Thursday, January 14, 2010

Headlines: "Shark rips tourist apart" - "Dinosaur-sized shark kills tourist"

I am very rattled by the description. Just last month a Great White leaped out of the water at Sunset Point in Los Angeles; (See the Photo above), and now this tragedy in South Africa!

From News 24:

"... According to her, just after her husband said these words, they saw an "incredibly big" shark attacking the man. "It came from below and grabbed the man. Part of his body was gone."

[Link]

From Discovery News:

"... A tourist enjoying a swim yesterday off of Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town, South Africa, was suddenly pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by what onlookers have called a "dinosaur-sized shark," according to several media reports. ..."

[Link]

The Telegraph:

"... He said: "It was this giant shadow heading to something colourful. Then it sort of came out the water and took this colourful lump and went off with it. You could see its whole jaw wrap around the thing which turned out to be a person." ..."

[Link]

At Sky News a guy twittered the attack as it was happening:

"...A horrified Twitter user tweeted the moment a tourist was killed in the jaws of a "gigantic shark" in a holiday hotspot. [...] I jumped, waved my hat and roared and screamed at swimmers to get out of the water. I never want to experience this again. I'm going to block it out of my mind," he said." ..."

[Link]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I'll stick to inland lake swims where the biggest predator is a northern pike.

Tony Austin said...

lakes have monsters!

Anonymous said...

Shark "attacks" aka mistake are still so incredibly rare. You are taking more of a chance with your life everytime you get in an airplane or even more so everytime you get in a car..or even walk under a palm tree. You are more likely to die from a coconut falling on your head than being killed by a shark bite. Don't be afraid of the ocean!

Tony Austin said...

My policy is that once you enter the ocean, you have reentered the food chain. The odds are extraordinarily low but I sure as heck won't be swimming or surfing in the "Red Triangle" here in California.

Anonymous said...

HAHA true, I wouldn't choose to swim in red triangle either. But that doesn't include LA county. Believe it or not, even though you see seals and sea lions, comparatively the population of them in the LA crescent isn't that high. Not a favorite place for sharks. But San Diego and Northern CA? Yes sir! :)