shark sightings

again, Im with you both. ANd yes, it was a bull shark, the most common attack in the region. I usually say what you both are saying... Its a numbers game that I am willing to play. And yes, it is the sharks home, so we are in their space... But that doesnt really matter. Regardless of who is who and what is what, when you see a big ass fish under you, you realize how real sh** is. When there are "Great White Warnings" for 2 out of 3 summers months here in socal, you think about it. You try not to look down. Put it in the back of your mind. But it is what it is. I am just saying that most guys that I know who surf a lot, really arent in the water that much. I mean, calculate in your own head. How many hours, or days per year are you really out there? And with that being said, would you paddle out daily, year round in West Oz or South Africa... I bet not. Its easy to say you dont worry about sharks when the sharks around you in your area typically arent man eating 15ft+ monsters... If I had a bunch of small hammers, or little bulls or whatever, its easy to make it into nothing... But when you encounter things in that water that are that HUGE and lethal, its a different, much more realistic story...

You all have seen the shark at the end of the OC MD boardwalk.... If that bad boy swam under you at assateque, I guarantee you would be rocked to the core and that thought would haunt you for many, many sessions....

Im not afraid of a a bunch of leopard sharks or little sand sharks... Things that can devour a conversion van scare me.... thats all im saying....

 

I didn't read all the replies in this thread, but please chew on this. No pun intended. Someone I know went up into Oregon recently for a surf trip. He said it was really nerv- racking with the fog and bait fish smell in the water at times. He visited a surf shop & asked the owner (older fella) about the sharks. The surf shop owner told him he probably didn't have to worry but that after surfing for decades in those waters, only 3 of his friends had been attacked!!!!!! One was fatal, one lost his foot, and one lost a finger. My source who has been surfing for over 35years said he talked to the shop owner for sometime & didn't think the guy was jerkin his chain. Just something to think about now that the bait fish are starting to run around these parts! Can you say food chain & wrong place wrong time!!!

 

15 ft tiger @ Avon

Our crew rented a house in Avon during the week of Igor.

A few days into the week, we drove up to a spot on a (name not revealed) little road that led directly to the beach near Waves/Rodanthe, located not far from that 'Real' surf shop (that big red-painted surf store next to Watermen's lodging).

My buddy's a superb surfer (he was in this year's ESA's at the lighthouse, et. al.) The rest of us are not pro-level.

So, he was out in the huge surf that day at this spot in Rodanthe/Waves (it was Tues or Wed). Also out there was a dude on a ski, a talented driver, towing in his buddy, zooming the bigger waves on the ski, just having some fun.

My ability doesn't include surfing 18' waves generated from a meteorological freak named Igor, so I hung out with a sane friend & we watched the action with a few beers in hand. Smart decision.

Watched a super-fit chick in her mid-20's & her 2 guy pals stride past our beach spot. They moved very confidently into the ocean. Sporting maybe 6'4 to 6'8's ? They battled to get out, finally made it out through a lotta moving water, rips, heavy sideshore currents, 8' nasty shore pound. Waves were 15-18' with sneaker waves. Pretty messy but the expert-level guys were getting rides. Tons of duck-diving just to survive out there.

So the gal is going for it, and she goes hard for a 15' mutha, but she's in the wrong place on the beast & she's in trouble in the blink of an eye, this beast drops her straight down, she's spread-eagled & lands face-first on her head, like falling off a cliff, and then the tons of water come down on her & just slammed her under.

She makes it to the surface & gets hurt again by a follow-up wave. She's flailing, pretty dazed, but manages to get on her board & immediately paddles hard for the beach. Her 2 fella pals are right on her heels. She gets out & is wobbly, but makes her way up the beach, past us, heading outta there for the car quick as can be. Only way I can describe her expression is a mix of out-of-it & fear. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she had been concussed.

Here's the eerie part: at some point in the day, the guy on the ski was taking a break & sitting just outside the lineup (on that very same day). He had a video cam with him that day. He sent vid of a huge shark only 40 feet from the lineup. WTF, the dorsal is at least 2+ feet out of the water as this critter glides around, scoping out the lineup. Some who have seen this vid state that it's a 15' tiger.

