Shark Attack Press Releases

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'Summer of Shark' 2001 Archives'

From July 2000 (archive)

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2006

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About 80 incidents with sharks in 2006--some where the boats were bitten or provoked--(nice job Richard)..or just plain attacked. 2007 started off with a bang with a board being bitten on Jan 5th!

59-year-old woman mauled near Bundaberg --2m-long bull shark the suspected attacker

"I FELT like I'd been hit by a truck... I knew it was something big and I knew I had to get out of there or I'd be dead. End of story."Those were the words of Mary Jane Ryan yesterday as she lay in a bed in Queensland's Bundaberg Hospital reliving the terrifying shark attack which she believes could have claimed her life. Sporting a massive bruise to her right hand and arm and a badly gouged leg, Ms Ryan, 59, gave a graphic account of the leisurely Monday afternoon swim at Moore Park beach, just north of Bundaberg, that ended in horror. Escaping the sweltering 38C heat, Ms Ryan had been swimming alone in chest-deep calm water at low tide when the shark struck. "All of a sudden, bam, and I knew it was a shark," she said. "And I knew it had bit my leg and people say 'did you look around?' and it was like 'no, I just knew I had to get out of there'. "Well, I just ran towards the beach. I started to fall because I knew I was losing blood. I was scared to death that the thing was going to come back and take another bite out of me... or there was a pack of them. "I was remembering that girl that got attacked off Stradbroke and I could see the blood coming down my leg and I ran up the beach to where my towel was and I wrapped the towel around my leg. "There was no one on the beach, so I kept running back towards the kiosk where I knew Jay (the owner) was and I was screaming 'help, help' because there was a flap on my leg that was open and you could see all the fat and muscle... the doctors even found some of its teeth in my bone." Kiosk owner Jay Walls and a passing woman rushed to Ms Ryan's aid and kept pressure on the wound with towels until ambulance officers arrived, by which time she said she was in excruciating pain. After undergoing one round of surgery to clean the wound, Ms Ryan was scheduled for another round late yesterday to stitch up the gash which runs from her ankle to her knee. She is expected to make a good recovery. Ms Ryan said doctors estimated the shark had probably been 2m to 2.5m long, judging by its teeth marks, and locals believe it may have been a bull shark – one of the more aggressive species which frequents Bundaberg waters. Ms Ryan said she regularly swam at the beach, where she had lived for the past 10 years but would not be going back in again. "I will not go in at Moore Park again," she said, adding that she now wanted to warn others about the dangers. "This has been really frightening... the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my life. It would have killed a child or a person who was small and frail."

A BOOGIE boarder was rushed to hospital with serious leg injuries yesterday after he was bitten by a shark. Matthew McIntosh, 26, from Goonellabah was on the board when the predator grabbed his left leg. The victim sustained lacerations to the lower leg and foot and was in a stable condition at Lismore Base Hospital last night. Charlie Wood, who is filming a television series, Surf Patrol, for Channel Seven and Surf Life Saving Australia on the far North Coast, interviewed the victim immediately after the attack off Black Head, the northern end of Shelly Beach at Ballina. He said the boogie boarder had caught a wave with two others when the shark swam up from behind. "There were three surfers on the wave. The boogie boarder didn't even see the shark," he said. "He felt this massive jolt on his leg and looked down to see blood everywhere. "He yelled out and everyone got out of the water as they dragged him onto the rocks. "Nobody saw the shark. There is a lot of bait fish around in the water at the moment and this bloke was wearing a black wetsuit and black flippers, so the shark probably got confused about what it was chasing." Wood said the victim was in good spirits despite the attack."He was sitting up in the ambulance and talking to me before being transferred to the rescue helicopter. He was grateful to be alive," he said.Westpac rescue helicopter pilot David Milnes said the man was still counting his blessings as they rushed him to hospital."He was talking as we transported him - he realised he was pretty lucky."The incident was the second shark attack in NSW waters within a fortnight.On January 23, abalone diver Eric Nerhus survived a terrifying attack by a white pointer shark near Eden , on the NSW Far South Coast . The three-metre predator swallowed his head and shoulders but Mr Nerhus, 41, broke free after poking the shark in the eye. His nose was broken and his torso cut. Shark expert Harry Mitchell, who is general manager of the McDonald's aerial patrol, said he had noticed increased shark activity along the NSW coast in the past three weeks."From what we know about sharks, it was likely that this attack was by a great white, tiger or bull shark," he said.

