Death By Mistaken Identity

[John L]

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This is obviously a case of "Death by Mistaken Identity": Surfer Dies in Shark Attack Off Surf Beach in Santa Barbara County. I'm still trying to see why so many 'so called' experts are saying they fail to understand shark behaviour here. I've seen several logical explanations, that when a human is riding a surfboard and paddling along, the surfer looks like a seal moving along the surface.

And knowing that sharks are a bit myopic and just happen to love eating seals(lots of fat), this does not seem to be hard to understand. At least to me anyway. Great Whites are notorious for biting seals, letting them bleed out, and then eating them after they die. And this appears to be exactly what this shark did.

Am I missing something?

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Pretty simple. If there are sharks, stay out of the water. Sea monsters win all the time. No one needs to figure out any mystery here. Unless the guy had too much curry the night before and the shark found him too yucky to eat?

[Rhubarb]

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Agree with TK

When we went to Noosa Head in Queensland with my husbands nephews (aged 8 and 2) they laughed at me when I said I was going rock-pooling with Darcy (the 2 year old) because I didn't want to be a sharks dinner.

4 days later we were packing for the 2 day drive to Sydney and we heard on the news at woman had been 'eaten' off a jetty.....at Noosa Head!

[LKTraz]

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Considering that he was on a surfboard and about 100 yards out it was very likely a Great White. Expert schmexpert.....it's fairly easy to figure out by looking at the spread and arc of the bite marks.

Although Great Whites are much more common a bit farther north near the Farallon Islands close to San Francisco, there's no reason to discount the species from being the likely culprit 250 or so miles to the south.

Bull sharks generally come in closer to shore to waters 3 - 10 feet deep to hunt and have a much smaller mouth spread. Tiger sharks have a narrower jaw spread and don't have the appetite for seals that whites do. These 3 species are responsible for the majority of bites to humans.

Given the circumstances it seems to be a white taking an intended injury bite of what it thought was a seal.

[John L]

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http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?a..._id=160530

Given the circumstances it seems to be a white taking an intended injury bite of what it thought was a seal.

I totally agree. And like you state above, great whites intend to bite the victim and then wait until it bleeds out. My guess is that the shark took one bite, said "YUCK" and left the scene. Great Whites love seal fat, because it is a very efficient means of energy in cold environments. Humans are skinny by comparison, and just don't taste good.

I'll bet you there is not a great white anywhere that really wants to eat a human. They just mistake them for other critters.

[LKTraz]

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As far as eating humans, Tiger sharks are the ones that really don't care what something tastes like. If it's meat, they eat. That's not saying they don't have favored prey, just that they aren't at all picky.

I like fishing for shark (catch and release sport fishing) and so have educated myself about a broad range of species. The more you know about what you're fishing for, the better chances you have of catching them!

Along the way I've learned a good deal about many varieties of shark. Great Whites have been given a bad rap. For the most part they try to avoid contact with humans. Tigers and Bulls are the aggressive ones and heaven forbid if you get between a Mako and a school of Tuna! White tip reef sharks can have quite a nasty disposition too.

For all the scary looks of a hammerhead it turns out that they are real pussies.

For what it's worth, people should be more wary of Barracudas than sharks.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Sea monsters, all of them.

Just stay out of the freakin' water. We are not fish. Get a pool.