Shark Attack Press Releases

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The mother of the New Zealand man attacked by a shark in the Galapagos Islands says she hopes her son will make a speedy recovery.Sam Judd from Wellington was surfing on outlying San Cristobal Island on Friday when a shark bit his thigh.Mr Judd managed to punch the shark away, but was left bleeding and in shock. Two friends pulled him to shore.The 24-year-old's mother, former Act Party president Catherine Judd, said he was on heavy antibiotics to prevent infection."It's massive bite marks on either side of his thigh," she told Radio New Zealand.They're quite nasty looking and quite open so the main thing is to prevent infection."Mrs Judd said her son was in good spirits and hoped to come back to New Zealand in March.Mr Judd, who received 23 stitches for the leg wound, said the attack would not keep him out of the surf.The shark attack was the first ever recorded in the Galapagos Islands.

December 19, 2007It was supposed to be a short surf session at a renowned Port Stephens break before the bucks' party festivities began. But Friday's wedding plans are in disarray after a shark took a chunk from the rump of the best man, causing severe injuriES. Ben Morcom, 31, from South Australia, suffered deep wounds to his buttocks when the shark attacked while he was surfing the break known as the Boulders, situated inside Port Stephens and adjacent to Yacaaba headland.The type of shark is unknown, although witnesses have told police it appeared to be between two and three metres long, a dark colour and possibly a bull shark.Mr Morcom had taken a boat with his cousin and groom-to-be Ryan Calder, and another local man, Damien Parker, from Nelson Bay's Little Beach across the bay to the break early yesterday.A southerly swell had turned the normally protected beach into a great surf break, and the three men took the chance to ride some waves before the bucks' party drinks later in the day.Mr Parker's brother, Andrew, said the men were sitting on their boards when things turned awry. "The three of them were just sitting there waiting for a set and only about an arms length apart," Andrew Parker said."Then this thing just took one of them from behind."As Mr Morcom was being attacked, his two companions began frantically splashing the water to scare the shark off.Apparently he just spat him out, like released him, swam under my brother and just headed off," Mr Parker said.They found a fisherman with a four-wheel-drive on Jimmys Beach, and Mr Morcom was taken to Tea Gardens ambulance station before being flown to John Hunter Hospital for surgery

December 18, 2007 11:00pmA TEENAGER swimming on the Southport Broadwater is one of the latest victims of a spate of shark attacks on Australia's east coast in recent days.Josh Edwards was left with a large bite on his hand after swimming in the Broadwater on Saturday.It was only when he and his family arrived at the Emergency Department of Allamanda Hospital that Dr Ziggy Kusiak told him his injury was more like a shark bite.Full report on goldcoast.com.au

12/10/2007
U.S. Waialua bay, Oahu, Hawaii, Valentino Ramirez, Male, 52, Was surfing when tiger shark attacked and bit board, no injury,

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) 12/09/07— A New Zealand surfer has good reason for feeling once bitten, twice shy after two encounters with sharks on the same day, a newspaper reported Tuesday.Olivia Hislop was waiting for a wave at a beach near the South Island tourist town of Kaikoura on Sunday when she felt a tug on her board.he turned around, expecting to see a friend fooling around.Instead, there was a shark half on top of her board and gnashing its teeth, the Marlborough Express newspaper reported.Hislop tugged her board away from the shark, which promptly turned around, smacking her in the forehead with its tail, and swam off."That's when everyone said it was quite a big one because they could see the size of its tail," Hislop was quoted as saying. "I was a bit dazed and everyone was freaking out."When Hislop paddled out later to catch another wave she said she felt a shark bang against her bare feet, which were dangling in the water off the surf board.Lifting her foot, she found the shark had bitten through the leash tying the board to her ankle."I was expecting to see my toes just dangling," the newspaper quoted her saying, adding that "feeling shocked," she then went and sat on the beach.She knew of two other surfers "bumped" by sharks at the beach in recent weeks and told the newspaper she would not be braving the same beach any time soon.

SHARK ATTACK: These Teeth Marks are from a Shark
by Andrew MacDonald
12Nov07

CRAIG Evans got the shock of his life when a shark bit his surfboard at Byron Bay, throwing him into the water and tearing his wetsuit.
The 38-year-old father of two was surfing more than 100m off-shore at Wategoes Beach last Thursday when what he believes was a 1.8m bull shark struck his board about 1.30pm.
The experienced surfer, who has lived in the Byron Bay area for about 20 years, spent a harrowing few seconds in the water as the shark circled.
Keeping his composure, Mr Evan's pushed away from the creature before scrambling back on to his board and frantically paddling ashore.
The Mullumbimby banana plantation owner said the encounter with the shark was among the most terrifying experiences of his life.
"I surf on a daily basis. I've seen a few sharks over the years. I surfed over one once but I had not had physical contact before," he said.
"It's bitten on to the board. I didn't see it coming. It just nicked my leg as well and put holes in my wetsuit. It didn't break the skin.
Despite his confusion, he said he was amazed the shark hadn't attacked once he landed in the water.
"The initial impact knocked me from the board but after that it (the shark) has just sort of circled round inspecting things," he said.
"It really just seemed as though it needed pushing away. I didn't have to fight it off.
"Really the first sort of thing I thought was that this is out of my control. It was going to do what it wanted. If it wanted to eat me it would have."
While shaken by his ordeal, he was back surfing at Wategoes the next day.
It was initially thought he had been attacked by a bronze whaler but after talking to a local fisherman he thinks it was a bull shark.

Helen Eckinger | Sentinel Staff Writer 1:46 PM EST, November 8, 2007 A shark bit a surfer off of the coast of New Smyrna beach this week, bringing this year's number of shark attacks in Volusia county up to 17.Volusia County beach patrol captain Scott Petersohn identified the victim as Joseph Fox, 21, of Deltona, and said that while Fox sustained 9 lacerations on his right leg, his injuries were minor. Fox was attacked on Tuesday."We didn't even treat the guy - he was leaving the beach and he asked directions to the nearest hospital at a toll plaza," Petersohn said.Fox drove himself to Bert fish hospital, where he was treated and released, Petersohn said. All but three of this year's shark attacks in Volusia county have occurred near where Fox was bitten, an area 200-300 yards south of the New Smyrna jetty known as the Point that is popular with surfers."You've got all of these guys sitting with their feet dangling in the water, there are bait fish all around, the water's murky," Petersohn said. "It's a case of mistaken identity."In most attacks, Petersohn said, the shark swims away when it realizes it has bitten a human, rather than its normal food source. He also cautioned beachgoers from fixating on the threat of shark attacks while ignoring more common dangers like rip currents."I think it's that movie Jaws thing," he said. "Realistically, you have more of a chance of getting killed driving to work than you ever do of getting bitten by a shark."

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Surfer Jeffrey Nolan, 42, took up the sport three years ago, but never saw a shark up close until one bit him Sunday morning."I've seen them, but I was usually not in the water," he said Monday. And he wasn't really in the water Sunday, either, he said. He was on the water, lying on his surf board on his stomach, about 9 a.m. off Round Island Park.At one point, he said, he lifted his leg and felt the leash was strangely tight, like it was caught on something.He thought it was caught on the board. "But it was actually caught on the shark," Nolan, of Indian River County, said. "I think that aggravated him. I saw a splash to my right and felt something grab my leg. I turned my head and saw it slip right back into the water." He didn't see what kind of shark it was and said authorities haven't identified it, other than estimating it was 5 feet long.He didn't feel pain, though."I think my endorphins set in," he said, adding he caught the next wave and rode it in. He said a "phenomenal" group of lifeguards helped with first-aid supplies, stopped the bleeding until his family could take him to Indian River Medical Center's emergency room.That's where he finally felt the pain, he said. Doctors put in seven staples, one above his right kneecap and six in back. They'll be with him for about 10 days until doctors remove them.But once doctors remove them, he said, he's going surfing again."Sharks are great creatures," Nolan said. "But you definitely have to be careful when you're in their territory."He just won't be going surfing alone anymore, he said. It's one of his rules, he said, and he plans to stick by it.