NOUMEA , Jan 29, 2007 (AFP) - A fisherman survived a shark attack in New Caledonia by poking the creature in the eye as it shook him "like a rag", he told a newspaper Monday.
    Jesse Jizdny, a 30-year-old policeman, said the tiger shark went for him three times last week while he was fishing with friends off the northwestern coast of the French South Pacific territory.
    "I saw a big tiger (shark) coming with its jaws open. I saw all its teeth. He went for my torso and I thought, 'that's it, I'm done for'," Jizdny told the Nouvelles Caledoniennes newspaper from his hospital bed.
    He hit the shark on its nose but it came back at him and caught his ankle. Then it charged a third time and grabbed a leg.
    "It was shaking me like a rag. I bent round on him and put my hands on its jaws. Suddenly I felt something soft. So I put my whole thumb in, it was its eye."
    The shark let go and swam away, while Jizdny was airlifted to hospital in the capital Noumea where he underwent an operation on his injured leg

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 23 January, 2007 : - - SYDNEY, Australia -- An Australian man was airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries Tuesday after being attacked by a 3-meter-long (10-foot-long) white pointer shark, friends and rescue officials said. Eric Nerhus, 41, was diving for abalone off Cape Howe, near the eastern town of Eden, about 400 kilometers (249 miles) south of Sydney, when he was attacked by the shark, also known as a great white, according to friends and the Snowy Hydro Rescue Helicopter service. The shark grabbed Nerhus by the head, crushing his face mask inwards and breaking his nose, according to 53-year-old Dennis Luobikis, a fellow diver who witnessed the attack. "He was actually bitten by the head down, the shark swallowed his head," Luobikis said. The great white came back for a second bite, clenching its jaws around Nerhus' torso and leaving deep lacerations into his side, said Luobikis. Nerhus managed to wrestle himself free of the shark's jaws, and later told rescue workers he had poked the shark in the eye, an unidentified helicopter rescue worker told local media. After being pulled from the water by his 25-year-old son, Nerhus was airlifted to a local hospital, where he was in serious but stable condition suffering blood loss and shock. "Eric is a tough boy, he's super fit," said Luobikis. "But I would say that would test anyone's resolve, being a fish lunch." Shark attacks are relatively common in Australian waters, which are home to some of the world's deadliest sea life. Scientists say there are an average of 15 shark attacks a year in Australian waters -- one of the highest rates in the world -- and just over 1 per year are fatal.

PORT ST JOHNS lifeguard Sibulele Masiza, 24, who went missing while bodysurfing off Second Beach at the weekend, was almost certainly the victim of a tiger shark. “Judging by the circumstances of his disappearance and the flipper that was torn, it can only have been a tiger shark attack,” said Geremy Cliff, spokesperson for the Natal Sharks Board. Masiza’s torn flipper was washed up onto the beach soon after he disappeared on Sunday afternoon. Cliff said the fine serration on Masiza’s flipper could only have been caused by the cockscomb-shaped teeth of a tiger shark, which differed from other sharks such as great whites or Zambezis. Tiger sharks are one of the most aggressive of the species, Cliff said. He said Port St Johns was a popular spot for the small fish that sharks feed on. But even so, the incident was the first proven shark attack in the area. According to Sharks Board books there were claims of three incidents – in 1951, 1954 and 2004 – but there had been no hard evidence. Ironically, it was Masiza who was attacked in 2004. He had gashes on his legs to prove it. Asked if the public should be warned about sharks at Port St Johns, Cliff said: “It is important that people are made aware, but you do not want to scare them.” Khaya Mjo, chief executive officer for the Wild Coast Guards and Masiza’s superior, said the search for the missing lifeguard had been suspended, although they would continue to be on the lookout for his body.

A surfer has described how he was attacked by a shark off the north coast of New South Wales.

