Regular readers might remember that I am not a fan of sharks. Selachophobia is my one completely irrational fear.
It is irrational for a few reasons. I know sharks have better things to do with their time that lurk in the shallows waiting for humans, so going to the beach isn’t really risky at all.
The main reason this fear is irrational is because we live more than an hour from the beach. Boats aren’t my thing either so unless one gets on the bus and turns up on my doorstep there is very little chance a shark and I will ever be trying to occupy the same space.
JG didn’t do me any favours the other day with her New Jersey shark post though. I remember seeing the movies about these events some years ago and thinking that the scene where the shark is spotted swimming under the bridge towards the unwitting ‘dinners’ splashing about upstream was a little too convenient and probably written in to the script to make the story more exciting. According to JG’s account of the events that’s how it really happened. Eeek.
For those of you who didn’t see that post (go and have a look), a quick summary is that up until 1916 people in New Jersey still lived safe in the knowledge that sharks only ate things like dolphins and seals. Humans were obviously not on the menu even though we are of a similar size and probably taste just as delicious*. In the early weeks of July 1916, after a few attacks in front of shocked onlookers, people realized that this assumption was totally wrong (and probably that all those previously attacked by sharks just didn’t live to point the finger).
The shark in 1916 not only attacked people on a beach, it also swam up a river and took some even more unsuspecting victims there.
Those of you who live in Australia (and South Africa, I suspect) will know that shark attacks in the news are not something unusual. We don’t see them all the time but we aren’t shocked when we hear of them, just unhappy. Of course we are happy for all you potential tourists to think that your average surfer dodges a Great White between every set. 😉
Sunday Times 28 April 1935 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58757391
I had to rant post about sharks because I wanted to share this article. In 1935 a 14ft shark was placed in the Codgee Aquarium for the enjoyment of the masses.
The shark had been captured a week earlier and obviously had been having quite a few adventures recently.
In front of stunned onlookers it stopped swimming, thrashed about for a moment, and vomited up a human arm. The arm had a distinctive tattoo and a piece of rope tied around the wrist.
I bet the horrified crowd didn’t really care about the distinctive markings though and I am sure a few of them never went into the water again…..
The shark also disgorged other things, a bird, bones and parts of another smaller (6ft) shark who was the original eater of the arm (which is why it was intact enough after a week for fingerprints to be taken).
The arm turned out to be all that remained of James Smith, a petty criminal, and the story behind his death was one of the most convoluted stories in Australia’s legal history. Due to the lack of body, and the underworld creed of keeping your mouth shut, nobody was ever convicted of his murder (Dictionary of Sydney, wikipedia). Had the shark not eaten the smaller shark, then been captured by fishermen, Smith’s fate would have never been known.
Just because, and to show you that sharks really can pop up anywhere (so my fear is not entirely stupid) here is a clip from Brisbane, Queensland.
During flooding a few years ago half a dozen Bull Sharks were washed into the lake on a golf course and became a local attraction. Recently the course and lake were inundated again and those at the course were worried that their iconic sharks might have made their way back to the sea.
A later news article was happy to report that the sharks were still splashing about in the lake as usual, forgoing their chance at freedom. Maybe they have developed a taste for golf balls. After all, who is going in after a lost ball there! (I think the clip’s title ‘killer sharks’ is a bit of an over dramatization though….)
*I think that one day we might meet a killer whale with a taste for humans and our current assumption that they don’t eat us either will go the same way.
I have just an ordinary wariness of sharks… but imagine if you didn’t know there were sharks in that lake & went to recover a golf ball… surely there are signs warning of their residence.
Everyone has an irrational fear of something. For my sisters it’s dams, and a friend it’s sinkholes [and dying by same]… I just hate dead things, so a live shark wouldn’t feak me out so much as a dead shark… or even a dead tattooed arm… eewhhh.
Their watery home is called shark lake and they are quite well-known so I guess that someone who would wade in anyway deserves to be bitten! I think the sharks there are quite small so they are more of a novelty than a danger.
If you look at the comment below it appears Nanna Prawn’s husband plays golf there!
Do you really have a fear of dead things or do they just gross you out? ‘Cos I could totally understand that! 😀
I really have a fear of dead things… it’s an instinct to bolt… can be hard to explain to people who aren’t familiar why if there is a dead bird etc on the footpath that I have suddenly fled… am better, I can cope with dead insects now, mostly. I was very brave & risked a last pat of my furry ones after they’e gone. I can’t handle funerals with open coffins… even being in the same room, and I was a pall bearer once with my sisters for their grandmother which freaked me out a bit. At TA I deal with any live mice but a dead one will make me squeal, take off and is therefore the G.O.’s jurisdiction! Weird, I know 🙂
What an unusual thing to have a fear of. Dead bodies are something that you rarely get a warning about before you come across them too. Usually it is an unexpected furry corpse in the shed, not something you can psych yourself up for. My fear is much more avoidable, I don’t envy you yours!