A 14-year-old boy is recovering in hospital after he was attacked by a shark in Strand, Cape Town, the National Sea Rescue Institute said today. NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said Andrew Smith - who lived in the area - was surfing around 5.30pm on Wednesday when he felt something pulling him by the legs. "He recognised it to be a shark estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 metres," said Lambinon. He managed to free himself and swim to shore where he was treated by a local doctor and taken to hospital. "He had puncture bite marks to both his feet," he said. Lambinon said shark spotters had been dispatched to the area and the Shark Working Group was appealing to surfers and swimmers to exercise caution in the water. He said a member of the Shark Working Group had also been sent to the hospital to investigate Smith’s bite marks and try and determine what species of shark attacked him.

AN EAST London surfer was recovering in hospital yesterday after being attacked by a monster shark – just hours before the movie Jaws was being rebroadcast on TV.The shark, believed to be a Great White, shattered Lee Mellin’s surf board and left a 38 centimetre wound down his thigh in the attack at Bonza Bay.“The doctor said I’m the luckiest shark attack victim he has ever seen and I definitely agree,” said Mellin, 37, pointing at his bandaged left thigh yesterday.Speaking from his St Dominic’s hospital bed, Mellin said it was his “survivor’s instinct” that saved his life.He remained conscious throughout the attack and yesterday gave a vivid account of his encounter with the Great White – even though it all happened “within a split second”.Mellin and his friend, Leigh Stolworthy, were riding the waves at about 8.45am on Saturday when they saw this “big fish” close by.“There was nothing we could do,” he said. “It just popped up between us.”Although in pain and still counting his “lucky stars”, Mellin managed to joke and laugh about the attack:“There was this massive white shark bursting out of the water, real Jaws-like …“It obviously gave one look at Leigh thinking he didn’t have enough meat, so he went at me.“It was a flippin’ big thing.“ I was still on my board and it came for me. “I just felt its jaws sinking in ... “I think the shark’s teeth got stuck in the surfboard. It then took another bite, but by then I let go of my board.“It just bit the board again.”Mellin, son of retired Daily Dispatch photographer Rob Mellin, said he started to panic and remembered screaming and shouting at Stolworthy: “Help me!”“It all happened in … seconds.“Afterwards we got onto our boards and paddled back.“I was worried it would come back and strike again, but Leigh kept assuring me that it was nowhere in sight.”Mellin, who three years ago returned to East London after spending about six years in London, managed to walk to Stolworthy’s bakkie. They rushed to the hospital where Mellin was taken into the operating theatre for stitches.Mellin, who has been surfing most of his life, said it was simply a case of being at the “wrong place at the wrong time”.Stolworthy said he was also “lucky to be alive".“It was really close,” he recalled. “I was looking at it all the time and thinking: This can’t be for real!” Mellin’s surfboard was bitten in two and teeth marks left on the two parts were evidence of the size of the shark.The two surfers think the shark was about three metres long, and Mellin reckoned the dorsal fin was about 40 centimetres.Buffalo City marine services chief Siani Tinley said it was likely the shark was a Great White but tests on the teeth marks on the surfboard and Mellin’s wound would confirm the species.Tinley added that the clean and cold seawater was conducive to Great White feeding conditions.Bonza Bay, Nahoon and Gonubie beach were closed with shark warnings on Saturday, but re-opened after 8am yesterday.Both Mellin and Stolworthy told of seeing sharks before but they had never had a close encounter. However, they agreed they will soon be back in the water – surfing, of course.

SYDNEY, Oct 15 (Reuters) - An Australian woman fought off a Great White Shark on Monday after it knocked her into the water from her surf ski at a popular tourist beach, police said.The woman fended off the 2.5-metre (eight-foot) shark, suffering lacerations to her right arm, before scrambling back onto her surf ski and paddling to shore at Byron Bay's famous surfing beach "The Pass" on Australia's east coast."A 52-year-old local woman was paddling her surf ski at The Pass at Byron Bay when she was knocked from her craft by a shark," said a police spokeswoman."The woman fended off the shark ... believed to be a white pointer. She suffered lacerations to her right arm. She managed to get back on her ski and paddle to shore."Police said the woman was taken to hospital, boats were patrolling the area looking for the shark and people had been advised not to go into the water.Sharks, even Great Whites, are protected in Australia.An Australian abalone diver miraculously escaped a Great White Shark attack in January after the shark half-swallowed him head first. The diver's lead weight vest saved his life by stopping the shark's teeth from biting him in half and the shark then released the diver. Australia had six shark attacks in 2006, according to the U.S.-based International Shark Attack File. There were 62 shark attacks worldwide in 2006.

SPEAR fisherman Adam Wood yesterday told how two mates "put their bodies on the line" and rescued him from the jaws of a "six to eight foot" bronze whaler in a frenzied attack involving up to 16 sharks off Cairns."I am lucky to be alive," Mr Wood said yesterday. "They saved my life." The Brisbane civil construction supervisor, 31, who is recovering in Cairns Base Hospital, was attacked at remote Holmes Reef, 240km due east of Cairns, about midday Saturday. He owed his life to two fellow divers who bravely swam in and fought off the man-eater, which had bitten a 30cm chunk out of his right calf. "They stabbed it with their spears and poked it to make it let go of my leg. "They didn't give it a chance to give it a good chew or a shake, if it had it would have taken my whole leg off. "They saved my leg and they saved my life." He said the two divers Shane Martin and Matt Graves then kept the bronze whaler and about 15 black and white tip reef sharks at bay while he swam to the safety of a nearby dinghy. "I was bleeding pretty bad," Mr Wood said. "The sharks were whipped right up in a feeding frenzy. "I thought the shark had torn my calf muscle right off the bone, but I didn't want to look down. "I was screaming for help." He was on an annual spear fishing expedition with a group of about 20 mates to the Coral Sea on board the dive boat Norkat II when the attack happened. "We were hunting dogfish tuna in the bluewater and I was swimming a fish back to the dinghy when it all turned dangerous. "By the time we realised how dangerous -- berley in the water and killed fish -- the situation was out of control." Les Eckart, director of Norkat II, said once he was bleeding the other sharks started to come in on him, and the other men kept the sharks away." Mr Wood faces six weeks on crutches after surgery and more than 50 stitches to re-attach tendons and ligaments severed by the 30cm bite. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery with only a mild numbness in his ankle.

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Four survivors of an ill-fated cargo ship from Cebu that sank off Palawan are still in shock.They could still hear their co-workers shouting for help while being eaten alive by sharks, a police official in Palawan said.

NOUMEA - A young woman was killed in a shark attack on Sunday while swimming off the Loyalty Islands archipelago in French New Caledonia, police said.The 23-year-old victim, who had headed out with a friend for an early morning swim, bled to death after suffering a deep shark bite running all the way from knee to hip.Her friend managed to swim ashore to ask local tribesmen for help, but they were too late.An analysis was underway to determine which species of shark was responsible for the attack, which occurred some 200 metres (yards) offshore from Lifou, one of four islands in the South Pacific archipelago.The victim, a nurse from mainland France who had just finished a hospital contract in Noumea, was in Lifou for a short beach holiday before flying home.

