Beaches have been closed in South Africa after a 37-year-old Zimbabwean man was apparently eaten by what has been described as "dinosaur-sized shark" off Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. "We saw the shark come back twice," British beach-goer Phyllis McCartain told the Cape Times. "It had the man's body in its mouth, and his arm was in the air. Then the sea was full of blood." Another witness, Dennis Lundon, said, "I never want to experience this again. I'm going to block it out of my mind."
People are freaking out. This is the second fatal shark attack in South Africa in a less than a month; a lifeguard was killed off St. John's Second Beach in December. But surfers need those beaches open, so they can surf, so people can film them and make awesome videos for great new rock songs. Hoping to stem the public panic, South African surfing site Wavescape quotes Save Our Seas Foundation scientist Alison Kock about yesterday's incident. "Why the shark apparently consumed the person we cannot say for sure," says Kock. "All we do know is that it does not happen regularly. There were numerous shark sightings over the holiday season in False Bay with 1000s of swimmers, surfers, divers in the water. If sharks saw people as food there would be many more attacks and that simply is not the case."
So we're more like amuse-bouches then. Good to know.
"Humans: Sharks' guilty pleasure."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/shark-bites-shark-in-half_n_335346.html
IT HAS BEGUN. Gigantic sharks are pissed and are about to fuck this up.
Not to be nitpicky, but "dinosaur-sized" is only slightly more descriptive than "mammal-sized." I assume they meant one of your default dinosaurs, like Apatosaurus.
If the picture is accurate, and I know Dave took that himself while on assignment covering this story, it's a great white, perhaps as long as Alectosaurus.
Yes, dinosaur-sized is silly, because, as you say, they come in every size, and the shape is all wrong.
'Bus-sized' or 'Hindenburg-sized' would be more descriptive.
It is a dumb description. Though everybody knows what it means. I think maybe it was used so prominently was due to the fact that the megalodon has been in the news lately. I was hoping to get an actual footage estimate. But I didn't see any in any of the articles I read.
"Apparently"? So there's some doubt as to whether the person was consumed? And the shark came back twice and no one filmed it? Remarkable.
Gummmed to death and spit out? The horror....
I think they're still looking for the body. But nobody expects to find it. They did recover his swimming goggles.
Smart, those are a choke hazard.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/Attacks/relariskreduce.htm
This is very helpful. Now we know why the Jersey Shore castmates never enter the water. Uneven tans? check! flashy jewelry? check! bleeding? check!
And #6:
"Avoid waters with known effluents or sewage and those being used by sport or commercial fisherman."
Thanks. But I would be avoiding those waters anyway.
Also there is a history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_shark_attacks_of_1916
"Hey kids, she said it doesn't happen regularly! Everyone slather on their BBQ sauce and lets HANG TEN! Or 5 in your case, Bob, on account of how that shark ate your leg last week."
Groundless fear. As it approaches and opens its jaws, just give it money and it will return to Wall Street, leaving you otherwise unharmed.
Sure, but it has to be A LOT of money.
This reminds me of that Spielberg movie, Munich.
It's actually more like Duel.
"We're gonna need a bigger surfboard"
I secretly thinks it's awesome that there are ginormous monsters of the deep that have a taste for humans. It proves I've been right my whole life about not going in water past seeing my toes.