, he swam for their surf ski and paddled over. He tried to pull his friend onto the ski, but realised that the shark still had him in its grip. Corner disappeared beneath the ski and emerged on the other side. Phillips caught him by the shoulders and, still feeling the sharks grip, smashed at it with ski paddles.

Suddenly it let go. Phillips pulled Corner half onto the ski, while the great white shark lay just beneath the surface looking at them. Corner could not speak; his eyes rolled back. His thigh had been bitten away and his leg was horribly mutilated. Phillips, one leg hooked around his friend's inert body, paddled frantically. The shark followed.

Another spearfisher man, Murray Brampton, paddled across and struck at the shark with his paddle. This email was received from Jon Wadrop who was there on the day. It differs quite a lot. EMAIL May 31st 1999 Dear Stephen Have just read the report on the shark attack on Geoffrey Corner at Carrickalinga in 1962. As I was one of the people that pulled Geoffrey in that day, I must state that the report is in fact incorrect. I was spearfishing on the day, it was a club outing, and all divers had exited the water except for Geoffrey -- who I believe was a junior club member.

The actual details are sketchy bearing in mind the number of years that have elapsed since the incident, however, forever in my mind is Brian Kennington's and my involvement in the recovery of the body. It was sometime early to mid afternoon, a wind had come up and the water was dirty, and someone noticed that there was blood in the water some distance off shore. There were no water craft available and no one was interested in entering the water for obvious reasons. As foolhardy as it may have been, Brian and I decided to swim out and attempt a rescue.

We knew the general direction he was in, distance was approximately 100-200 yards offshore, but were fortunately able to locate him quite quickly. We towed him back to shore between us. Unfortunately, Geoffrey was dead when we reached him. His actual injuries are etched in my mind and I can still see them.

We may have been met close in shore by someone on a surf ski, however, the details are somewhat sketchy from there on as proceedings became pretty confused... I have often wondered in the intervening years if anyone had in fact claimed credit for the attempted rescue. I am not a glory seeker, I would just like to see the record set straight. It is obvious from the brevity of the report on the internet that there is not a lot of detail available, hopefully, this will throw a little more light on the situation. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further help. Just as a matter of interest, I gave up spear fishing and scuba diving at that time, the effect was so great on me, however, I have just recommenced diving again -- 37 years later.

The attack on the windsurfer in SA on the weekend prompted me to search the net for information on shark attacks. - Jon Wadrop We would like to thank Mr. Wadrop for taking the time and trouble to write. After seeing the differences in these reports always bear in mind that people can remember different things and reports can often be incorrect. Writers will often get most of the essence of the story right but might embellish it a little for their readers.

There is an old newspaper saying 'Never let the facts get in the way of a good story'. With that in mind, never take anything you read as being perfectly accurate. Since then we received the following email in Jan 2000'My name is Brian Kennington. The information you give from the report by Jon Wardrop is fairly correct. Jon and I were in the car park which is elevated above the beach when someone noticed a red stain in the water and heard someone shouting.

Jon showed considerable courage that day as we entered the water wearing only the bottom part of our wetsuits as we did not have the time to don the tops of which we had just divested ourselves. We both carried loaded speargun's which we had loaded as we entered the water and swam out to where Allen Phillips was slowly making his way to shore. Allen yelled at us to get back as we neared him as he said the shark was still underneath him as he had Geoff's body attached to his surf ski. He also said there was nothing we could do as Geoff was already dead. We returned to shore. At the time there was a bit of a shore break and as Allen neared the shore he stopped just outside the break and would not pass through it.

Jon and I entered the water and swam out to Allen, both minus our diving masks and speargun's and Allen untied the wire he had fixed Geoff to the surf ski with so we could bring him back to shore. We carried his body up the beach on another surf ski which someone, I do not know who, had brought to the water's edge. Murray Bampton in the meantime had been paddling around to all the other skin divers who were in the water and was forcibly telling them to leave the water. He later received a silver medal for his bravery in the action. However at no time do I recall him being in contact with Allen or Geoff and assisting with he retrieval of Geoff. In conversation later with Allen I asked him why he had not just paddled straight through the shore break.

His answer was that the shark had followed him all the way to shore and was still under his surf ski. He was concerned that in negotiating the break he might have been overturned and the shark might have attacked again. Allen received a gold medal for his courage on the day. It might be of interest that Rod Fox was also on the beach that day. We were all members of the Knights Skin diving club. From what I recall Brian Rodgers was there also as he was a member at the time.