Sue Snyder's 9'6" longboard was struck and bit by a great white shark at Moonstone Beach in Humboldt County at about 8:15 a.m. It was a beautiful sunny morning with a full moon setting over the horizon as we surfed. The conditions were small, but glassy and clean. There were nine of us in the water at the time. Seven of us were pretty close together, with two others about 100 yards south. Sue was positioned a little further on the outside than the rest of us, and everyone was catching their fair share of waves and having a good morning session. I was riding a wave when I heard shouting from behind me. After I got off the wave I saw my buddy waving me in to shore. I noticed everyone else was making their way to the beach, riding waves on their stomachs as fast as they could (never a good sign). At this point, I knew something was up, but we experience lots of false alarms in our area. Sue was the last of us to reach the beach, and everyone congregated around to see what had happened and make sure she was okay. Sue had no apparent injuries, and at this point, we all noticed the crescent shaped bite mark at the tail of her board.According to Sue and others in the water, this is the scenario that we pieced together. Sue said she felt her board get bumped, but not violently, as she was sitting waiting for a wave. The force of the "bump" knocked her off the board. As she fell off, her arm ran along the length of the shark as it swam by her. At this point she began kicking the shark before jumping back on her board and paddling to shore. One of the witnesses in the water turned when he heard Sue scream and saw the dorsal fin and tail of the shark splashing around the board before it submerged under water. The shark wasn't spotted again by any of us. The most fortunate part of the experience was that Sue was sitting on her board at the time of the attack. Thus, the shark did not make contact with any part of her when it bit, leaving her uninjured.After examining the bite mark on the board, we determined that the radius is approximately 16", although we don't know if this is the full radius. We noticed that the shark hit Sue's center fin as it tried to bite due to the fact that there were a couple of gouges and a scrape mark running down the fin, with teeth fragments left in the fin box. You'll also notice in the pictures that some of the bite marks punctured all the way through her board.The most fortunate part of the experience was that Sue was sitting on her board at the time of the attack. Thus, the shark did not make contact with any part of her when it bit, leaving her uninjured. We have a pretty close community of surfers here who do a good job of looking out for each other in the water, even when people are surfing solo. This was a great example where those in the water pulled together to keep each other calm and help one another. Bottom line: We know sharks are out there, and we're glad Sue (or anyone else) was not hurt in the attack.

A surfer suffered minor injuries Saturday after apparently being bitten by a shark off the coast of Huguenot Park.A Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department spokesman said the unidentified woman was taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital as a precaution. A Huguenot Park supervisor said shark sightings aren't uncommon in the deep waters where surfers frequent. Shark warning flags were posted at the park after the bite was reported.

Volusia County is quickly chalking up the shark bites.It recorded its 16th shark bite of the year late Thursday just south of the jetty in New Smyrna Beach.A surfer saw the two-to three-foot shark, and then felt it chomp down on his toe. The bite was minor, causing just a few tiny puncture wounds.The last time the county had this many shark bites was 2001 when there were 22 reported

Jessica Riley poses with her shark bitten surf board. FLAGLER BEACH (Bay News 9) -- Jessica Riley was surfing on Flagler Beach when she said instinct told her to take her hand out of the water.Moments later, a shark bit a piece of her board."As soon as I raised it out, this thing comes up and chomps right on it," Riley said. "I was like oh my gosh, I lost an arm, my leg's bitten off."Riley said the whole experience was completely surreal."The whole like... jaws effect. Like, where you see the eyeballs and then they turn white and the teeth were crooked," Riley said.The shark pulled on her surfboard leash taking her under the water but did not attack

GIZO, Solomon Islands (19 Sep 2007) -- An Australian man was airlifted to hospital and underwent emergency surgery for leg wounds after a shark attacked him.Corey Howell, who has been living in the Solomon Islands for seven years, was spearfishing when a shark bit him three times severely injuring his left thigh.Authorities said that fish Howell caught probably attracted the shark.Howell was airlifted to National Referral Hospital in Honiara where he underwent surgery to clean and patch up a "rugged wound".While most scuba divers welcome opportunities to observe sharks, and do so without incident, divers have been attacked when spearfishing or diving in areas where commercial scuba diving centers sell shark feeding tours.Due to overwhelming scientific evidence that shark feeding is bad for both people and sharks, it has been banned in Florida, Hawaii, the Cayman Islands, the Red Sea, the Maldives and most international dive travel destinations.Despite high-profile shark attacks and public safety campaigns to ban feeding and other harassment of marine wildlife, shark feeding is still legal in South Africa and the Bahamas, where local officials on retainer to shark feeders continue to ignore public opinion.© CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK

Sunbather Was In Waist-Deep Water POSTED: 3:36 am EDT September 18, 2007 UPDATED: 6:12 am EDT September 18, 2007

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Volusia County recorded its 15th shark bite of the year when a Deltona man was bitten on the side of his heel on Sunday.Beach Patrol officers said the man was in waist-deep surf south of the Beachway approach when a small shark bit Jack Calogero, 56, of west Volusia County. Calogero was treated at the scene and went home. Beach officials said most of the shark encounters that have happened this year in Volusia County have been where bait fish swim near the jetty. Juvenile sharks often mistake a hand or foot for food.

: An Oakland Park teen who went swimming at the beach Thursday emerged with a nurse shark latched onto his abdomen. A well-aimed punch by a Broward Fire-Rescue lieutenant forced the 3- to 4-foot-long shark to release its grip before it could do any serious damage to the teen. Brandon Chapman, 14, was treated and released at Broward Medical Center on Thursday evening for minor injuries from the shark. The Broward Sheriff's Office said Chapman was in about three feet of water at Anglin's Fishing Pier in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea when the shark went after him just before 5 p.m. Thursday. Someone at the fishing pier called the police about a shark attack, and officers arrived with fire-rescue personnel, who considered using an ax and a "Jaws of Life" extrication tool to separate the teen from the shark. Fire Rescue Lt. Rob Melendez delivered the punch to the shark's nose that forced it to release its grip. "The shark was tossed back into the ocean and quickly swam away," the Sheriff's Office said.

— Florida native Carolyn Griffin never imagined she would be face-to-face with a bull shark when she went to the beach on Saturday. When Port St. Lucie resident Griffin visited Pepper Park with family, she expected to frolic in the ocean. Instead, she ended up in the hospital with 12 tooth punctures on the front of her leg and a 2-inch gash that went deep into her calf muscle and required six staples. "It wasn't like a really bad thing. I was really fortunate," Griffin said Monday. Griffin had just waded into the water, which she said was a little churned up and murky, when she felt a bump on her leg. At first she thought it was a boogie board — until she saw a fin swimming away, she said. According to Griffin , the lifeguard at the beach said her wound was consistent with a 4-foot-long bull shark. "I've lived in Florida all my life and I've been to the beach a lot. I never dreamed I'd have a shark bite," she said. Once the salt water began stinging her wound, Griffin immediately went to the lifeguard on duty at the beach, who called everyone out of the water and wrapped her wound. An ambulance took Griffin to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute where she was treated. But don't think her experience with the shark will keep Griffin out of the water. "I think I'll go in again. I think I'll go in when it's more clear to see what's there," she said.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A 12-year-old Orlando girl became Volusia County’s 13th shark bite victim of the year Monday.

Eyewitnesses told Channel 9 the shark bit her while she swam in the ocean off Daytona Beach.Beachgoers said they could see the circular teeth marks on the young girls arm.Eyewitness, Lane Irvin said the girls arm was bleeding, “I saw the little girl in the water. She was surfing and she came running out holding her arm, screaming.”The girl and her family were staying in Daytona Beach for the Labor Day weekend and had just checked out of their hotel Monday.Her parents decided to spend a few more hours at the beach.She was swimming in waste deep water when the shark came out of nowhere.“She had a bunch of baitfish jump in the air and she felt something nip her in the arm,” said Scott Petersohn with Volusia County Beach Patrol.There have been 13 bites in Volusia County so far this year and while most are minor, some swimmers aren’t so lucky. A surfer near Ponce Inlet had his hand nearly bitten off by a shark at the end of August. Still, the beach patrol said shark bites are rare, “You have a much greater chance of getting hurt crossing A1A without a light than getting bit by a shark.”Beach patrol didn’t release the victim’s name but said fortunately the bite was minor.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A 58-year-old man is recovering after being sent to a Fort Lauderdale hospital with what he believed was a shark bite.

