Sharks | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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Sharks

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
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Melbourne
yeah, the Jaws myth of the malevolent shark consciously stalking humans in a particular area continues.
Jaws was based on a real-life spate of deaths thought by some to have been the work of a single shark. But yes, rogue shark theory continues to live on, even if it is no longer considered mainstream.

Fingerprinting Shark Bites Could Help Save Lives - On Both Sides


Could bite-printing help identify sharks that attack people?

That's the claim of a French professor of marine biology, matching the mouths of sharks to attack victims, much in the same way as fingerprinting or DNA.

Dr Eric Clua asserts that for too long, when there has been a shark attack, that it has been open season on all sharks and that any and many in the water are destroyed as a result. Instead, those seeking justice should be searching for the individual 'problem shark' and not the whole species in that vicinity.

He's set to publish his research soon and says it will prove that such 'problem sharks' can exist in bull and tiger shark species, two species credited with the most number of attacks on humans, save for the great white. He accepts that such claims sit on the very edge of accepted science in marine biology.

The idea is that once there is a database of biteprints, DNA would be collected from people bitten by sharks, and hopefully matches to a shark on the list. That shark could then be found and eliminated, no longer posing a problem for people, or giving sharks a bad name.

This singling out individual sharks for attacks sounds little different to the long discounted 'rogue' theory, that Hooper adheres to in Jaws. In fact it is a concept that can be traced back to the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, the first recorded shark attacks in US history.

Experts have long since agreed that theory is more flaws than Jaws. Several aren't convinced by Dr Clua's claims either.

Christopher Pepin-Neff, a public policy lecturer at the University of Sydney who has studied human perceptions of sharks, said:
“They are basically saying that the shark from ‘Jaws’ is real."

Whilst Blake Chapman, who studied shark neuroscience at the University of Queensland in Australia and wrote a book on human-shark conflict, told the New York Times that removing these guilty sharks “would be near impossible.”
“I don’t think that the removal of ‘problem individuals’ as a result of this information is a realistic application for the data,” she said. Chapman added the idea of 'problem sharks' had yet to be proven.

However, in a tweet last year, Dr Clua wrote: An upcoming paper will demonstrate that problem individuals exist among large shark species such as Oceanic whitetip and tiger sharks. So be patient. And I should point out that our hypothesis has nothing to do with the 'rogue' shark stuff, much less 'Jaws’ (Clua & Linnell 2019).

Next, Dr Clua hopes to pitch his DNA database to Réunion Island, in the Indian Ocean, a place where several people have been killed by sharks during the last 10 years. It's here he hopes he can prove that the bite-printing project can be a success, for both humans...and sharks.
 

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
11,546
Melbourne

Family say medical episode was responsible for Duncan Craw’s tragic death (paywalled)​


A Victorian man initially feared to have been killed by a shark while snorkelling in South Australia most likely suffered a fatal medical episode.

The family of Warrnambool dad Duncan Craw, 32, released a statement saying he “passed away peacefully in the water” after his remains were located in the water near Port MacDonnell on Tuesday.

“We will be bringing Duncan home to Warrnambool,” the statement read.

“It brings us comfort to know that he would have passed away peacefully in the water.

“While we may never know for sure, based on the evidence we do have, we now believe it is most likely Duncan suffered a medical episode long before the arrival of the shark.”

Mr Craw’s heartbroken family said the tragedy will not keep them from enjoying the ocean in future.

“We want everyone to know that the ocean is still a place of peace and beauty for us,” the statement read.

“We will keep enjoying the outdoors, remembering Duncan as we do so.”
 

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
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Melbourne
^^ The above is the kind of case that Vic Hislop alleges is ascribed officially to other causes in order to conceal the extent of the shark problem.

GREAT WHITE SHARKS ROAM THE WORLD - HAVE HUMANS JOINED THEIR FOOD CHAIN?

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – The worlds greatest shark hunter says swimmers are being devoured by Great White Sharks all over the world because humans are joining the ocean killer’s food chain.

More than one half a million people drown around the world each year. Many of their bodies are not recovered.