This information is in no way embellished but endeavoured to be as factually correct as possible. Incidentally I have never stopped diving and still enjoy the activity. Regards Brian Kennington This information was sent to us by Humberto Font ova in the USA. who has just written a book called 'Hell Divers'. ' You mention how unreliable even the official stories about Shark attacks are. Yes indeed. In the book Shark Attack by Alex MacCormick, they list an 'unprovoked's hark attack by a Sand Tiger off Coco drie Louisiana.

They say the guy was just sitting on a beam and CHOMP a sand tiger grabbed both his legs and tried to twist them off. I know the divers involved. They " re featured in my book. One Diver had SPEARED the shark (for a Bar-B-Que) and it was twisting around in the bottom murk with mouth agape and grabbed the other diver's leg. Simple as that. They chuckled about it.

'Those newspapers believe anything'. Anyway that was ten years ago. ' RODNEY FOX In Australia, one of the best known shark victims is Rodney Fox. In 1963, Rodney was in a spearfishing contest at Aldi nga Beach, South Australia.

He swam down to spear a fish but felt something was wrong straight away. Before he could react he was hit by a large Great White shark. His speargun was dropped. He tried to wriggle free but he was firmly clamped in the jaws of the creature. He remembered the advice he had from friend Brian Roger to punch the shark in the eye as it was the only soft area that a human could do damage. He tried it but missed - his arm went into the sharks mouth.

Finally he was able to get free and get to the surface but the shark followed under him. Rodney then wrapped his legs around the body of the shark to prevent being bitten again. The shark went down taking Rodney with him. They scrapped along the bottom rocks. He let go and surfaced again. The shark surfaced next to him and then disappeared.

He was quickly rescued by a boat. His injuries were horrific. He had 462 stitches. His wetsuit is credited with holding him together. One lung was punctured. His ribs were exposed and bone was showing along his right hand and arm.

The shark was estimated to be about nine foot long. Unbelievable as it sounds, he soon gave up his job as a insurance salesman and became an abalone diver right in Great White territory. He did this for 18 years. Every day in the water for 7 or 8 hours.

However in all that time he only encountered three large sharks. He says, that it tells you how few there really are. Later he helped with shark research and then set up cage dives with the Great White. He is still doing that to this day with his son and is renowned as a shark and dive expert. National Geographic recently did a TV documentary on him called The Fox and the Shark...

First Shark Attack off Virginia Beach in 25 Years Emailed - August 23rd 1998 I was the Captain of the boat and the dive buddy of when my friend was bitten by a 12 foot Dusky off the Virginia coast this weekend. We were shooting tautog off a wreck at 60 feet when we came face to face with the dusky. My buddy put his hands up the protect himself and I think the shark took that as a move of aggression and grabbed his left hand up to the wrist. He was trying to pull free while I was beating the creature in the nose and eyes with my spear gun.

He just let go after about 20 seconds of just holding his hand in his mouth. We tried making ourselves part of wreck while the shark circled and I let the spear gun go with the fish just recently speared. Thank God the shark was more interested in the fish than us. It appears no permanent damage resulted to my buddy's hand, just 60 stitches. Dan Norfolk VirginiaSKINDIVING ATTACK In March, 1985, Shirley Durbin was using a snorkel & mask to look for clams at Peake Bay, South Australia. Without any warning there was a tremendous splash and the water turned red.

A nearby fishing boat went straight over and found that Shirley had been ripped in half. The 18 foot (6 metre) Great White returned and tore her head off. The last they saw of the shark, it was going down chewing with Shirley's arm sticking out of its jaws. SIX MONTHS OF TERROR ON SOUTH AFRICAN BE ACHESOn December 18th 1957, Robert Wher ley was attacked by a shark at the South African resort beach of Kari dene.

His leg was ripped off at the knee. Two days later on 20th December, Allen Green was attacked while standing on a sandbank at Uvongo, just down the coast. He died with massive bites to his stomach and chest area. On the 23rd December, only three days later, Vernon Berry was attacked and killed at Margate. After this attack, panic began to set in and shark killers were out in force as well as shark spotting planes.

Soon after Julia Painting was attacked. She was pulled from the shark's jaws by another swimmer and her uncle. She survived. After this attack all swimming at the beaches were banned. On 9th January, just two weeks later, De ryck Prins loo was attacked in just waist deep water. He later died.

