Ouch...

That confirms it....my next hobby will be skydiving....not surfing :shock:

Karl

Well heck, they were basically towing him behind the boat like a Fallows seal decoy - what would you expect to happen? Nonetheless, poor guy.

Cheers

James

At a beach where there hadn't been a shark-related death in 14 years the men expected nothing to happen despite any resemblance to a shark decoy. It's not like they were at Shark Bay in South AFrica....

did anyone notice the sidebar link "Dolphins prevent NZ shark attack"?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4034383.stm A pod of dolphins protected 4 swimmers from a shark by herding them together & swimming in tight circles around the people. So Karl, you can go back into the water - just make sure you're near a pod of dolphins at all times!

Leslie

the conclusions from the two stories:

- Its better to be in the water then above them.

- Its safer to swim (and dive in hour case) near dolphins.

- In any case, be sure to take your camera with you, so we'll have good shots of eating sharks / friendly dolphins (delete the irrelevant).

2 shark deaths in one week - it's enough to make you a bit paranoid about getting in to Australian waters!

A couple of points:

Spearfishing is always going to be a good way of getting eaten by sharks (like the first fellow), you're diving with a couple of dead,bleeding fish attached to you. When tow surfing you don't expect to be munched.

The surfer's family have resisted calls for the offending shark to be killed. That's very noble, and entirely correct.However, before diving yesterday I left clear instructions with my family that if I'm taken by a shark I want it hunted down and slaughtered!

Does diving/surfing/swimming with dolphins keeps you safe? The last West Autralian shark fatality was notable in that the guys had been surfing with dolphins just before the surfer got eaten. When I used to surf, we always used to go with the dolphins=safe from sharks theory, but I've never been entirely convinced - they both potentially feed on the same fish, don't they?

So remember, when next weeks headline is "Another Aussie Diver Eaten by Sharks" and they're going on about how I would have wanted the noble shark who ate me to remain free and live a long and happy life, it's up to Wetpixel to set them straight, OK?