Vic Hislop, 60, who has hunted and slain thousands of sharks in his forty year career believes thousands of missing drowning victims actually die of shark attacks.

Many people who drown disappear off Australia's 9000 sandy beaches and he accuses its government of covering up the attacks to protect tourism.

Hislop became world famous in 1985 when he caught the biggest shark recorded, a twenty-one foot, eight inch long Great White weighing over five thousand pounds. The historic photograph of Hislop and his bloodied shark drove thousands of swimmers out of the water.

An expert on shark behavior, Hislop says, “At least a hundred swimmers disappear every year here and their bodies are never found. Many have been eaten. I’ve often caught sharks and removed human hands and feet from their stomachs. I even found a human foot still in its sandal.”

The government of Australia lists Great White Sharks as a protected species and its new laws have effectively put shark hunters like Vic Hislop out of business. Killers of sharks face up to two years in prison and the equivalent of a US $48 thousand dollar fine.

Australian records list 88 tourists from 12 countries drowned in Australia between 1992 and 1997. Thirty-eight of these tourists came from Europe, including 15 from the UK and 10 from Germany; 35 were from Asia including 17 from Japan while 7 were Americans.

Hislop maintains many of the missing did not drown but were devoured by Great Whites and other sharks.

“Every now and then a human washes up bitten in half,” he says. “But the Australian government refuses to tie them to the disappearances. When you add up the numbers it’s not hard to see what’s happening.”

Vic Hislop made a career of hunting down sharks that had become man-eaters, but now that Great White Sharks are protected, he says there is nothing to stop them from feeding on humans.

Hislop explains that from the time they are little sharks spend their entire life looking for other animals in trouble. “They’ll follow the blood scent and vibrations from an injured whale along currents until they find the source and rip the whale apart. That’s how sharks live.”

When people put down shark cages for their thrill-seeking clients some of the burley (blood and cut up fish bait and meat) travels up to 40 kilometers away, say Hislop. “These people would like you to think they are conservationists because they don’t kill sharks – but they are using thousands of edible fish as shark bait.”

He adds, “Sharks pick up the scent, become aroused and are ready to eat by the time they reach the cage containing a human. If the cages were not strongly made, or fell off to the bottom, those stupid people would be goners in seconds. Meanwhile the sharks are not killed after the event. They are simply being trained to hunt humans.”

People do not realize how often big sharks go past them while they are swimming. “There are monsters out there. I’ve caught Great White Sharks over 20 feet long and they have bite marks on them that make them look like babies – the shark that bit them was probably 35 foot long and weighing eight or nine tons.”

In warm areas like Florida thousands of sharks line up along beaches not far from swimmers. They are simply feeding on small fish and not interested in anything else. If somebody swam into those sharks they’d be safe, says the shark hunter. There are 350 species of sharks, but only four are dangerous: the Great White, Hammer Head, Tiger and Bull shark.

In 1937 the Australian government set out its first shark nets along the coasts after fatal shark attacks rose to record numbers in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

In the past 40 years there has only been one officially recorded fatal shark attack at the 134 beaches protected by shark nets. Yet there have been 15 deaths in South Australia, 12 in Western Australia, and 7 in Victoria — all states that lack shark nets along their beaches.

“But it’s just a false sense of security for tourism,” says Hislop. “The nets are way out and they don’t even go all the way to the bottom. And they’re staggered, you might have two kilometers of beach where people swim and the net will only be 150 meters long.”

Hislop claims that the nets are also full of holes. “Every two weeks government repair boats pull the nets in with holes in them that you could drive a train through. Those holes are made by Great Whites that have learned to feed off dolphins and sting-rays trapped in the nets.” Dangerous sharks may actually be attracted closer to swimmers by the very nets meant to keep sharks away.

Sharks are near most ocean access countries. Hislop says big sharks swim in cold waters off New York all the time and also on the northwest coast of America. They travel about 40 miles each day and are in most oceans of the world, preferring cold water.

He says the movie Jaws is supposed to have resulted in thousands of sharks being killed “but that is not true. The author of Jaws must have done a lot of research. Because that is how sharks work.