I'll try to post that vid here.

 

do dolphins keep sharks away? somehow i feel safer when they're around but maybe i just watched too much aquaman as a kid...but i did find this which sounds cool if true:

Dolphins Save Swimmers from Shark

Move over Rover, let Flipper take over. News from New Zealand suggests man's best friend is in fact the bottlenose dolphin.

It emerged yesterday that four swimmers were saved from a great white shark by a pod of altruistic dolphins, who swam in circles around them until the humans could escape.

Rob Howes, a British-born lifeguard, had gone swimming with his daughter, Niccy, and two of her friends off Ocean beach near Whangarei on the North Island, when the dolphins suddenly appeared. At first, he thought the mammals were being playful, but he soon realised the danger the swimmers were in.

"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Mr Howes told the New Zealand Press Association.

He tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back - just as he spotted a three-metre [10ft] great white shark heading towards him. "I just recoiled," he said. "It was only about two metres away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face. They had corralled us up to protect us."

The dolphins kept their vigil for 40 minutes until the shark lost interest, and the group could swim 100m back to the shore.

Another lifeguard, Matt Fleet, on patrol in a lifeboat, saw the dolphins circling the swimmers and slapping their tails on the water to keep them in place. He told the Northern Advocate newspaper that he also had a clear sighting of the shark. "Some of the people later on the beach tried to tell me it was just another dolphin; but I knew what I saw," he said.

Although the incident happened on October 30, the swimmers have only just spoken of their rescue.

Ingrid Visser, of Orca Research, an environmental group, said the dolphins' behaviour was understandable, as they attack sharks to protect themselves and their young, and similar incidents had been reported round the world. "They could have sensed the danger to the swimmers, and taken action to protect them," she said.

 

Way too much thought put into this issue. Surfing is like sex in more ways than one. In this case, sex has two major consequences - disease and pregnancy. Surfing also has two major consequences - drowning and attacks. In both cases, you can decrease your chances to zero by practicing abstinence. If you chose to have sex / surf, you should be prepared for the possible consequences. IMO, they're both well worth the risk.

 

I've heard of a similar story before.

 

I was at the south side of Rodanthe Pier surfing the outer bar the fri Igor was on the rise. I was facing east watching for waves and saw a fin about 50 ft away to my 10 o clock. There was another guy close to me so I paddled over and told him about the fin. We were about ten feet apart and as he was saying he saw a fin too, a spotted, brownish grey fin (sort of rounded at the top) about a foot and a half or two feet out of the water passed in between us. We got the f!!! out then. Not a shark expert so I don't know what kind it was but I didn't want to find out. Anybody know what kind of shark has a dorsal like that?

 

Great post and sums this whole discussion up nicely.

 

agreed...

And dolphins CAN help humans, but I wouldnt count on it. I think the general rule is that the white sharks know not to mess with dolphins, because dolphins ellude them and can also kill them by smashing their gills. So usually, when pods of dolphins are around, I hear guys saying, well at least they will keep the sharks away. It may just be a wives tail, but people think that when sharks spot dolphins, they keep moving. Its one of the few animals that they dont attack. They must have a bad success rate against them... From that story it sounds like Dolphins just flat out dont like them =)

 

nip dolphins

I don't think any dolphins would save any humans at all if they (the dolphins, that is) have relatives in Japanese waters...

 

Good read folks!!! I have enjoyed the way you guys can write a story..esp Zach619 and Yankee!! (yankee where is that Rodanthe shark video?)

How about the cloudy/murky water right after these huge storms? fish are hungry and have not eaten during the storm, water visibilty is bad, baitfish on top something chasing them underneath, pelicans close to water...dolphin pods on patrol...ect...

We get tiger sharks in the mid-atlantic ocean? I always thought they liked the pacific ocean.These sharks are agressive and will eat anything.

 

Tiger Shark, aka, The Garbage Can of the Ocean...

