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shark attack prevention?

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prayfawind27
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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby prayfawind27 » Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:03 am

i don't think there's anything you can do to prevent a shark attack other than stay out of the water, My condolences for the family and friends of the rider, it's a crazy story one that i still find hard to believe, personally! i would never kite in FL, i watch there news and see 2 hundred million sharks :D swimming a few yards away from the beach(where ever they are going) i would never kite there, don't care how sweet the swells and wind is.Balls of steel to all the FL riders

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby RickI » Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:31 am

Bad news, NP is sharky as all get outs as are the rest of the family islands it seems. Talk to AJ, he loves sharks. Good news is, they usually leave you alone while you're up and planning. In the water, maybe different story at times. Aside from seasonal migrations, SE Florida sees few free swimming sharks in normal kiting areas. The same thing applies, they usually leave you alone outside of migrations.

An easy way to substantially reduce the odds of a negative shark encounter is to stay out of massive shark and bait migrations, fish kicking up on the surface, feeding sea birds, etc.. There are still other things you can do. Dusting off and updating an old guide now and will post the ideas for consideration.

Just like with weather hazards, if you use your head, you can reduce the odds of problems appreciably. What hurts more, using your head or shark (or hazardous weather) bite?

At the same time, there is a culture in parts of Florida, likely grown out of decades of surfing, where they ignore sharks, a lot. The even ignore surfers being bitten by sharks and still go surfing with sharks routinely. This is more along the central east coast of the state.

Gadgets are great, if they work, using your head is even better unless you are intentionally going into a hazardous shark situation. I was going to chum up a good sized feeding behavior of sharks in the Graveyard off Cat Cay decades back. A French man (lunatic) had an electronic shark repellent device he was going to swim into the school with. I was going to capture this magical, unreliable device (it was species specific) in action with a bunch of bulls, hammers, reef sharks, whatever came up on 'cine underwater. I decided there wasn't enough money in the deal to justify the risk and so passed. Would have been interesting shoot though.

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby MissionMan » Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:24 am

You have more chance of being struck by lightening. I wouldn't be concerned.

Just don't go into the water when you have hundreds of sharks like they did in this case.

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby Toby » Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:34 am

MissionMan wrote:Just don't go into the water when you have hundreds of sharks like they did in this case.
how would you know that they are out there?


frankm1960: absoultely right...I thought the same about the lifeguards brave...he just paddled out there looking like a seal...that guy is a hero, just a shame he did it in vain.
Any interviews with that guy on the net?

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby BBQFish » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:25 am

So what does that say when the sharks don't attack the kiter anymore when he's bleeding laying on a surfboard...but did attack him when he was in the water/ or surfing?
Seems to me like odd behaviour.
When the sharks would've been in a frenzy, they for sure would've attacked the lifeguard as well soon as he got to the victim.
And for sure when he was trying to get the hell out of there.

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby FabsPH » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:40 am

There is nothing you can do. When your time is up, it's up. That's it.
All I can hope for is, when a shark takes me, he eats me or at least shares my left overs with all other reef fishies.
From dust to dust, right?!

I rather go the way he did then die in a car crash . I am sure he did not want to go at the time, but he went the natures way. Nature is what he loved, so...

RIP, see you soon (enough)

Aloha

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby judge » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:53 am

Cover your self in Marmite!

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby MissionMan » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:31 pm

Toby wrote:
how would you know that they are out there?
Quite a few reports said the beaches were closed for swimming because of the amount of sharks.

We had the same issue in South Africa, they had sardine runs and there were a massive amount of sharks gorging themselves on the sardines so they closed the beaches. If you go out in those conditions (a number of surfers did), then you're increasing the risk.

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby Gster » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:08 pm

The Lifeguard HIMSELF was a shark attack victim some 20yrs ago!
The guy is a hero and has VERY big bollocks to go back into a danger situation.

I am sure Steve's family will get autopsy information about which sharks attacked, but I would assume that Steve might well have been in the wrong place and the wrong time and maybe the victim of a feeding frenzy?
I suppose if one fish had a bite, others would then follow and if he was injured, I suspect things turned really ugly very quickly.

Maybe he had a problem with his body (muscle tear / cramp / asthma / heart etc.) and needed to stop?

Potentially he could have lost the wind in a lull and his kite went down?

Even worse and more disturbing, maybe his line(s) broke and had a serious 'on the water' kite issue, did a water pack down and was in the wrong place at the wrong time in a shoal of shark.......if so, he was very unlucky indeed.

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Re: shark attack prevention?

Postby MissionMan » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:12 pm

Gster wrote:The Lifeguard HIMSELF was a shark attack victim some 20yrs ago!
The guy is a hero and has VERY big bollocks to go back into a danger situation.

I am sure Steve's family will get autopsy information about which sharks attacked, but I would assume that Steve might well have been in the wrong place and the wrong time and maybe the victim of a feeding frenzy?
I suppose if one fish had a bite, others would then follow and if he was injured, I suspect things turned really ugly very quickly.

Maybe he had a problem with his body (muscle tear / cramp / asthma / heart etc.) and needed to stop?

Potentially he could have lost the wind in a lull and his kite went down?

Even worse and more disturbing, maybe his line(s) broke and had a serious 'on the water' kite issue, did a water pack down and was in the wrong place at the wrong time in a shoal of shark.......if so, he was very unlucky indeed.
Irrespective of the sharky conditions, it was pretty damn unlucky and definitely wrong place, wrong time.

I also agree about the life guard. Full credit to him for going out knowing full well what was coming. He had to know there were sharks out there and as a victim of a shark attack himself, it must have taken balls of steel to get into the water.


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