Advertiser Staff WriterA 15-year-old boy suffered a foot injury Tuesday when a shark bit him while he was bodysurfing near the Crouching Lion restaurant in Ka'a'awa.Randy Honebrink, of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Shark Task Force, said the boy was 400 yards offshore when he felt something "slice" at one of his feet before seeing the foot in the mouth of a shark.The boy kicked the shark with his other foot, causing it to swim away.The incident was reported at 4:30 p.m.The shark is believed to be a 12-foot tiger shark, based on the boy's description, Honebrink said.The state official said he believes the boy kicked at the shark at about the same time the shark opened its mouth.Honebrink said the boy was treated for injuries at a nearby fire station before his parents took him to Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center for further examination.Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Victim in stable condition; authorities close Marina State Beach, post warnings along coast

MARINA - A shark bit and seriously injured a California State University, Monterey Bay, student Tuesday morning as he surfed off Marina State Beach.The attack prompted officials to prohibit swimming at the Marina beach until further notice. Beach-goers also were barred from the water at Salinas River and Monterey state beaches for the rest of the day.About 11 a.m., Todd Endris, 24, of Marina, and a half-dozen others were surfing about 75 yards off the Marina beach when the shark attacked. The predator struck him from behind, biting his torso and a thigh, said Loren M. Rex, a public safety superintendent with the Monterey District Office of California State Parks. Despite deep wounds, Endris was conscious and breathing when taken away by ambulance. He was flown to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where he was stable and conscious Tuesday night following surgery and expected to survive, hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said.Wes Williams of Moss Landing, a witness to the attack, said he and several other surfers were waiting for the next good wave when they noticed a school of dolphins swim past and start circling Endris from about 15 feet away.Then he heard Endris yell and disappear into the water."He was screaming, just a bloody-murder scream, and I saw pool of blood start to grow," Williams said. "I knew then at once it was a shark. The dolphins were just going crazy, and all of a sudden, the shark stopped and let go."I personally think the dolphins saved his life."Williams said he yelled at Endris to get himself away from danger."I kept saying to him: Just get on your board and paddle, just get on your board and paddle,' and he did," he said. "He got on his board and started paddling out of the blood ring."Williams and the other surfers managed to get Endris ashore where one of them, Brian Simpson, an X-ray technician at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in Salinas, slowed the bleeding with surf leashes as they waited for emergency crews to arrive.One witness said the shark that attacked Endris was a great white measuring at least 20 feet in length, something rescuers weren't able to immediately confirm, said Rex, adding that Endris punched at the fish as it attacked him.State park officials, however, recovered Endris' blue surfboard and were working with biologists to confirm that it was a white shark."The board has triangular impressions, so the evidence is very solid that this was indeed a white shark attack," said Robert Lea, a retired marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game.Wayne Kelly of Monterey was heading out to surf at Marina State Beach when a friend called and said Endris, one of Kelly's friends, had been attacked. Kelly said the attack highlights the dangers surfers face."This is the most dangerous beach for surfers in this area," he said after driving to the scene. "You have rip currents and unusual waves, and sharks are just an added danger."Tuesday's shark attack, just a few days before the busy Labor Day weekend, is the first recorded at Marina State Beach, Rex said, although some divers have been attacked in Monterey Bay."This is an extremely rare event," said Steven Webster, a retired senior marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium who visited the Marina beach Tuesday. "You're safer out on the water than driving on the road.During the closure at the Marina beach, swimming, surfing and bathing are off-limits, said Dana Jones, State Parks sector superintendent. Rex said a lifeguard will be on-duty at the Marina beach during the closure.While the nearby Monterey and Salinas River state beaches are expected to reopen today, warning signs advising of the shark attack will remain in place for about a week, he said.State Parks officials will decide when to remove the warning signs after consulting with the Department of Fish and Game, he said.

More shark bites in Volusia County this weekend bring the total in Volusia County to 12 for the year. The number continues to climb, but again this weekend the injuries were minor. The latest bite was taken out of a 54-year-old surfer off New Smyrna Beach. Beach Patrol said the man was paddling his board when a shark clamped down on his hand. Life guards bandaged up his hands, and the injuries were not serious.A 27-year-old was bitten on the hand on Saturday.

UPDATED: 1:29 pm EDT August 25, 2007 NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- A surfer in New Smyrna Beach became the 11th shark bite victim in Florida this year. The attack happened Saturday morning, WESH 2 News reported. According to police, the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department were responding to a separate incident on the south side of Ponce Inlet when a 27-year-old man told them he had been bitten by a shark. The man, police said, told officials he was bitten by a 6-foot shark and had six lacerations to his left hand. Nine of the 11 shark bites happened in New Smyrna Beach .

UPDATED: 12:41 pm EDT August 20, 2007ISLAMORADA, Fla. -- A swimmer bitten by a shark off Islamorada is recovering in the hospital. Authorities said Chris Olstad was swimming his usual route from Founder's Park to a sailboat about a half mile off shore and back when he was struck in the side. The 52-year-old made it back to shore and was taken to the hospital. He told authorities it was a shark that bit him. Authorities said a large chunk of flesh is missing from his side. Olstad remains hospitalized at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

SARASOTA -- The shark bit Andrea Lynch as she floated on her back in a dark Sarasota Bay, sinking its teeth in her side until they hit her ribs and pelvis, then shaking her briefly before letting her go.Lynch, 20, said her three friends from New College thought she might be joking or mistaken when she told them a shark just attacked her."I got on the boat and my friend was like, 'Do I need to call 911?'" Lynch said. "I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me, and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat."It is only the seventh reported unprovoked shark bite in Sarasota County since 1882, and the second one this year, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.Lynch said she has muscle tears and tissue damage, and a doctor put more than 100 stitches in her body during a three-hour surgery Thursday.Lynch took photos of her bites to Mote Marine Laboratory shark expert Bob Hueter on Friday afternoon to see if he could tell how large the shark was or what species it was.Hueter estimated it was a bull shark about six feet long.The conditions on Wednesday night were perfect for seeing the marine phenomenon of bioluminescence, Lynch said. The friends took an inflatable dinghy out to a New College-owned boat anchored 200 yards out in the bay.The boat was isolated, the wind was light and there was little light other than the green glow from the algae when the swimmers or other fish stirred the water.Those are also excellent conditions for a shark bite, experts say.One friend was swimming with Lynch when she screamed, and two were standing in the boat. When she pulled herself out of the water, the friends planned to go back to shore.But in the chaos, the inflatable dinghy floated away. Nobody wanted to jump back in the water to bring it back.They had no way back to shore."It was like a horror movie," Lynch said.They called 911.It took four hands pressing shirts against the wounds to get the bleeding under control. A rescue boat arrived about 20 minutes later to take Lynch to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.There were 17 puncture wounds stretching in a crescent on Lynch's side. Doctors told her the teeth that pierced between her ribs got close to her lungs, but missed all of the major organs."Either it didn't like the taste of human, or it hit my bone and thought I was too bony," said Lynch, a former biology major who now studies international relations.Either way, Lynch and her friends say they are not planning to swim in the bay at night anymore.That is a good idea because sharks are most active at night, said George Burgess, the director of the International Shark Attack File.The swimmers also isolated themselves in the middle of the bay and made themselves obvious by moving around in the bioluminescent water, Burgess said."That's a formula for a shark attack," Burgess said. "Happily, the outcome wasn't too severe."

