Shark Attack Press Releases

SYDNEY -- The identity of a human skull found inside a four-metre shark caught off Australia's east coast at the weekend remains a mystery.

Police said it is possible the skull may belong to either Arthur Apelt, 70, who went missing while hiking on Lord Howe Island on May 6 or 42-year-old Ross Symons, who disappeared from the Gold Coast on April 25. His boat was later found abandoned at sea. A post-mortem examination will be conducted later this week.

Fishermen made the grisly discovery when they were gutting a huge tiger shark they had caught near Lord Howe Island, which lies about 700km southeast of Brisbane, on Friday night. -- Sapa-AFP

EAST LONDON -- Beaches here were closed yesterday after a local surfer, on holiday from New Zealand where he is on a working vacation, was attacked by a great white shark at Eastern Beach.

David van Staden, 26, who was surfing with U/18 inter-provincial champion Natasha Bastenie, of Gonubie, escaped with 10 stitches to his leg.

Describing the attack, he said: "I first thought it was Natasha just fooling around, but suddenly I saw this thing swimming around me and I paddled as fast as I could to the shore."

Bastenie didn't waste any time in the water either, but it was only once they reached the shoreline that Van Staden realised the shark had bitten him. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

Marine services chief Willie Maritz said Van Staden was attacked by a three-metre great white shark judging by the damage to his surfboard.

"The shark just pushed him to check whether he was something to eat," he said, a procedure repeated in 90 percent of attacks.

Maritz warned surfers to be vigilant as the water was cool and clear -- just right to make a hungry great white shark hunt.

The presence of sardines in the water added to the excellent hunting conditions and "between now and July a lot of sharks will be camping in local shores".

When the Daily Dispatch visited Eastern Beach after the attack, several surfers were ignoring the beach-closed sign. -- DDR

JACKSONVILLE BEACH -- A shark bit a surfer's foot, then came back and grabbed the foot again.

John McCall told rescue workers he was bitten after getting off his board in about five feet of water. The shark, which he said was 4 to 5 feet long, bit him on the right foot.

"It was a pretty good bite. He said he was bit twice -- bit him once and they came back again," said Ryan Vermey, who was surfing with Mcall when he was attacked about 7 p.m. Thursday.

McCall was treated at a local hospital and released.

According to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, there were 34 unprovoked shark attacks confirmed in Florida last year, out of 79 confirmed worldwide.

At least seven other shark attacks have been reported this year along Florida's Atlantic beaches.

2 attacked by sharks

By Sean Mussenden
of the Sentinel Staff
Posted April 13, 2001, 1:33 PM EDT

Rich McKay of the Sentinel Staff contributed to this story.

Orlando Sentinel

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Lifeguards closed the Atlantic Ocean to swimmers for about an hour in New Smyrna Beach Friday morning after sharks bit two young beachgoers.

The attacks on two surfers -- a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old whose names were not immediately available -- marked the fifth and sixth shark bites in a 48-hour period that began about noon Wednesday.

In all of 2000, Volusia recorded 12 shark attacks, by far the most of any Florida County.

All but one of the attacks occurred near the North New Smyrna Beach Jetty, just South of Ponce Inlet. The area is popular with surfers and fish, the latter of which officials said attract feeding sharks.

The evacuations are standard operating procedure after a shark attack or sighting, said Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Rob Horster. The waters were also evacuated after the attacks Wednesday and Thursday, he said.

Generally, the waters are cleared for between 30 minutes and an hour if the shark is no longer visible, Horster said.

The attacks occurred in the first warm days of beach season and just before a busy Easter weekend when visitors historically flock to the ocean.

PORT ELIZABETH -- East London businessman Dunstan Hogan, 46, was lucky to be alive yesterday after being mauled by a great white shark while surfing at Cape St Francis.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Hogan told how the shark attacked him twice during his ordeal.

Hogan, who used to be a Natal junior surfer, said he felt a "huge surge beneath me" and then a "vice-like grip on my upper leg" when the shark first struck.

When the shark pulled him and his board under the water, all he saw was a "big grey figure thrashing about".

Hogan has three big lacerations in his leg. Two are on the outside of his left leg just below the buttock, while another, which could have been fatal, is on the front of his leg.

Hogan, who lives in Nahoon and runs a consumer goods marketing agency, said he went surfing at about 7.45am at Seal Point.

"I had been there about an hour when I saw some surfers down at the beachbreak and I paddled down there."