On April 3rd, despite enclosures being erected at many beaches, Nicholas Baden horst was attacked and killed. Both his arms and one leg were ripped from his body. Two days later, on April 5th at Uvongo, Fay Bester was watching the repair of the steel net enclosures when a shark attacked and killed her, almost tearing her in two. This attack was in the same area as Allen Green was attacked just a few months before... J.L.B. Smith after examine the evidence from these attacks and others through 1958, reported that the evidence suggested a number of these attacks were caused by Bull sharks.

Shark attack in the Gulf of Aqaba at Marsa Bareka, Sharm el Sheik and rescue of the swimmer by a pod of bottle nose dolphins, Tursiops truncates, and the crew of the Jadran. Written by: O. Goff man, Kari LavalliSouthern sinai, Marsa Bareka - the attack area On Tuesday, 23.7. 96, at 6 p.m. in the evening, the 24 meter diving boat, Jadran, which operates in the Gulfs of Aqaba and Suez, was sailing north from Ras Muhammed to Sharm el-Sheikh bay. On the way, at Marsa Bareka (33^0 18' E, 27^0 48' N; depth 400 m, 1 km offshore), the crew observed a pod of 5 bottle nose dolphins.

The owner, Mr. Dani Hermon, who lives in Eilat, Israel, decided to stop the boat and allow people to swim with these dolphins. He, Harry Hayward (an English dive instructor), and Martin Christopher Richardson (an American-British guest of one of the crew) swam for awhile with these dolphins. Dani and Harry returned to the boat after a f ew minutes, but Martin continued swimming with the dolphins. Suddenly, the crew of the boat heard a terrible scream and Mr. Itzik Hermon and his son, Dani, rushed to the side of the boat to see Martin thrown between 1 to 1.5 m in the air.

They realized that he was being attacked by one or more sharks, perhaps of the great white shark species. Harry jumped on the zodiac to rush to Martin's rescue. As he approached Martin, he saw three dolphins surrounding Martin. These dolphins were circling around Martin, slapping their flukes and fins along the water's surface. This scared the shark off from its attack and prevented it from returning. This defensive behavior of dolphins is common when mothers are protecting their calves from predators.

It has also been seen when small pods of dolphins protect themselves from attacking killer whales. Harry managed to lift Martin onto the zodiac and saw that he was badly wounded with deep bites on the back, shoulder, and chest. The wounds were of such severity that it was clear that without the protection of the dolphins, given by their own free will, Martin would have died. Martin was taken to the Jadran where his massive bleeding was controlled with tourniquets administered by Itzik and Dani, as well as Gail Ash ward (Dani's fiance). The boat sped to Sharm el-Sheikh where a local diving doctor, Dr. Mardi, gave him further first aid (plasma infusion) on route to an Egyptian army hospital in El-Tor. At this time, Amir Hermon made contact with UN's MFO force in the Sinai, the American and British embassies in Israel, and a shift officer of the British consulate in Cairo.

Martin remains at the army hospital in El-Tor. He had one broken rib, a hole in the lung (pneumothorax), and deep cuts on his back and chest. As far as is known, this is the third serious shark attack in the Gulf of Aqaba in 50 years of record-keeping. In the early 1980's, a British woman was attacked and injured along the coast of Eilat and an army diver was attacked during a rescue training maneuvers.

It was definitely a shark attack. Martin was bitten not less than four times. He is in better shape now and is awaiting a skin transplant on his back and chest area. He was able to smoke a cigarette 24 hours after the attack and hasn't stopped smoking since then! The attack took place at a depth of 400 m, quite away from shore ('in the blue') -- not at a shallow depth, like one would have when swimming with a solitary dolphin or with captive dolphins. The dolphins were bottle nose dolphins -- there were 5 in the pod, one of which was a calf.

So it could be a female pod. When the three people went into the water, they swam with the dolphins without fins or masks -- so they were not as agile underwater as they could have been, nor as equipped as many people are when they are swimming with captive or solitary dolphins. Martin was left alone in the water (his choice). The dolphins initially disappeared on him. Martin saw the shark attack him from the depths. He said he was bitten four times.

In one of the attacks, Martin said that he punched the shark on the snout. We do not yet know the species of the shark. The doctors in the Egyptian hospital in El Tur said that it was only one shark and by the size of the bite marks, they believe it was between 4-5 meters (we are looking for someone who is a professional to help identify the species from the bite wounds). It was the dolphins' choice to return and to help Martin. They were not close to him at the time of the attack. They probably took some risk to do this, as there was a calf in their pod.

They were not fed by the boat. Thank you for reading my paper.