An attorney from New Smyrna Beach is recovering from a shark bite.The Beach Patrol said 51-year-old Jeffrey Clark of New Smyrna Beach was swimming into a wave when he collided with a shark near Ponce Inlet on Sunday.The shark left two lacerations on Clark 's right shoulder. He was treated by Beach Patrol and left the scene. He refused to be transported to the hospital.

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:03 pm Post subject: Great White Targets Paddle Boarder at ZUMA As reported in the Malibu TimesBy Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times

Lifeguard Joe Everett, left, came to the aid of Vic Calandra as he was being followed, and bumped repeatedly, by a great white shark during a paddle race from Zuma Beach to the Malibu Pier on Sunday. Calandra credits Everett with saving his life.A local surfer encounters a great white shark during a paddle race from Zuma Beach to Malibu Pier on Sunday.The 16th Annual Call to the Wall surfing competition was enlivened with a shark encounter this year. During the Tommy Zahn Memorial Paddle Race, local surfer Vic Calandra had a run in with an approximately 10- to 12-foot long great white shark."Vic came in shaking," William Buckley, Call to the Wall competition coordinator, said. "He told us that a shark had bumped his board aggressively and followed him for twenty minutes."Calandra, a Malibu resident and longtime surfer, said he was going neck and neck for third place out of 15 to 20 stand-up paddle board racers and was about a mile and a half off the coast from the beach at the beginning of Old Malibu Road when he heard something break the surface of the water behind him.Looking back, he saw a partial fin about 20 feet behind him. At first Calandra thought it was a dolphin, but then the fin "continued to come out of the water"-the fin was 18 to 24 inches tall, he said.Calandra said he veered to the right so he could keep an eye on it, but the shark stayed with him, and then it made a wide sweep coming closer, and then it made another sweep until it was only three feet away. Calandra said he swung his paddle to strike the shark and "it came up and brushed the back of my board, and then came up on the side of me and showed its underbelly-I could see it was great white."Calandra estimated the shark to be 12 feet long and about three and a half feet wide (the surfer's paddle board is 18 feet long).The shark started making quick turns, coming to Calandra's side each time, and he would drop to his knees and strike it with his oar, trying to "keep a distance between the predator and me."Each time he hit the shark with the paddle, Calandra said, it would go underneath his board. It happened about five or six times, he said, and "I knew I was going to get struck at that point."But he found a compatriot in Joe Everett, a lifeguard with the L.A. County Fire Department, assigned to the lifeguard station at Zuma Beach and who was a participant in Sunday's 10-mile-long paddle race between Zuma and the Malibu Pier."About an hour an a half into the race, I heard someone on a board about 800 yards offshore yelling, 'Shark!'" Everett said. "I headed out, thinking it was just a sighting, but as I got closer to Vic, I saw the dorsal fin following right behind him. I decided I wasn't a race participant anymore, but a lifeguard."As Everett was paddling toward Calandra, the shark hit Calandra's board again and he got on his knees to strike it again with his paddle. Meanwhile, as Everett was coming to his aid, he was slapping the water to divert the shark's attention. Everett quickly aimed the tip of his 18-foot-long board at the shark's head to try and deter it."The shark kept bumping Vic's board and he looked like a circus high wire act trying to keep his balance," he said.The two men positioned their boards close together, sitting back to back to see where the shark would be coming from next, and hit its back and fins whenever it came close. "We knew it was going to hit one of us," Calandra said, so they determined to reach one of two boats that were nearby. They started paddling, following each other carefully toward a fishing boat that was about 200 yards away, beating their oars in the water whenever the shark came near to deflect it.When they reached the boat, Everett quickly climbed in and contacted the lifeguard station, which sent out guards on jet skis to round up all race participants and hurry them to the finish line."Our station boat was out there to monitor the race, but they were off at Latigo at the time the shark came, so they didn't see the incident," Everett said. "It was my first encounter with a shark." And he said he hopes it will be his last.And Calandra, "for some reason," said he stayed on his paddle board and went on to warn the other racers. "I wasn't thinking clearly," Calandra said in retrospect. "Not at all."As for his first up close experience with a great white, Calandra said, "I never felt so small in the food chain. I was definitely low in the chain at that point."Even with the shark diversion, Calandra came in 4th place in the paddle board race competition. the Malibu Times

Shark attacks boy off Cocos Islands
July 20, 2007 11:37pm
Article from: AAP

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy was attacked by a shark while snorkelling off the Cocos Islands, about 2750km northwest of Perth.
The boy, who was lucky to escape critical injuries, was swimming at a popular snorkelling spot at Direction Island when he felt the shark tugging at his leg, the ABC reported tonight.It was unclear how severe the shark bite was.
The teenager was tonight being flown to Royal Perth Hospital for medical treatment.

Shark attacks visitor snorkeling at Oahu beach
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer 7/20/07
A shark attacked a man snorkeling off the military-only side of Bellows Beach yesterday, causing a serious leg wound and prompting officials to close beaches from Lanikai to Waimanalo.Beachgoers later reported seeing a shark attack at least two sea turtles off Bellows and Lanikai, killing one of the turtlesTwo men who were at the beach helped pull the snorkeler from the water about 3:15 p.m. and fashioned a tourniquet above his left calf to slow the bleeding."The guy was talking the whole time, even while we were pulling him into shore" said Don Ewing, part of a civil engineering crew working at Bellows. "He was thanking us and saying, 'I hope I don't lose my leg.' "The man said he punched the shark in the snout, Ewing noted.
The victim, a 36-year-old Mainland visitor, was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in serious but stable condition with a severe bite wound to his left leg below the knee, said city emergency services spokesman Bryan Cheplic.Witnesses described the shark as an 8-foot tiger shark, but authorities at the scene said that had not been confirmed.
RESCUERS WADE IN
City lifeguards closed Windward beaches from Sherwood Forest near Waimanalo Beach Park to the Kailua boat ramp, fire department spokesman Capt. Terry Seelig said. He said shark warning signs were posted and that the beaches would remain closed at least through this morning.It was the first reported shark attack off O'ahu in 16 months. On March 23, 2006, a Vancouver, B.C., woman survived a shark's bite to her left calf while surfing at Left Overs, a surf spot a mile south of Waimea Bay.The most recent shark attack in the state was May 7, when a Marin County, Calif., woman survived a shark bite to her right calf and foot while snorkeling at Keawakapu Beach in Kihei, Maui.Yesterday's attacked happened about 150 yards offshore, near the rocky point that separates Bellows from Lanikai.
The man and his wife were staying at one of the bungalows on the military side of Bellows Beach.
Ewing said that about 3:15 p.m. he heard someone yelling, "Help!" and "Shark!" offshore, and noticed another man from shore making his way through the water toward the victim. Ewing said he removed his steel-toed boots and waded in to assist. He and the other man — who he knows only as Ray — were able to bring the injured man to the beach, Ewing said.Ewing, 56, credited Ray with saving the snorkeler's life.
"He (the victim) could have been in very serious trouble if that guy hadn't got out there when he did," Ewing said. Ewing fashioned a tourniquet around the victim's leg with a nylon strap someone brought down to the water. Cheplic said the bleeding was stabilized by the time emergency personnel got there."I held a tourniquet on his leg above the knee for at least 15 minutes," he said. Ewing said he was eventually relieved by a firefighter."From the knee on down, the guy's leg was pretty chewed up. I'd say there were four to five lacerations. ... The cuts were deep. There were places where it looked like they were to the bone," Ewing said.