"The shark bit my surfboard and my body together and took me about five to six feet under the water. I was still holding my board under the water when my feet hit the sand. I opened my eyes and saw this big figure thrashing about."

Hogan clambered onto his board and began paddling frantically for the shore.

"As I was paddling I saw this big thrashing of grey and then it came up from beneath and knocked me into the air."

Friend and fellow surfer Eric Stedman witnessed the attack from his house about 200 metres away.

Stedman rushed to the beach and met Hogan as he was emerging from the water.

He said there wasn't any extensive bleeding because Hogan's wetsuit had held the wounds closed.

He was taken to a doctor and then transferred to hospital in Port Elizabeth.

He said a nature conservation officer looked at the three large circular bites and was "pretty positive" the attack had been by a great white of between three and four metres.

Local sports physician and general practitioner Peter Schwartz, who used to head Surf Lifesaving South Africa, said Hogan's bite wounds were "the biggest bite marks I've seen".

The beach was closed after the attack, but by late yesterday afternoon surfers were again surfing at Seal Point. -- DDC

Shark kills Brazilian swimmer off city beach

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) -- A shark killed a young Brazilian man off a beach in the northeastern city of Recife, known for its shark attacks, officials said on Thursday.

The body of the 20-year-old student washed up on the city's famous Boa Viagem beach two days after he went swimming.

"The front of the thorax and all internal organs were ripped out," said Dr. Jorge Mota of the Institute of Legal Medicine. "The body was also missing a forearm, a part of the thigh and the face."

It was not immediately clear if the man was swimming beyond the coral reefs that run along the coast of the city, located 1,700 miles (2,700 km) northeast of Sao Paulo. Recife is the Portuguese word for reef.

The Pernambuco state government warns bathers not to go beyond the reefs. It banned surfing in the area in 1999 after a young man lost his two hands in a shark attack also off Boa Viagem.

It was the 33rd recorded shark attack on Pernambuco's southern coast and the 11th death since 1992.

The Fire Department said it had not identified the type of shark that attacked the swimmer.

University of Florida offers an amusing set of charts comparing the risk of shark attack to other, more common injury risks.

ORLANDO, Florida -- 79 shark attacks, 10 of them fatal, were reported around the world last year, the highest number in the four decades in which records have been kept.

The United States was No1 with 51 attacks, 34 of which occurred in Florida, according to a report released on Thursday by the International Shark Attack File. Australia had seven attacks, South Africa five, and the Bahamas four.

Florida also had the lone death in the US. Of the other fatal attacks, three occurred in Australia, two in Tanzania and one each in Fiji, Japan, New Guinea and New Caledonia, the French island territory in the South Pacific.

Florida "has a huge number of people in the water and the number of person-hours in the water is probably higher than anywhere in the world," said George Burgess, director of the file at the University of Florida at Gainesville.

"We have a tremendously long coastline with tropical waters, a huge native population and a bigger tourist population," Burgess said.

Even though there are fewer sharks than 20 years ago, more people are spending longer hours in the water and a growing number of tourists are swimming in exotic, unfamiliar locales, contributing to the jump in attacks, Burgess said. More attacks are being reported because of the Internet.

Sharks rarely attack people, but they sometimes mistake humans for fish or other prey.

"A shark comes in and is looking for prey. It bites, doesn't recognise the taste and keeps on going," said Gary Violetta, curator of fishes at Sea World, Orlando. "There is a much better chance of getting struck by lightning than being attacked by a shark."

People who come under attack should kick, punch or try to jab the shark in the eyes or gills, Burgess said. -- Sapa-AP

SYDNEY -- An Australian surfer who needed 80 stitches to close the gash a shark tore in his leg said yesterday he was doubly lucky to be alive.

Schoolteacher Mark Butler said from his hospital bed in Lismore, New South Wales, that when he saw the sea cloud with blood after the 2,5-metre bronze whaler's first bite he thought he was a goner.

Another premonition of death flooded over the father of three when he realised how badly injured his leg was.

But, after tying his surfboard rope around his leg to staunch the flow of blood, he managed to drag himself 500m to find help. "I was pretty weak by that stage," he said.

County and number of attacks:
Volusia 12 Palm Beach 6 Brevard 4 Monroe 3 Indian River 2 St. Johns 2 Lee 1
Manatee 1 Pinellas* 1 Santa Rosa 1 St. Lucie 1

Stats/maps	See attack graph	DOLFIN INN SURFERS LODGE WILD COAST (NORTH OF EAST LONDON, South Africa)
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