advice that might help - if you meet a shark ... ( from the guardian a few years back .... )
• If you are in the water, remain calm. You cannot outrun a shark and sharks can sense fear
• Keep your eye on the shark at all times. Sharks may retreat temporarily and then try to sneak up on you
• If you can't get out of the water right away, try to reduce the shark's possible angles of attack
• Fight. Playing dead doesn't work. A hard blow to the shark's gills, eyes, or, as a last resort, to the tip of its nose will cause the shark to retreat. If a shark continues to attack, or if it has you in its mouth, hit these areas repeatedly with hard jabs, and claw at the eyes and gills
• If you are near shore, swim quickly, but smoothly. Thrashing will attract the shark's attention
• Sharks have difficulty biting things that are vertical (their nose gets in the way) so avoid leaving your hands and feet loose or going horizontal to swim away from the shark
• Sharks can't breathe out of water, so, if possible, hold the bitten part of your body out of the water, and get their gills into the air and they will let go of you
• Sharks tend to thrash prey around to tear chunks out of it, so you should latch on to the shark
• Repress the urge to scream. Screaming will not deter the shark much and may provoke it further.
If I get into this situation I will follow this exactly EXCEPT for your first point:
• If you are in the water, remain calm. You cannot outrun a shark and sharks can sense fear
I live in a mountain plateau where we regularly encounter bears while out walking our dog.
My wife says you can't outrun a bear either so just stay put. I tell her "I don't need to outrun the bear. I just need to outrun you."
Same with that shark. He who swims fastest gets in the boat safe. Other guy... circle of life.
ha! love family guy...
yes I know the statistics - and its probably not going to happen -
but if it does try and remember the above..
remember that some places go decades between between fatal attacks
and then just when you thought it was safe to get back in to the water...
( BTW I am anti shark fin soup etc )
thats the interesting thing about sharks - they have 3 dimensions to swim in..
a bear is constrained by the same terrain as you - so yes out running your wife is a good tactic.. ( unless of course she survives in which case she may get a bit huffy.... )
a shark attacking a seal colony picks one member as prey, and will chase just that member...
so if your card is marked it may swim under your wife to circle around to get you....
Last edited by audiot; 23-10-2011 at 12:20 PM. Reason: caveat on wife..
incidentally I was talking to a life guard recently - I asked him if had seen any sharks recently..
he said he saw 3 last month,
I thought they had to report these things -
his reply was - oh they weren't dangerous ones and anyways if I report it I will have a lot of forms to fill out.........
In Australia, they've been breeding like mad after decades of being close to extinct. My dad said (he was in the local volunteer lifesaving club as were many of his friends) that most of the sharks trapped in the beach nets (which only go about 2m down) are caught whilst swimming out