BEACHES CLOSED
The victim told Ewing he had been snorkeling and observing the sea life right before the attack. Suddenly, he said, fish zipped away in all directions and a 6- to 8-foot shark came at him.There was nothing he could do to prevent the shark from striking, the man told Ewing — although he said he did manage to punch the shark in the nose more than once.While paramedics tended to the victim, the fire department's Air One helicopter was in the air and a rescue company moved up and down the shore in a boat warning swimmers to leave the water and advising bathers that the beach was closed.Cheplic urged residents and visitors not to use the waters off Lanikai Beach this morning.
"We will be there first thing to do an early morning assessment at 5 a.m.," he said. "Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Division will be patrolling the beach, and we would greatly appreciate it if people would please refrain from swimming there until after our assessment is done."

Teen bitten by shark a day after woman attacked on NC coast
July 19, 2007 01:40 EDT
NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH, N.C. (AP) -- There appears to have been another shark attack on North Carolina's coast.
Authorities say they believe the bite a 14-year-old boy suffered yesterday was from a shark, and witnesses on North Topsail Beach say they saw several sharks in the water at the time.
Matthew Baker, of Hickory, was treated and released from Onslow Memorial Hospital after suffering a bite on his right calf.
He says he felt something grab his leg and pull him down, and he first thought it was only one of his friends.
The attack is the second in two days -- a 30-year-old woman was attacked at Atlantic Beach on Tuesday.

By Jerry Allegood, Staff Writer
Atlantic Beach - A 30-year-old woman was hospitalized today after a shark bit her on the thigh and foot as she waded in the surf, Atlantic Beach Fire Chief Adam Snyder said.The woman, who was vacationing from Ohio, was wading in waist-deep water at about 1 p.m. near the Tar Landing Villas, about two miles east of the Atlantic Beach Boardwalk.Snyder said the woman said she felt something bite against her right thigh. She began kicking at it, and the shark then clamped on her left foot, he said, leaving triangular shaped bite marks.Judging from the size of the bite marks, he said, the shark is believed to be about five feet long.Snyder said authorities considered the attack an isolated incident. He called it "a case of mistaken identity," in which the shark bit in murky water."We didn't even close the beaches," he said.He said there were no sightings before or after the incident.The woman, who he declined to identify, was hospitalized at Carteret General Hospital in Morehead City. Snyder said she was in stable condition. A hospital spokeswoman said the woman is scheduled to be released today.

Shark Research Committee reports Faria Beach Ventura shark attack
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 19 July, 2007 : - - On July 17, 2007 Susan Levy was swimming with her husband Eric off Faria Beach, Ventura, California. This location is also referred to as Pitas Point. She was wearing a full black wetsuit with exposed hands and feet. It was 11 AM and they had been in the water 25 minutes. The sky was clear with a 1 – 3 foot ocean swell.They were about 1/3 of a mile from shore with water visibility 1 – 2 feet. Susan recounted; “I was swimming with my husband when I felt a tug on my left foot. At first I thought it might have been my husband grabbing my foot, but then I saw he was about 10 feet away to my left. I looked around but did not see any sharks or other marine animals. We examined my foot and saw that I was bleeding but the wounds were not deep, so we swam into shore.We went to the lifeguard station at Emma Wood State Beach; where the lifeguard gave me antiseptic cleanser for my wounds. I have 4 scrapes on the instep, ranging from 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches forming an arching shape.The scrape on the back of my foot, by my heel is about 2 inches long with scrapes going down.” Caution should be exercised when utilizing this location for your ocean water activities. Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.www.sharkresearchcommittee.com

C. Fla. surfer recovers from shark bite

July 6, 2007

A Casselberry teen was attacked by a shark on Thursday in waters off Volusia County, FLORIDA TODAY news partner WKMG Local 6 News reported.Chaz Cecil, 18, was bitten on the right foot while surfing about a half-mile south of the Ponce de Leon Inlet at about 4 p.m.Cecil was transported to Bert Fish Medical Center, where he was treated for a wound to his right foot.Cecil became fifth shark-bite victim of the year in Volusia County, according to officials.

Man Bitten By Shark In New Smyrna Beach

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 8:55:14 AM

A 20-year-old man is recovering after being bit by a shark off the coast of New Smyrna Beach.Justin Lewis was surfing Sunday after 5:30 p.m. near the south jetty when the shark bit his right hand, leaving 6 to 8 puncture wounds..Lewis told Volusia County Beach Patrol the shark was about 4 feet long.Lewis was treated at a hospital and is expected to be OK.

A picture sent to the newsroom shows the surfer and his surfboard. Teeth marks are on the left mid-section of the board.

Shark Attacks North Shore Surfer

Grace Lee - glee@kgmb9.com

Posted: June 24, 2007 10:18 PM

A surfer was paddling out when he felt a tug on his board. Very quickly he realized he was being dragged underwater by a shark. It happened just after seven on Sunday morning at a popular surf spot called Silva's channel in Mokuleia.Some local surfers said they're not sure, but they believe it was a dark gray tiger or reef shark that was about six feet long. Witnesses reported that the shark nearly chomped through the surf board missing the surfer by centimeters. George Rio spoke to the shark attack victim just a few minutes after the encounter. "When he was paddling out, he felt something grab his board really hard and actually took him under the water. When it came up, it could have bit him, but he put the board towards the shark's mouth instead of going for him, it went for the board," said Rio. As for the victim's reaction, Rio said, "he seemed like he was still in a daze... in shock like he cannot believe that a shark bit his board and could have bitten him."Already locals have posted signs warning beachgoers of the shark attack. It spooked some Mokuleia beach residents including Pamela Ney-Noyes who said, "I guess these things sometimes happen. I was just hoping that it didn't mean there were more sharks coming our way."For those who love the waves, like surfer Chris Gibbon, he said the shark attack will not stop him from getting in the water. He paddled out just before sunset. "I don't like to live my life in fear. I just want to do what I love and try not to think about it too much," said Gibbon.As for the surfer who was attacked, Rio believes, "he's blessed. Someone is watching over him, some angels or something." With no injuries from the incident, Rio might just be right.

Surfer hurt in shark attack

MORE than 100 stitches were used to close the wounds caused by a shark which attacked a primary school student on the Mid-North Coast.Jack Moir was catching waves at Shelly Beach at Crescent Head, when he was attacked about sunset on Tuesday evening. His ankle and leg were bitten and it is understood the predator was a bull shark or bronze whaler, the most common inshore sharks on the Mid-North Coast. The Crescent Head Primary School student was taken to Port Macquarie Base Hospital where he underwent four hours of surgery. His family, who have just moved to Crescent Head, were too distraught to speak yesterday but friends say the youngster was "doing OK''. A friend said Jack was keen on surfing and would often go searching for waves with his friends after school. Crescent Head surf shop owner Peter Cornish said the sharks had been seen in the area, but the last time there was an attack off Crescent Head was decades ago when the same kind of shark attacked a man snorkelling.

A large bull shark attacked and injured a woman as she stood in less than 2 feet of water at a South Carolina beach. Susan Dornquast, who is from Texas, said she was standing near shore at Murrells Inlet in South Carolina when the shark came out of the water and bit her leg. "I just turned around to look at the waves coming in and that is when the shark came up," Dornquast said. "I felt it hit my leg and thought that was more than water. I looked down and saw the shark swimming off. Dornquast said she knew the shark bit her after she had trouble moving her leg. She was taken to a hospital, where she received 40 stitches, the report said. From the size of the bite mark left on Dornquast, doctors estimate the shark was 5 feet long. "I could not imagine (a shark) that big coming up to shore like that," Dornquast said. "I didn't know that much about sharks." "Sharks, especially like the bull sharks we have here, tend to feed in shallow water," marine biologist Paula Branshaw said. "Usually (the bites) are a case of mistaken identity." Marine biologists said the chances of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million. Last year, there were 23 shark bites in Florida , according to the University of Florida .

