I received a lot of positive feedback and interest in my “how to handle a shark attack” blog. Since the last blog, there were two minor shark attacks just last week alone (including a lifeguard who was in the middle of shark attack training!), around the Jones Beach/Fire Island area in Long Island, NY. This area never used to have shark issues.
Fortunately, they were minor bites from smaller sharks such as the sand tiger and black tip and were easily treated. Humans are not on the shark menu and many attacks occur because someone is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and either was attacked because of mistaken identity or because someone inadvertently inserted themselves in between the shark and its real target.
One other reason is that as more species (including sharks) are classified as protected or endangered, the shark population explodes and makes it more likely for humans and sharks to have an encounter. A perfect example is in Cape Cod, Massachusetts where in 1972 seals were placed on the endangered species list and have reached massive numbers. The only problem is seals are preferred prey by great white sharks, so where the prey goes, the predator follows.
My initial blog covered steps to take in avoiding contact with sharks. I wanted to add some history and cool facts.
One of the most successful ways to get attacked by a shark is to engage in risky behavior. I am referring to such things as shark feeding expeditions where you sit at the bottom of the ocean with a large bucket or bag of bait to hand feed sharks. Sharks are wild animals and like all wild animals are unpredictable. The areas of these shark feeding expeditions have sharks that are accustomed to humans as they have lost that natural fear which prevents them from crossing paths with humans.
Spearfishing is another great way to attract unwanted attention from a predator. The speared fish is thrashing about and bleeding. In the first blog, I noted sharks use sight, smell and detection of low frequency vibrations which are the exact sounds struggling pray make. So now you have a thrashing and bloody fish leaving a major scent trail which you are reeling towards you. A shark’s sense of smell can detect one part per 10 billion which is akin to one drop of blood in an Olympic swimming pool. Thus, do not enter the water while bleeding.
The third interesting way to become an appetizer is jumping into a cage which is lowered into water which has been chummed with blood and fish guts. This is done with great whites which are the most dangerous shark. Many of these cages have large spaces in between the bars of the cage to “enhance observation.” Every so often a great white enters the cage through the space and now you have a 15 foot, several thousand-pound eating machine who is claustrophobic and none too happy about being trapped in intimate proximity to a human in a wet suit resembling a seal. Personally, if I were ever to get into a shark cage, I would demand the bars be close enough that a fart bubble could not penetrate. I would also balk at these “lightest cages” made from aluminum or some other light and weak alloy. I would use the strongest material around (like high density good ole double reinforced stainless steel) that could withstand an atomic blast.
Finally, on snorkeling and scuba diving trips, certain sharks that are thought of or look like to be “docile” such as the nurse shark, are sometimes “petted.” I was on a snorkeling trip once and the guide went down and grabbed a resting nurse shark by the tail. Although nothing happened, I made sure to count how many limbs, toes and fingers the guide had when we got out of the water. Many times, given they have a cartilage skeleton, sharks can bend back over themselves and bite you. They are quite “bendy.”
As a class A award for poor judgement, I was watching a nature show where a tour guide took a bunch of people in an inflatable motorboat into the largest lair of great whites in South Africa. It did not take a marine biologist to figure out how this would end. Now, great whites and other sharks are known to attack the propellers and sides of ships many times their size. Within no time, a few very happily surprised great whites attacked the sides of the inflatable which began to sink. Fortunately, the ship limped safely back to shore, and nobody was injured. Amazingly, a few of the tourists were still filming in fascination which baffled me. Most individuals would be screaming in panic looking for weapons or the weakest individual to throw overboard to distract them. Now that is natural selection in action right there.
I am not judging those who do these activities (except maybe the last one), but they are very successful ways to end up as an unwilling snack. Activities like this are called “provoked attacks” while the typical sand tiger shark bite at Jones beach is “unprovoked” as someone likely was swimming in murky water and the shark just made a mistake thinking a foot was a fish.
The top four most dangerous sharks are the great white (most prominent in South Africa, Australia, California and Cape Cod among others), the tiger shark (in tropical and sub-tropical waters such as the Bahamas, Florida, U.S. gulf coast, central America and south pacific among others), the bull shark (tropical and sub-tropical waters) and the oceanic whitetip (typically found in deep water way out at sea). The oceanic whitetips are also called “shipwreck sharks” as since WWII, sailors from sinking ships or pilots who made a “water landing”, (nice way to say crashed into the ocean), were attacked by oceanic whitetips. In fact, they are typically credited with more fatal attacks than any other shark including the great white. The sharks that cause minor bites are usually the sand tiger, nurse shark, lemon shark and black tips.
Since this blog is for education, I figured I would tell you a bit of information to protect you and your friends and family. One other thing I recommend if you go into the ocean is to wear water shoes with a thick sole. Unfortunately, there can be sharp rocks, glass, needles, sea urchins, etc. and the shoes can protect your feet. Also, when walking in the ocean, shuffle your feet as sting rays like to chill out in the shallow sand of the beach and you do not want to step on one of those. Shuffling serves to give them a “heads up” so they move before you step on them.
I have had patients who were attacked by sharks in the past but have never seen an acute injury. I have seen missing digits, bite marks and missing chunks of body that were healed over. However, one of my more unique cases involved a patient that was impaled by a stingray on a “feeding and petting” expedition. This individual had an enormous hole in the leg which became a wound care issue. It had narrowly missed the artery which likely could have been fatal. The rays do have venom on their spines which make the wound difficult to heal and causes excruciating pain. They are also barbed so you don’t want to try and rip them out. Get the person to a hospital and the surgeons will remove it. The late and great conservationist Steve Irwin, nicknamed the Crocodile Hunter, was killed when a stingray barb pierced his heart. He has been sorely missed as he truly made a difference in educating the world about conservation.
In summary, although rare, we will likely see more shark attacks in the future because of conservation efforts and laws to protect sharks and their prey. Add to that an increase in population with more people being in the ocean and you will see and hear about more encounters.