(Open coffin though, that is something where I completely understand your discomfort.)
Attended a funeral when I was about 6 or 7 and it was an open coffin affair. I don’t remember getting freaked out at the time but I do have a problem with it now so you’re not alone on that one.
This http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/cameras/bear-eats-gopro-20130517-2jqk2.html may also make you think twice about bears!
Eeek! I didn’t ever expect to see a bear from that angle!
The sharks at Carbrook golf course (just down the road from where I live) are not exactly Great Whites of Jaws fame that’s true, however, Carbrook is fed by creeks that run out to the Bay (Redland/Moreton) so it doesn’t actually have to flood for small ones to find a way in when they are juveniles. There are warning signs everywhere, and though it has been traded on as a bit of a gimmick for the club, most locals that play there are well aware of the risk. Because Bull Sharks can be killers, especially If they hunt in a pack. A girl was killed by three not very big Bull Sharks in waist deep water just off Amity Point on North Stradbroke which is an Island opposite us on this stretch of coast. It’s still rare of course, and was about six or seven years ago, but local people haven’t forgotten. She wasn’t swimming, she was just throwing a stick to her dog and waded in near the jetty (which has a deep water channel not far from it that Bull sharks hang around in). She was literally torn apart and bled to death in the car park just as the ambulance got there. We get smallish sharks caught up in our swimming net down at our local beach a couple of times a year………at King Tides they just float over the top of the net and get stuck in there when the tide goes out again, so basically on the wrong side of the shark net!!!. I don’t disagree that shark danger is over exaggerated sometimes, but then I wouldn’t swim in any of the water here, Moreton Bay is the busiest stretch of water in the world for sharks, so we only swim seriously in our pool and the hubby stays well clear of the water hazards when he plays golf!!
I remember that terrible story, the poor girl. 😦 If I recall correctly the shark swam past other swimmers before attacking her, the attraction being the dog she was with, who bolted home undamaged but terrified.
I know that most shark tales are exaggerated, especially when you take into account the amount of people that swim at the world’s beaches every single day. Still….. I will stay on the sand and not in the water!
Bull sharks certainly are a danger, they don’t mind fresh water and like the taste of human. I think they are the ones that are usually seen in the Brisbane River too aren’t they? Another recollection is the bull sharks (and rumoured crocodiles) seen swimming down flooded streets in QLD when the big floods were on. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was true although it could also be a Drop Bear kind of tale….
I think sharks on the highway was definately an urbane myth during the floods in the South East, but there certainly were crocs in unusual areas in the far North round Bundaberg etc. There haven’t been any croc sightings this far South for about a hundred years………though after the floods there were alleged sightings of salties not far from Bribie Island, (a couple of hours drive from Brisbane city) further South than anyone has reported for a long long time, one can only hope they don’t make it this far again! Bull sharks definitely swim up Brisbane River and a lot of the canal estates get tiny sharks that make it through sluice gates and hang around getting bigger! Last year a Tiger Shark was caught off Straddie with a massive chunk out of it with a Great White bite pattern so there is some speculation that some species that we don’t usually see here are moving greater distances. It’s not something that preys on my mind every time I go to the beach, being safe in rips is usually the first thing we think about so we tend to be in the flags, and hopefully with someone keeping an eye on the water….just in case!!
I think the reports of sharks were from smaller towns. I guess if the roads were along a river there is a possibility that a stray could have done a bit of exploring. I did wonder though if the reports came from people who had been making inroads into the beer supplies…
There was a concerted effort to rescue supplies from the brewery in Milton that is for sure!! Queenslanders were reassured by that 🙂
As long as they are sure of their priorities. 😀
I remember when the Black Saturday fires went through one town in particular a local man who was a regular at the pub had his only access to it, a bridge, burnt out. People banded together to rebuild it before any of the houses were even touched. Blokes love their drink…. 😉
I hate the thought of a small shark getting in to a place it doesn’t belong and then hanging around as it grows, and grows, and grows….. Haven’t people seen Lake Placid!? 😉
I’ve just been reading all the comments and I’ve decided I’m not retiring to QLD!
I’m with you. Heat and crocodiles…. 😦 Think I’ll stick to the cold south!
At least we get to eat pumpkin soup. 🙂
And hearty stews wouldn’t be the same when it isn’t icy outside and the fire going inside. 🙂
Stop it, you just made me think of goulash. Haven’t made it in a long time. hmmm….
