Shark Attacks Essays -- Sharks Ocean Life Attacks Essays

Shark Attacks The serious attacks are mainly by four species. The Bull shark. the Tiger, the Great White and the Oceanic Whitetip shark. The Grey Nurse (Sand Tiger) and the Bronze Whaler have for many years been blamed for many attacks but it seems nearly all were mistaken identity. The Grey Nurse is now protected in most States in Australia. The Great White is the largest and has a high percentage of fatal attacks. The Bull shark is responsible for a lot of attacks on swimmers and people in shallow water. From reports it seems a lot of these attacks were only one bite but a large percentage of the victims died of blood loss and shock. It is likely to be the worlds number one killer shark on swimmers. I have heard of a lot of encounters with scuba divers but have so far been unable to find any attacks. The Tiger shark usually spends daylight hours in deep water and comes into shallow areas around reefs and coastline during the night. It has been responsible for a large number of deaths. This includes swimmers, surfers and scuba divers. Many divers swim with these sharks with no problem but a large Tiger shark is more than capable of killing a human. Overall, there are very few fatal attacks on scuba divers. I have not been able to find any over the last twenty years except for one in 1991 and two in 1993. Ironically these were both in the same month. They were all by Great White sharks. According to the book, Shark Attacks by Mac Mc Diarmid, 9 out of 10 shark attacks happen within 1.6 metres of the surface. One third of attacks are fatal. Most victims are male. Although there have been very few fatal attacks on scuba divers, there have been quite a few on spearfisherman and abalone divers. Many of these fatal attacks have occurred in South Australia in areas well known for Great Whites. Abalone divers nearly always work in areas where seals are present and the water is cool. This is ideal for attracting the Great White. Add to this the fact that they spend an enormous time in the water and it is a recipe for disaster. It was noticed in California USA, that Abalone divers were only attacked north of Point Conception. It was later discovered that the law in North California did not allow abalone divers to use scuba equipment, which meant they spent much more time at the surface. In southern California scuba was permitted! Spearfishing has two major... ... with captive dolphins. The dolphins were bottlenose dolphins--there were 5 in the pod, one of which was a calf. So it could be a female pod. When the three people went into the water, they swam with the dolphins without fins or masks--so they were not as agile underwater as they could have been, nor as equipped as many people are when they are swimming with captive or solitary dolphins. Martin was left alone in the water (his choice). The dolphins initially disappeared on him. Martin saw the shark attack him from the depths. He said he was bitten four times. In one of the attacks, Martin said that he punched the shark on the snout. We do not yet know the species of the shark. The doctors in the Egyptian hospital in El Tur said that it was only one shark and by the size of the bite marks, they believe it was between 4-5 meters (we are looking for someone who is a professional to help identify the species from the bite wounds). It was the dolphins' choice to return and to help Martin. They were not close to him at the time of the attack. They probably took some risk to do this, as there was a calf in their pod. They were not fed by the boat. Thank you for reading my paper.