“The only thing that saves people from being attacked is what I call Shark hesitation. We are not natural to sharks – we are still foreign at this stage. But once they attack people in cages their hesitation is gone. They are using thousands of sharks now world-wide to do this.”

He explains, “They are putting chain-mail armored tourists down in big pools filled with sharks. That’s all right because those sharks are prisoners. But if they are ever set free they will become a menace.”

Sharks are perfect killers. They grab, rip and then swim in a big circle and wait for their prey to bleed out. They tear baby dolphins off their mothers and eat them while they are being born.

Even a dead shark can be dangerous. “If you put your hand in their mouth or touch their throat they can still snap. It’s a nerve reaction. Their brain is only as big as one half of one of their eyes. They don’t have a nervous system as we know it. Everything they do is by instinct.”

In recent years people have been attacked in front of dozens of witnesses. “It’s highly unusual,” said John West, curator of the Australian Shark Attack File. “I can’t recall anything like this ever happening before.”

Hislop blames killer sharks coming inshore on commercial fishing. “We’ve thinned out fish all over the world using nets. When fishermen take in 5000 tuna they are seriously depleting the ocean of shark food."

Hislop blames commercial film makers in Australia with teaching sharks to eat humans. He says commercial film-makers have tried for years to get footage of Great White Sharks by filling wet suits full of fish and nailing them to surf-boards so sharks would attack them on camera.. They also film Great Whites trying to get at people in shark cages”

“These people should be in jail, make no mistake,” says Hislop. “They are training sharks to eat people.”

There is a growing crusade around the world to protect sharks. One advocate is University of Miami Marine Biology Professor Dr. Samuel Gruber who says, “For every fatal human shark attack one million sharks world-wide die in the following hysteria.”

Hislop says, "In Florida, until they stopped it, they took people down to feed sharks just for thrills. Now those big sharks are waiting, expecting people to feed them.

"You feed them out on a reef and then one day you go out with your kids to do some spear fishing or take photos and those sharks show up expecting to get fed. Its shark and human interaction that we don’t need."

Hislop claims the sharks have been protected for all the wrong reasons. “Dolphins, sea turtles and millions of creatures out there that we love need our protection. But Great White Sharks need no protection. They are at the top of the food chain. They can live to be one hundred years old and eat a few dolphins and sea turtles every week. “If a conservationist killed just one Great White Shark and then retired, he would do more good for dolphins and sea turtles than he could have done in his entire career.”

The shark hunter says there is so much fear about sharks that the few people who survive attacks try to act brave when they are interviewed. “They will say they faced the shark and punched it in the eye making it retreat.

“Don’t ever believe you can defend yourself in a shark attack. When a shark grabs you its force and power is out of this world. Your body shuts down. It’s like a bull dozer running over you.

“You punch a shark in the head and your bones will be showing on your knuckles. That is how rough the shark’s skin is – it’s the roughest sand-paper anyone has ever seen.”

He admits, “It’s true big sharks have only one vulnerable spot – their eye. But they have a big thick nictitating membrane that covers it. Call it a third eyelid. That membrane is tougher than their skin and a person could not even stick a knife in it.”

The shark hunter says there is a pattern in Australia to cover up shark attacks.

“After a shark attack a squad goes to victims’ families before they talk to the news media. They say you need counseling because you’ve just seen your husband killed by a shark. They brain wash you in your weak moment. They say your husband died a hero and would not want his death to cause the wiping out of this endangered species.

“And those people go on TV and say that it wasn’t the sharks fault, my husband wouldn’t blame the shark,” says Hislop. “You ask the husband while the shark’s got a hold of him around the waist taking his life away and you’d see what he says about the shark!”

And what about the families whose loved ones are never seen again?

”It’s very hard. For them there is no closure. No body is ever found. They are doing it all wrong. Shark Hunters should be on the scene immediately,” says Hislop.

“I was called into Hong Kong,” he recalls. “Every year the same shark would kill a few people at one beach one day, then the next day he’d take a few at the next beach, then the next beach.

"The same shark killed 23 people in one year until it vanished into the waters off mainland China. We never caught him. He's still out there somewhere.