David Sparkes was surfing with a friend at Sandbar, near Forster, when the shark took a bite out of his board as he waited for a wave.Mr Sparkes says it felt as if he were being tackled by a footballer - but vows the encounter will not stop him getting back in the water."The bite mark is nearly a foot wide so we are thinking the shark was probably about eight feet long," he told 7News."I just felt this enormous pressure from below, a hit like being hit by a football player."Mr Sparkes was unhurt, and managed to climb back onto the surfboard and paddle back to shore, after waiting 30 seconds for a wave."That was pretty scary, trying to get the hell out of there and wondering what was on my tail," he said.There have been no other reports of shark attacks in the area recently, but experts warn that could change soon as the water warms up.The eastern current should be running at the moment from the Barrier Reef, and with that warmer water you get the tropical sharks," said Grant Willis from Sydney AquariumMr Sparkes plans to get straight back into the surf, despite his near-miss."Put your spear guns away and if you want enter the ocean, its their territory and its under their rules," he said.

On Kauai, there was a shark attack near Majors Bay off Barking Sands Pacific Missile Range Friday morning. The surfer attacked was identified as Rich Reed Pictures of his board show that a shark has taken a huge bite out of it. Amazingly, Reed was not hurt The type of shark has not been identified. Lifeguards have shut down the beach at Majors Bay as a precaution. There's no word yet on when it will reopen.

The yearly total of 55 unprovoked attacks was lower than the 63 unprovoked attacks recorded in the year 2002, 68 recorded in 2001, and 79 reported in 2000. Four fatalities occurred in 2003, a total similar to the three recorded in 2002 and four reported in 2001, but much lower than the 11 fatalities in 2000. The 41 attacks in United States territorial waters (including incidents in Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and Johnson Atoll) were less than the 2002 (47), 2001 (50) and 2000 (54) yearly figures. Elsewhere, attacks occurred in Australia (6), Brazil (2), South Africa (2), Fiji (1), India (1), Madagascar (1), and Venezuela (1).Florida (31) had most of the unprovoked attacks in the United States. This total also was lower than the 2002 (29), 2001 (34) and 2000 (37) average yearly figures. Additional U.S. attacks were recorded in Hawaii (4), South Carolina (3), California (1), the Virgin Islands (1), and Johnson Atoll (1). Within Florida, Volusia County had the most (14) incidents (down from 18 in 2002 and 22 in 2001), which largely is attributable to very high aquatic recreational utilization of its attractive waters by Florida residents and tourists, especially surfers. Other Florida counties having attacks in 2003 were Brevard (8), St. Johns (3), Martin (2), Palm Beach (2), Miami-Dade (1), and St. Lucie (1).

The yearly total of 60 unprovoked attacks was lower than the 72 unprovoked attacks recorded in the year 2001 and 85 in 2000. Three fatalities occurred in 2002, down from five in 2001 and 13 in 2000. The 5% fatality rate was significantly lower than the 1990's decade average of 13%. The three fatalities occurred in Australia (2) and Brazil (1).

As in recent years, the bulk (82%: 48 attacks) of incidents occurred in North American waters, including 47 from the United States and one in the Bahamas. The 47 attacks in the United States were less than the 2001 (53) and 2000 (54) yearly figures. Elsewhere, attacks occurred in Australia (6), Brazil (3), South Africa (2), and Costa Rica (1).

Following recent trends, Florida (29) had most of the unprovoked attacks in the United States. This total also was lower than the 2001 (37) and 2000 (38) yearly figures. Additional U.S. attacks were recorded in Hawaii (6), California (4), North Carolina (3), South Carolina (2), Oregon (1) and Texas (1). One attack occurred in offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Within Florida, Volusia County had the most (18) incidents (down from 22 in 2001), which largely is attributable to very high aquatic recreational utilization of its attractive waters by Florida residents and tourists, especially surfers. Other Florida counties having attacks in 2001 were Brevard (3), St. Johns (3), Broward (1), Franklin (1), Martin (1), Monroe (1), and Palm Beach (1).

Surfers (32 incidents: 56% of cases with victim activity information) were the recreational user groups most often subjected to shark attack in 2001. Other attacks involved swimmers/waders (22: 34%), and divers/snorkelers (4: 7%). One attack (2%) occurred during a water entry event.

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