Woman Killed by Shark, Thought It Was A "Big Fish"

[JoitheArtist]

Um...any death is a tragic thing, but...sometimes people are just asking for it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6417565.ece

"Amr Ali, the president of the Society for the Preservation of the Red Sea Environment, said: 'This very rarely happens. It seems that the victim aggravated the shark or presented it with food, which caused a change in the shark’s behaviour.' ”

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"The French woman, who was in her fifties, jumped into the water for a closer look when she mistook the shark for a big fish approaching her boat"

She didn't mistake anything. A shark is a big fish.


"Amr Ali, the president of the Society for the Preservation of the Red Sea Environment, said: “This very rarely happens."

No shit, most people would have enough sense not to hop out of boat when they see a large wild animal in the water. I mean, think about it, the article says that sharks are common in that area. You see a "large fish" swimming around, I'd think it would behoove you to stay in the boat, just on the chance that it MIGHT be a shark.


"It seems that the victim aggravated the shark or presented it with food, which caused a change in the shark’s behaviour.”

Uh, considering that it fucking ate her, what was the behavioural change? It's a shark!

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

"It seems that the victim aggravated the shark or presented it with food, which caused a change in the shark’s behaviour.”

Uh, considering that it fucking ate her, what was the behavioural change? It's a shark!

Sharks don't normally eat people. They'll take a nibble (which results in a lost limb), and leave.

Shoot, I'd freak out if a wild CHIPMUNK got too close to me, let alone a predator bigger than I am.

[Greenday]

Sharks don't normally eat people. They'll take a nibble (which results in a lost limb), and leave.

Something about us not tasting good. That's why they normally only bite once.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Sharks don't normally eat people. They'll take a nibble (which results in a lost limb), and leave.

.

I know that, and you know that, but that's pretty freaking cold comfort when they're fitting you with a plastic leg. And that's if you're lucky. I mean, what did she think, "Oh, it might take my leg off, but pish posh! What are the odds of me bleeding to death before they get me to a trauma unit?"

It's a shark! It's a fang-filled maw with some fins attached to it so it can swim!

Listen, I realize sharks get bad press, just like snakes do. However, as much as I love snakes and as harmless as the average snake is, I still don't want one draped around my neck unless I know if it's the kind that is gonna kill me or not. Same with the shark.

If jumping into shark filled water when you see a "large fish" and getting chomped to death is not Chuckie Darwin's survival of the fittest at work in the world around us, I don't know what is.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

The shark's process goes something like this:

1) Large moving creature splashes into water nearby causing a significant disturbance

2) Shark INSTANTLY feels threatened

3) Shark's instincts kick in, causing it do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to remove the threat

This wasn't an appetite thing for the Shark, it was about survival.

[Miyon]

I dont think anything in that article really mentions that the shark was eating her. It said she had bite marks on her leg and that she died from blood loss.

If the bite cut thru the major artiery then only one bite would have been enough to kill her.

It is kind of sad to see more people calling her a moron then the fact that she made a mistake (yes a big mistake) and it cost her her life. Its not like the people that climb into polar bear pits at the zoo and get mauled to death. She thought it was a fish.
Feel some pity for her family, man.

[Anthony K. S.]

sharks get bad press

Indeed.

I remember reading, some years ago, about a teenaged boy who had been bitten by a shark, and was rushed to the hospital.

As you might imagine, after the news media reported that story, there was a great deal of fear and concern among residents of that community, both for the boy's well-being and because of the possibility of more dangerous shark attacks in their local waters.


Later on, an Internet blogger remarked that the community's reaction might have been a bit different if they had known a few facts that the news media had NOT mentioned :

The shark in question was a juvenile nurse shark. It was just under two feet long.

And, contrary to what the news reports had implied, the shark did not attack the boy.

It was minding its own business when the boy and one of his friends spotted the shark and decided it would be funny to throw rocks at it.

(Ha ha. Yeah, barrel of laughs.)

As if that wasn't stupid enough, the boy then decided to grab the shark by its tail. It was only then that the shark bit the boy.

It wasn't an attack, it was an instinctive defensive reaction to the boy attacking it.

Most of the news media never bothered to report those details . . . Why let the facts get the way of a good, scary story?

By the way, the boy was treated at the hospital, and got through this ordeal just fine . . . The shark, meanwhile, was killed.