Published Sunday, May 27, 2007A woman was in stable condition after a probable shark bite at Garden City Beach on Saturday night, said Cpt. Scott Gosnell of Garden City-Murrells Inlet Fire Department.The woman's name was not released.The attack happened at 5 p.m. near Pompano Drive , said police. The woman was taken to Waccamaw Community Hospital for treatment of a leg injury, Gosnell said."As far as we know, it was shark bite to the leg," he said.The woman was in the water to about the middle of her thighs when she started screaming. When she came out of the water, she had three gashes on the bottom half of her leg, said Matt Mitchell, 18, of Murrells Inlet.The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has not had any other reports of shark bites this year, said Lt. Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the DNR.McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Shark That Bit Virginia Aquarium Employee Dies

VIRGINIA BEACH , Va. (AP) - A shark sedated Thursday after it bit an aquarium employee died Friday, Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center officials said.The 10-year-old, 94-pound blacktip reef shark named Tidbit never recovered from medication it was given after biting the employee during a routine checkup, spokeswoman Linda Candler said.The shark bit Beth Firchau, leader of the shark physicals team, on her left shin during the exam. Firchau was treated at the aquarium and taken to a hospital for follow-up care. The bite tore away some tissue but did not reach the bone, officials said.It wasn't clear what caused the shark to bite. Aquarium officials said a necropsy is planned to try and determine why the shark reacted so poorly to the medication.

FLUSTERED fisherman Phil Tanner shows off his savaged nose — after surviving the world’s most embarrassing shark attack. The tackle-shop owner was attacked by a lesser-spotted dogfish after he reeled it in off Folkestone pier, Kent.
He fought for five minutes to wrench the thrashing creature, a mini member of the shark family, off his hooter as laughing passers-by looked on.Phil, 38, was left with a bloody gash and rows of tiny teethmarks round his nostrils.
The dogfish struck as local lad Phil tried to show it off to pal Scott Allen. Phil said last night: “I called out, ‘Hey mate, look at this whopper’. But somehow Scott nudged my arm and the fish catapulted itself up to my nose with its jaws wide open.“It clamped around my nostrils and wouldn’t let go. It was agony and I was screaming. The fish didn’t just hang on, either. I could feel it chomping its teeth as if it wanted me for its last meal.“Everyone on the pier was watching me jumping up and down with a shark hanging off my nose. People were singing the Jaws theme tune — I’ve never felt so embarrassed.” Phil finally pulled the fish away and tended to his wound.He said: “It may look pathetic, but my nose bled for hours. There are now a string of teethmarks all around my nostrils — like one of those pictures you see of shark-attack survivors.“I probably did need stitches but I couldn’t go to the hospital because I didn’t want the doctors to laugh at me too. My mates take the mickey, but I am a shark attack victim. I could have lost my nose.”

A 38-year-old mother of five has given a graphic account of a shark attack which happened as she waded with her three-year-old son at a remote Western Australian beach.

Becky Cooke still does not know if she will lose her left foot as a result of the attack, which happened at Coral Bay, 900 kilometres north of Perth, on Wednesday.Mrs Cooke had to be airlifted to Perth for emergency surgery after being bitten on the left leg while wading in shallow water at Pelican Point while carrying her three-year-old son Ethan.Speaking to the media from her bed at Royal Perth Hospital, she recalled how one of her sons came to her rescue when she was being attacked and she hit the shark with a camera to try to get it off her leg."As I fell into the water the sea just turned to blood," she said.
"Browny came running over he had his gidgee [spear] with him and I just said to him, 'Take Ethan', and he grabbed Ethan and I just said, 'Here give me your gidgee and you run back to the shore with your brother'. So I sat in the water while the guys come running over."I wasn't sure if it was gone or if it was going to come back. I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my leg.
"The sea just turned to blood. The water was quite shallow, it was under my knees, but I didn't see it coming," she added."The pain didn't start until I got to the shore. It felt like something had hit me.
"It was pretty horrific for my husband, my friends and children. My worry was for my boys as they were with me when all this was going on."Mrs Cooke said the family would like to thank so many people for helping her through the ordeal.
Her husband Peter, standing by her side with their five children aged 3 to 13, said they would like to thank the Coral Bay first aid post, the Royal Flying Doctor service, and staff and surgeons at Royal Perth Hospital.He also paid tribute to two officers from the Department of Conservation and Land Management who just happened to turn up after the attack and helped his wife by dressing her wounds.Mrs Cooke suffered two deep lacerations on her left leg, lost most of the heel on her left foot, and had to undergo an eight-hour operation to try to save it."If all goes well we'll be able to save my foot and the options have been given to me that it's at that stage where I could still lose my foot," she said.Mrs Cooke will undergo further surgery tonight and says it could take up to 24 months before she knows if attempts to save her foot have been successful.

The Monday shark attack on Maui brought intense energy, pain By Wendy Osher Special to the Star-Bulletin

After surgery to repair her shark-bitten foot, a California visitor took time yesterday to reflect on her close brush with a fearsome force of nature. Peller Marion, 63, a psychologist and author, said the attack came without warning as she snorkeled in about 10 to 15 feet of clear water off Wailea, Maui.As a pain like a "terrible toothache" shot up her leg, Marion was struck by the intense energy radiating from the beast thrashing beside her. "I'm just happy to come away from the incident with all of my body parts."WAILUKU » California resident and frequent Maui visitor Peller Marion was taking her usual morning swim at her favorite Maui beach when she felt something clench onto her foot from behind."It felt like a terrible toothache," said Marion, 63, a consulting psychologist and author from the San Francisco Bay Area.Marion's initial thoughts of a turtle turned quickly to a shark when her new Maui Dive Shop flipper popped off and she turned to see "what looked like a wall.""I didn't see it (the shark) like you see it at the Maui Ocean Center or in picture books because it was turning around as I was turning around." The energy coming off of the shark, Marion said, "was something I had never experienced before."Marion was snorkeling a couple of yards offshore at Keawakapu Beach in about 10 to 15 feet of water when the shark attacked about 8:30 a.m. Monday. She said it took her about five minutes to clumsily swim close enough to shore, where she began to scream.Marion, who has been visiting Maui two to three times a year since 1993, said she was taking her usual swim from the Wailea Ekahi condominiums, where she was staying, toward the Mana Kai condominiums on South Kihei Road. Marion said she used to go snorkeling with friends, but ventured out Monday by herself and just looked for a safe route near shore.

By Katy Bishop , Jeremy Cox Originally published — 10:50 a.m., May 7, 2007 Updated — 2:11 p.m., May 7, 2007

Authorities cordoned off about 100 yards of Naples beach and urged swimmers to avoid the water near the Edgewater Beach Hotel after a shark bit Hans Pruss, a 68-year-old German tourist, this morning.The bite was "serious but not life threatening, and most likely caused by a 6 to 8 foot shark,” according to the Naples Police report. Pruss went out for a swim at about 8:30 a.m. and was swimming north more than 100 yards out, parallel to the shore, when he felt something bump his left leg.The water was murky and he didn’t see anything, but once ashore he saw a circular bite beginning above his left knee and extending to his mid-thigh. Pruss walked about 100 yards north along the shore toward the hotel, where he and his family were staying, leaving smears of blood on the sand. A worker at the hotel, 1901 Gulf Shore Boulevard N., saw the bleeding man and immediately called 911, said Courtney Giammaria, an Edgewater spokeswoman. Pruss was taken to NCH Naples Downtown Hospital where he is being treated.Earlier in the morning, Naples Police Chief Victor Morales said it might have been a bull shark, but this afternoon’s police report didn’t mention a species.Naples beach and marine patrol members are monitoring the beach near the hotel to keep swimmers away from the spot.People should be cautious about swimming on any city beaches for the next two days, said Michael Bauer, Naples Natural Resources Manager, in the police report.Bites in Collier County are rare, as today’s attack would be only the eighth in the county since 1882, based on information from the International Shark Attack File.