We get tiger sharks in the mid-atlantic ocean? I always thought they liked the pacific ocean.These sharks are agressive and will eat anything.[/QUOTE]

Diet
The tiger shark is a non-selective feeder and a voracious predator. It has been known to consume a wide variety of marine prey and even some terrestrial animals. Common prey include crabs, shellfish, lobsters, squid, bony fish, small sharks, skates, rays, porpoises, turtles, marine birds and mammals. A large number of inorganic artifacts and garbage associated with humans have been found in the stomachs of tiger sharks as well. With such a diverse range of prey, the tiger shark is considered the most adaptable of all shark species.

Range
The tiger shark is a common large shark found worldwide. Off North America, it is usually found on the east coast from Cape Cod to Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico and on the west coast from California southward. It is commonly found off the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida and is one of the most abundant large sharks found in the Caribbean. Tiger sharks have been known to stray far outside their normal habitat range and are occasionally encountered by offshore fishermen in Canadian waters during the summer months. They are typically caught by Canadian fishermen while fishing for tuna and swordfish in or near the Gulf Stream.

Habitat
The tiger shark is often found in tropical and warm temperate waters. It inhabits both oceanic waters (up to 140 m) as well as shallow coastal waters. They seem to prefer turbid coastal areas where fresh water runoff occurs as different prey species may congregate to feed in these areas.

 

vid

Workin on getting that vid posted here....

 

Another shark rumor....do sharks show their dorsal fin cruising the top or they more underneath swimmers when hunting, rarley showing dorsal fin until attack? Do sharks follow dolphins for scraps?

Things that can make me feel a little better:

1. Clear ocean water - "to see what lies beneath" and they can see you to avoid possible mistakin id.
2. not surfing alone, more legs to chose from, also more eyes on the water to sound the alarm and maybe save your ass.
3. Unless great surf, avoid dawn and dusk - prime feeding time.
4. Certain fishing piers - where there are alot of fisherman and they are catching alot of "stuff". Also kite fishing and chumming, cleaning discarding fish into the ocean.
5. Lifeguarded spots - another source of vision.

Yankee, I was in the Rodanthe/Waves area during Bill last year. During the apex, I did the same as you and watched. (after a massive working by the big mid shorebreak) I also saw that confidence of surfers entering the water and then the look on the faces of some leaving the water (myself included). The ocean rescue jet ski worked alot that day. The area has a powerfull wave when it is on.

 

Deleware is were I am mostly but during the summer I visit my parents up in Marthas Vineyard and surf up there, there are a couple of good spots there. Of course that is where Jaws was filmed, but despite that there has been very few and perhaps no great white sights what to speak of attacks. I think the closest being an attack on cape cod in the '30.

However the seal population in that area is growing hand over fist, they are coming down from the cooler waters of Maine and settling. There is a large sandbar just off the island filled with seals. Almost every time i have been out i have been with at least one or two seals sometimes popping up within 10 feet.

Not surprising they have now sighted and tagged 5 great whites off the coast of cape cod, not far away. At least 3 of the 5 returned this year. Biologist are predicting that it is only a matter of time that the sharks discover the sandbar filled with seals off MV.

Unless I start hearing of regular sighting I don't think it will keep me from going out but it sure makes me nervous, especially as the good spots are a little remote with at least a few seals, and one of the spots is a longer paddle out as well.

 

Rodanthe Tiger, late Sept 2010

Here ya go, boyz....keep ya toes curled & ya arseholes puckered out there in the lineup...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1386595226437

 

That's a big fish!! Scary looking as hell! See the big dorsal fin swinging side to side like great whites do? Could not see the tail fin. Did you see how it went under the jet ski? He could have been bumped off. I would have crapped in my pants. Did he sit around or motor the hell back to shore?

Thanks for the video!

 

Notice this video was shot at dawn. Another reason to sleep-in and skip DPs.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I personally do not have experience with identifying sharks of that size strictly from dorsal fins, wish there was a clearer video; this again brings up the point of the rarity of shark attacks. If that animal wanted to attack any of the surfers or even the jet ski it could have.





The fin on the video seems too narrow to be a tiger shark from my perspective

 

ya, even small boats aren't safe, apparently:

http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?26209