Great White Shark Attacks Kayak

[EEL]

I think Tyson posted a video Duane had made of rolling awhile back. Anyway, he was attacked by a shark while paddling. The S&G kayak of his design held up well. Imagine looking down and realizing your foot was literally in the shark's mouth. One more thing to think about while paddling given recent news reports of Great Whites in NE.

http://www.rollordrown.com/shark.htm

Ed Lawson

[Rob Hazard]

Golly, I'm the first reply! I guess nobody wants to think too much about the Men in the Grey Suits.

[Deb Millar]

Golly, I'm the first reply! I guess nobody wants to think too much about the Men in the Grey Suits.

Nah, they just don't to think about paying rent to the Land Lord....

Deb M

[chetpk]

Sharks Rule..... http://www.csmonitor.com/CSM-Photo-Galleri...res/Sharks-rule

[tyson]

I think Tyson posted a video Duane had made of rolling awhile back.

I saw that link before finding this post. I thought he looked familiar. That's quite a story to have in your "archives" for the grand kids!

Ty

[nancysan]

whoa, that is quite a story

[Brian Nystrom]

What I find most interesting is that that this really wasn't an "attack" per se, as great white attacks on seals, surfers and other things they perceive as prey are generally swift and violent. In this case, the shark simply grabbed the boat and didn't even shake it, which seems to indicate that it was curious and simply trying to determine if the boat was something edible or not. Sharks are known to mouth objects of all types for this reason, as their mouth is their only real way of examining anything they can't identify by sight or smell. It's too bad that there's no way to identify or track this particular fish, as I suspect that it probably won't bother kayaks in the future, now that it's learned that they aren't food.

That said, WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! I can't say that I'd want to go through it!

[tyson]

Brian,

Thanks for that post. I had responded on an other forum where I saw this link posted suggesting something like that, but I couldn't recall if/where I had seen mention of that sort of behavior before. It really would be interesting to know if that shark is no longer interested in kayaks.

[bob budd]

A different theory would be more in line with documented behaviour of bears. Bears learn the weak points in various automobiles and apparently even teach this to, or learn this from, other bears. Suppose the sharks are, like bears, simply trying to find the easiest way to peel the kayak off of the soft gooey snack inside. What's more, sharks were long thought to be solitary hunters but recent behaviour has been observed where sharks drive prey to other sharks and otherwise operate in an organized manner. Perhaps this shark was waiting for another to do the dirty deed and the second shark chickened out, kind of like a gang initiation gone bad.

[rcohn]

A different theory would be more in line with documented behaviour of bears. Bears learn the weak points in various automobiles and apparently even teach this to, or learn this from, other bears. Suppose the sharks are, like bears, simply trying to find the easiest way to peel the kayak off of the soft gooey snack inside. What's more, sharks were long thought to be solitary hunters but recent behaviour has been observed where sharks drive prey to other sharks and otherwise operate in an organized manner. Perhaps this shark was waiting for another to do the dirty deed and the second shark chickened out, kind of like a gang initiation gone bad.

It was just a "test bite" to see if a kayak is good to eat. It wasn't, so the shark let go. Great whites tend to be picky eaters; they seem to prefer meals with a high fat content like seals and sea lions. Since it takes at least a week to digest a meal, there is no reason to fill its stomach with low nutrition food when there are plenty of seals and sea lions in the area.

Ralph

[djlewis]

Great whites tend to be picky eaters; they seem to prefer meals with a high fat content like seals and sea lions.

Good reason to lose some weight, eh?

[Brian Nystrom]

A different theory would be more in line with documented behaviour of bears.

Actually, this shark's behavior is in line with what they typically do. There are posts by a shark researcher on one of the other forums that confirm that this is exactly what she would have expected a shark to do under the circumstances. It's apparently very predictable behavior.

[jeffcasey]

A different theory would be more in line with documented behaviour of bears. ....

i think it is a mistake to make any analogy to bears. vastly different intelligence levels are at work here. sharks are dumb fish -- large automated eating/swimming machines. bears are at least as intelligent as dogs. i've never seen one whip out a set of lockpicks, but i wouldn't be surprised....

[bob budd]

Yes, bears are probably smarter than sharks. An interesting show comes up on PBS stations from time to time of a place out west where the test bear boxes. Its fascinating how deliberate the bears are at trying to open a new box. I posted the sharks~=bears message in part to inject a bit of levity and also to pass on the recent findings about pack behaviour observed in sharks. I think we generally underestimate the intelligent of other species on this planet and also that all species undergo continuous evolution and learning.