To this day, frankly, I still have more sympathy for the shark than I do for the boy.

If he and his friend had just left the shark alone, nothing would have happened. As far as I'm concerned, everything that happened to him, he brought on himself.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It is kind of sad to see more people calling her a moron then the fact that she made a mistake (yes a big mistake) and it cost her her life. Its not like the people that climb into polar bear pits at the zoo and get mauled to death. .

But they totally do, man!

And check this out, this pathetic bastard was my cousin.

I've worked at a zoo. I've seen some crazy crap in my life. I've seen a guy dangle his toddler over the tiger pit. I wish I were making that up.

I mean, I'm sorry for her, but geeze! People need to exercise a little caution, the world is not one big Disneyland ride.

[AdminAssistant]

I mean, I'm sorry for her, but geeze! People need to exercise a little caution, the world is not one big Disneyland ride.

Exactly, RK. An ex-roomie and I were arguing about this stray dog that she wanted to adopt (never mind that I had clearly stated NO PETS when she moved in). She brought in a stray, straight off the streets, into our apartment, without asking me. Turned out, he had an intestinal parasite, ticks, fleas, and heaven knows what else. I couldn't make her understand that the dog could have been rabid or feral, that the fleas and ticks on the dog could get into our rugs and bedding and then on US, and that said fleas and ticks could contain really lovely illnesses and make US sick. She said I was heartless, I said she wasn't being careful. Then she said, "As I kid, my mom let me go up to strange dogs all the time and pet them or anything I wanted." To which I replied, "As a farm kid, my parents taught me how to treat animals with respect, to stay away from wild ones, to learn visual signs of rabies and other illnesses, and to certainly not bring an animal off the street and into a house without taking it to a vet first." People just think animals are cute fuzzy-wuzzys and don't have necessary respect for the dangers.

[JoitheArtist]

To which I replied, "As a farm kid, my parents taught me how to treat animals with respect, to stay away from wild ones, to learn visual signs of rabies and other illnesses, and to certainly not bring an animal off the street and into a house without taking it to a vet first." People just think animals are cute fuzzy-wuzzys and don't have necessary respect for the dangers.

I think that's what it boils down to. If the woman had already been in the water when the shark showed up, that's just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But to SEE a large animal moving toward you, and jump in the water to "check it out" (which would probably scare away a regular fish anyway) is really really stupid. If you respect that Nature is not a fluffy happy rainbows-and-bunnies place all the time, you will be fine, and be able to enjoy said rainbows and bunnies. If you want to learn to fly, you've got to learn about gravity first--ignoring it won't do you any good.

[One-Fang]

Was she alone on this boat? I mean, wouldn't the other people have been yelling "Hey, that's a shark, get back in the boat"?

I blame the media. People think "sharks" look like Great Whites, and anything else is "just a fish". Some sharks are quite small and bear very little resemblence to the animatronics of Jaws and its sequels.

[MaggieTheCat]

I blame the media. People think "sharks" look like Great Whites, and anything else is "just a fish". Some sharks are quite small and bear very little resemblence to the animatronics of Jaws and its sequels.

That's a good point. At the pet supply store I used to work at, we sold live fish, and one species that I saw a couple of times was a very small shark. It was maybe 2-3 inches long. Obviously something that large couldn't do a lot of damage to a human (although they would bite your finger if you provoke them) but it goes to show that sharks come in different sizes and colors (this one was black with a red tail.) I don't see it mentioned in that article what kind of shark attacked her. Is it possible she had no idea it was a shark, because it didn't look like what everyone thinks sharks look like?

I'm not really excusing what she did -- I wouldn't jump into a body of water without knowing exactly what was living in the area, and whether it was safe or not.

[lordlundar]

That's a good point. At the pet supply store I used to work at, we sold live fish, and one species that I saw a couple of times was a very small shark. It was maybe 2-3 inches long.

A dogfish most likely. The thing is about the size of a big minnow but it is a shark.

[crazylegs]

Something about us not tasting good. That's why they normally only bite once.

Sharks are very efficient, the reason why surfers get chunks taken out of them is because when they're lying on the board they look like seals from below.

The reason why surfers only get bitten the once is because the shark has sufficient nous to realise it hasn't just chomped onto a bag of lard wrapped sealmeat and backs off to find the real deal.

Unluckly for us the shark can only really tell once it's bitten, and it doesn't really bite softly.