Shark Stories
Thanks for vote of confidence but no extra financial input required-its part of my job remit,
Just takes a lot of time to trawl through scientific papers making detailed notes and cross referencing as you go and calibrating with other data sets.
It's not any original science, just lay meta-analysis of existing research.
Some of the science involved here is very fluffy and verging on advocacy imo.
Science (should) proceed via falsifiable theories and hypotheses. If reality contradicts your theory or hypothesis you discard or modify it.
Europeans thought swans were white.
The first black swan observed - just a single black swan- meant that theory was now falsified and had to be discarded.
Despite millions of observations of white swans- a single black swan, falsified the assertion that swans were white.
Thats how science should work. Empirical data which contradicts your theory requires the theory to be discarded or modified.
Theories which have poor predictive power also should be modified or discarded.
Even today, it's continually asserted that white shark attacks are mistaken identity, humans are subject to only investigative bites and then spat out.
Just the most basic perusal of recent and historic attacks shows a high proportion of white shark attacks where there is full or partial consumption of the victim, with no body recovered.
These are not bite and spit or investigative bites.
A four fold increase in attacks since 2000, focussed on Northern NSW, also requires explanation which is not served by existing theories.
Look, I'm not a disinterested observer either. Motivated reasoning is a bitch. You look for evidence which fits your views/theories and discard the rest.
My community has been heavily affected, so I have to be extra careful about cherry picking data and neglecting contradictory information.
Looking forward to it FR. You're the man for the job
A few interesting stories on shark attacks and near misses on the Shark Shield report so I thought I would start this thread. Don't want to trivialize the subject as people have had their lives taken or changed forever by what can happen. I thought it might serve as an educational purpose by hearing others experiences so we may all learn from them and hopefully avoid it happening to us.
One of them was a mate of mine named Hazey.
He had been surfing at Castles, a notoriously sharky wave in the bay at Cactus.
Several hundred metres offshore the wave breaks before reforming into Inside Castles making a long left with several sections. The wave has been the scene of several attacks and near misses over the years including the local known as "Sharkbait" who had been attacked more than once.
Gerry Lopez is another who came very close to being attacked out there and vowed to never surf Cactus again after his near miss.
Well Hazey was surfing out the back with another bloke named Steve when out of the blue he was launched into the air still on his board by a huge force from below.
A shark had rammed him with a direct hit straight up into the air! In a moment it was gone but soon returned to the stunned Hazey and started biting him and his board. Hazey instinctively put his arms out to protect himself but both his arms ended up in its mouth. As the jaws closed down his arms could have easily been severed, but several teeth on the sharks lower jaw had become dislodged and imbedded in the board leaving his upper arms with massive injuries, but the vital inner arms where major arteries run were not majorly damaged. This probably saved his life.
By this time Steve had reacted and in a rush of adrenalin and pure ballsy courage he threw himself onto the sharks back and started gouging at the sharks eyeballs, eventually feeling one pop and the shark departed.
Steve got the two surfboards together and got himself and Hazey on and started the long paddle to shore.
Then they were both thrown into the air as the shark rammed them a third time before disappearing again. They continued to make their way closer to shore and the shark nudged them again. Steve told me he thought he really must of pissed it off when he popped its eye.
Finally they we're just a metre from shore when the shark made its fifth and final appearance. It beelined towards them and the shore while they stood in waist deep water with their boards. The sharks mouth was just rapidly opening and closing like one of those wind up sets of false teeth. The boys separated and put their hands on either side of it's body and held it on a 90 degree angle to the beach as they made the final steps to the safety of the sand.
Hazey was rushed to Ceduna hospital and then flown to Adelaide for micro surgery on his shredded arms.
Steve ended up receiving a bravery award and they both sold their story to 60 minutes and made $50,000 each out of it!
It was quite a story!