A 13-YEAR-OLD girl received serious leg injuries when she was attacked by a shark swimming near a jetty at Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.The teenager yesterday was recovering in the Townsville Hospital following the attack on Thursday. She was with a group of children swimming near a jetty when the shark attacked about 6pm. A resident, who did not want to be named, said the girl was taken to the nearby island hospital where she was treated for injuries to her lower leg and foot. "It's a big thing here for the kids to jump off the jetty into the water," the woman said. "That's what she was doing. "One of the kids said it was a small shark. Only one of the kids said they saw it." The girl, with the first name Lorraine, was later flown to Townsville by the Royal Flying Doctor Service based in Mount Isa. She had an operation on Friday and continues to recover.

What was supposed to be a fun day at the beach became an almost deadly experience for one young boy south of the border.Twelve-year-old Matthew Honyak was surfing in Hutchinson Island off the eastern coast of Florida when a shark attacked him and bit him in the ankle. Lifeguards rushed to save the child sounding an emergency alarm after an onlooker yelled out "Shark bite!". Remarkably, the sixth-grader only needed seven stitches and apart from having to use crutches while his foot heals and being shaken up from the whole ordeal, Honyak seems to be doing just fine. This was the fourth shark attack in six weeks in the area. Luckily, none of them were fatal.---lots of articles

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- A 24-year-old man underwent surgery on his hand Friday after being attacked by a shark while surfing off New Smyrna Beach. The bite victim is Chad Guthrie and authorities said he was attacked by a three to four foot shark (Bullshark) near the 27th Avenue Beach approach. He was taken to Halifax Medical Center and underwent several hours of surgery Friday afternoon. Guthrie's family members said he is a physical therapist in New Smyrna Beach. According to the Voulsia County Beach Patrol, Guthrie suffered deep gashes to his left index finger and thumb. It was the second shark attack this month off of Voulsia County. A 7-year-old boy from Seminole County suffered gashes on his calf during an attack on April 1. Gutherie's mother said that Chad was scheduled for more surgery on Sunday.--another site

UPDATED: 6:49 am EDT April 2, 2007 ORLANDO , Fla. -- A 7-year-old who was bitten twice by a shark in New Smyrna Beach Sunday was one of three people in Florida attacked by sharks over the weekend, according to a Local 6 News report.Jack Lomedico was playing with his family on a sandbar at New Smyrna Beach when the shark bit his leg and body several times."I just looked at my leg and said, 'Who has that many teeth -- shark,'" Lomedico said. "(The shark) was kind of the size of me." The boy's family noticed the bites and called for help. I saw two big, open gaping wounds with punctures all around it, the boy's mother Jen Lomedico said. "I just saw this crescent shape of a shark bite with all of this blood coming out," father Tom Lomedico said. Lomedico was transported to a hospital and received about 60 stitches. He is expected to recover from the injury. "I'm feeling a lot better," Lomedico said. "The pain has released but I'm not sure if I can still walk around places."

A 9-year-old boy and a surfer were bitten Saturday by sharks within an hour of each other on Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County. The first casualty was the boy, who was bitten around 1:20 p.m. at Waveland Park near the Martin-St. Lucie County line. Rescue workers picked him up at a nearby Cumberland Farms convenience store, where people had taken him, St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Whitaker said. The boy, who was not identified, sustained minor cuts on his right buttocks and thigh, Whitaker said. He was treated and released at Martin Memorial Medical Center .About an hour later, the same rescue crew returned to Hutchinson Island where a 30-year-old surfer was bitten on his right ankle at Normandy Beach , Whitaker said. The man sustained 3- to 4-inch wounds, serious enough to keep him at Martin Memorial Medical Center , but not life-threatening. His name also was not released. Don Henn and Bill Walsh, who were fishing, said they were there when the surfer was bitten. They had been watching the man and his friend surf for about three hours before the surfers took a break. They had just gone in for another round, when Henn and Walsh said they heard the one with long blond hair scream. "He was no more than 25 yards in and he got nailed," Walsh said. The fishermen helped the other surfer carry the injured man ashore and asked onlookers to call 911.Despite deep puncture wounds around his ankle, they said the surfer stayed calm and said he couldn't wait to hear his wife's reaction. Looking at Henn and Walsh, he then said, "This is the price I pay for being a surfer."

JUPITER — The fifth-grader says the bite won't keep him from surfing again. Sam Chiet is one lucky little surfing dude. It's not every day you stick your foot in the mouth of a shark and pull it out with all the toes still attached. "I was just really scared, it hurt really bad," Sam said. Sam was surfing in the Jupiter Inlet on Wednesday evening when he paddled over a wave and smack into a shark. By the time he saw the four- or five-footer, it was too late. "When I came back down I either stepped on the shark and he came around and bit me or I stepped in his mouth when he was trying to get another fish," says the boy. The shark bit Sam three times. Once on the toes, once on his calf, and then again as it dragged its teeth off the boy's leg. "It felt like razor blades or needles poking into my leg," he says. Facing a shark is a frightening experience for anyone, let alone a fifth-grader. Sam wound up with hundreds of stitches. It's one heck of a way to earn a shark tooth necklace from his grandfather. "His surgeon spent two and a half hours last night stitching him up, cleaning him up, and stitching him up," said his mother, Shellie Chiet. But if there is anything cool about being bitten by a shark, it's the story you have to tell. And already Sam is the stud of Limestone Creek Elementary. "It's kind of a cool scar," says his best friend Parker Greenwood. Sam's mother calls him the only Jewish surfer, the kid who's out there six days a week, except for Tuesdays when he has Hebrew school. And Sam says he'll be back out there. After all what are the odds of being bitten twice? "It's fun," he says.

ONE of Australia's top female surf stars has told how she survived a terrifying shark attack in northern NSW.The mauling left pro surfer Jodie Cooper with bone-deep cuts in her hand and "took off a couple of knuckles".Yet she relates her version of the encounter - her first run-in with a shark - with incredible calm.The 42-year-old was surfing off South Golden Beach, near her home in northern NSW, when the five-foot creature struck. "I just went 'okay, I'm being attacked by a shark'," she said.The former world number two had just finished riding a wave yesterday morning and was turning back to catch another when the shark latched onto her left hand. "It just came up from underneath me and just bit me - just like in the movies, it's pretty classic, except lucky it was small shark, a little five-foot thing," Ms Cooper said. I didn't even see the thing the whole time, it just gave me a good old chomp on the hand and took a couple of knuckles." But Ms Cooper, who won numerous international events in the 1980s and retired from professional competition in 1994, said she did not want to appear "heroic". She said while it had been just another day in the life of a surfer, she was as frightened as anyone else at the sight of a shark in the water. "It's one of those things in all honesty that we can laugh about now and I'm just laughing about it." Ms Cooper, a surfing commentator who handles various local competitions, said she had to face the likelihood that the attack may not be her last run-in with a shark. But it would not deter her from surfing, she said. "It's just like I've been bitten by a big dog, just down to the bone on two knuckles, and then about 10 teeth lacerations up my hand," Ms Cooper said. "There doesn't appear to be any ligament damage ... and I can sort of wiggle my hand. "I'll give it a couple of days and then I'll go surfing for sure."

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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