“Once a shark has tasted humans he will attack over and over again. A shark has a very small brain but he never forgets."

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/foru...m4n64cur4g&topic=271681.msg8282891#msg8282891
 

tigerdell

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Mar 29, 2014
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Humanity is doing a great job of eradicating sharks and rays from the world's oceans. We know removing predators from ecosystemsusually has devastating effects.
Dont worry we are also doing a top job removing all the fish food for the sharks.
Soon all that will be left will be dolphins
 
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kyuss

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May 13, 2012
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LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
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A 20yo woman disappeared while snorkelling near the pier at Altona yesterday. Water conditions were murky after Friday's rain. Shark attack not yet mentioned as a possibility.

38662954-9204239-image-a-1_1611994527505.jpg
 

AngryAnt

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Nov 25, 2004
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I read a book by her and her husband, and they killed an extroadinary amount of sharks with powerheads while shooting under water footage. They spoke about it like it was nothing.

Didn't know that. Of course, people can change.

Microplastics, pollution and drastic overfishing are huge problems and the staggering figures around decline of shark populations are only one indicator. Humans have eradicating life in the world's oceans for decades and we need to face up to this.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ut-more-protection?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
 
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AngryAnt

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Nov 25, 2004
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Looks like a drowning to me, the last recorded shark attack death in the Bay was 1936 or thereabouts.


Another man drowned in the Murray last week, might be hard to pin that one on the sharks.
 
Last edited:

DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
10,523
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Looks like a drowning to me, the last recorded shark attack death in the Bay was 1936 or thereabouts.


Another man drowned in the Murray last week, might be hard to pin that one on the sharks.

Don't worry, I'm sure Lee will try and pin it on the lefty sharks.

DS
 

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
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Melbourne
Another man drowned in the Murray last week, might be hard to pin that one on the sharks.
Don't worry, I'm sure Lee will try and pin it on the lefty sharks.
A police dive team has searched for two days and nada. You would expect a drowning victim to wash up somewhere within the confines of the bay. Not saying it's likely but without a body, it will enter into discussions.

Apparently the water is shallow out to a rocky section at about 400m, then the bottom falls away where the bay was dredged for shipping. Attacks in the bay are rare but at least two victims were taken out to deeper water with no trace found. A 14-15ft great white was photographed off Altona in 2009 and was on the front page of the paper.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
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A police dive team has searched for two days and nada. You would expect a drowning victim to wash up somewhere within the confines of the bay. Not saying it's likely but without a body, it will enter into discussions.

Apparently the water is shallow out to a rocky section at about 400m, then the bottom falls away where the bay was dredged for shipping. Attacks in the bay are rare but at least two victims were taken out to deeper water with no trace found. A 14-15ft great white was photographed off Altona in 2009 and was on the front page of the paper.

Sure, the fact of there being around 50 deaths by shark a year globally but 320,000 by drowning is inconvenient, so let's pretend most of those are shark deaths. No evidence? No worries.
 

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
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Melbourne
Sure, the fact of there being around 50 deaths by shark a year globally but 320,000 by drowning is inconvenient, so let's pretend most of those are shark deaths. No evidence? No worries.
Not saying it's likely but without a body, it will enter into discussions.
Why don't you respond to the comment and stop being deliberately obtuse and pissing up my thread?

"[Police] say a shark attack or medical episode are possibilities"

 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
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Why don't you respond to the comment and stop being deliberately obtuse and pissing up my thread?

"[Police] say a shark attack or medical episode are possibilities"

No one owns a thread, regardless of who started one.

You see sharks as a threat to humanity, I'm pointing out the absurdity of that view with evidence and science.
 

LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
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No one owns a thread, regardless of who started one.

You see sharks as a threat to humanity, I'm pointing out the absurdity of that view with evidence and science.
No, you're stinking up the thread with your drowning strawman. Go and start a thread on it, it's a worthy topic.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
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No, you're stinking up the thread with your drowning strawman. Go and start a thread on it, it's a worthy topic.
You literally posted the theory that sharks attacks account for a large number of drowning victims. Now you don't want to discuss it?

And yet you accuse others of being ambiguous and changing their positions.