Yum…
It may be autumn in Australia, but here in the U.S. the unofficial start of summer — the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend — is coming up fast. It’s when beaches open on the east coast, so a little scary shark news is in order. JAWS (the book and especially the movie) scared a lot of swimmers on this side of the world.
I think that reading Jaws at an inappropriately young age is one if the reasons for my irrational fear. I haven’t ever watched the entire movie either, just snippets before I am too horrified and turn it off…. I’m afraid even paddling on the Jaws beach would be out of the question! Enjoy your looming summer! 🙂
I think it was the music. Every time the shark theme started….
That theme…. Imagine how many times the “dah nah… ” has been used! I doubt there is a person in the western world who doesn’t immediately know what those two notes mean!
YES! We have developed a true Pavlovian response to it. LOL…
Scared a lot of people this side of the equator too. -waves hand in air-
That would have to be one of the creepiest video clips I’ve ever seen. 😦 Like you a have a complete phobia about sharks, with as much reason. There’s just something about the idea of being eaten one tasty nibble at a time that gives me goosebumps. 😦
I think it is the jaws of death lunging out of the dark water that completely freaks me out. One minute you are sitting on your surfboard and all is right with the world then suddenly it is all teeth and biting and you are lunch…..
Sharks might be an essential part of the food chain, I just don’t want to know about it! 🙂
I’m not a surfer but that scene from the movie, where you see the girl from below the surface… I never knew legs could look so vulnerable. And phooey on the food chain!
*shudder* I think I’ll stick to the rock pools, no deep water for me! Of course that means Stonefish and Blue rings….
lmao – Australia really isn’t the friendliest place is it? I wouldn’t like to be a tourist here. I read somewhere that we have some of the most poisonous critters in the world. And then there are the things with teeth….
Considering how many things we do have that can kill you it surprises me that the newspapers aren’t filled with the dead and dying every day! Just goes to show that being able to kill us doesn’t mean they WANT to kill us! 😀
True! Although I’d rather not give a funnel web or a great white the option of that choice. 😉
Hmph. Just trying to help a friend overcome her phobia and she doesn’t appreciate it. *pouts* That golf course has to be a one-of-a-kind. Have any golfers ever mysteriously “disappeared”?
Isn’t it ironic how scientists were pinning those 1916 sharks attacks on orcas because sharks just didn’t do that sort of thing and now today it’s the other way around? 1916: Orcas are to be feared; sharks are harmless to people. 2013: Sharks are to be feared; orcas are harmless to people. I never had any plans to visit Sea World and now you’ve pretty much banished any inclination to do so. 🙂
I read that James Smith story once before. Gory.
Crikey! If that is helping I am not sure I want to be around if you were REALLY trying to scare me! 😉
I doubt the golfers would bother going in after their lost balls that’s for sure. I don’t think anyone has been eaten but if you were in the market for a shallow grave in those parts the residents of that lake might be willing to ‘help’…. 😉
You would think that something the size of a shark would be mistaken for something as large as an Orca would you? I wonder why orcas were blamed? People only see what they want to see, don’t they?
It’s called revenge. Between the Nandi bear, drop bear, man-eating wolves and huntsmans I’m surprised I don’t have more nightmares. 😉
Regarding the orcas you might want to check out the following link for page 160. The whole books is not “viewable”, but elsewhere it was mentioned that the wounds that had been inflicted on the human victims was very similar to what orcas could do to animals.
Aaarrh! You tempted me with a link and then just wandered off without leaving it!! 😉 Oh well, all I can imagine now is one Orca trying to convince his mates that we could be on the menu. “No, seriously, humans taste really good! I had one for lunch just the other day. You should try it yourself”… 😉
Maybe the only reason we don’t get eaten by them is because they don’t like the taste of wetsuit. Clearly not a problem for sharks….
Hahaha! I can imagine that conversation. It sounds like something out of “Finding Nemo” or “Shark Tale”.
Yes, well, dunderhead me, I always do that; fail to include the link that is. *rolls eyes* If my head wasn’t connected I’d walk off without it. Here it is: http://books.google.com/books?id=5ClOm5vIWoEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=close+to+shore&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-UeaUcihHaeqyAHTjoAw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=orca&f=false
Something like “fish are friends, not food” right? 😉
Thanks for the link, now I’m never going in the water again……
What are friends for? 😆
I’m giggling insanely and likely drawing attention.
“It has been three weeks since my last fish, on my honor, or may I be chopped up and made into soup”.
😀 “Find a happy place! Find a happy place!”
Haha!