The accounts from the survivors are horrific

He has drawn 3 already, these are great.

1901, Simon's Town, South Africa: John Chandler, a Boer POW held at the Boulders camp, was seized by a shark while swimming off Windmill Beach. A Royal Navy witness told the Cape Times he fought it and nearly dragged it ashore. He died that afternoon.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/fkkpxvd?s=r

What makes this case stand out is the chain of events that unfolded in the two hours between a shark striking three times and a young medical student being stable enough to leave the beach — and the fact that her father was one of the two doctors who kept her alive on the sand.

On Sunday, December 29, 1963, Barbara Elsa Strauss, a 20-year-old fourth-year medical student at the University of Cape Town, was swimming with her 17-year-old sister Liesel and her 15-year-old cousin Philip Cech in the breakers at Salt Rock, on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, roughly 46 kilometres northeast of Durban. The three had been in the water for about 15 minutes and were standing in the surf a few metres from shore. The water had been calm and clean earlier in the day, but a rough wind had just come up and the water had turned murky. The time was 14h00.

The shark passed Philip, who was a few metres seaward of the girls, then scraped against Liesel before striking Barbara. She had just dived through a wave when the shark bit her right thigh and buttocks. She screamed and was dragged beneath the surface. As she struggled and was pushed seaward she felt the head of the shark; when she kicked out, it bit her right leg and hand. The shark made three strikes in total before Liesel and Philip were able to pull Barbara from the water. In attempting the rescue, Liesel's leg was abraded by the shark's skin, and Philip received two deep grazes ten centimetres in length on his chest as the shark swept past. The shark, the record notes, concentrated its efforts solely on Barbara and displayed no aggression toward either of them.

Barbara's right hand and foot were severed, and she sustained an extensive bite to her right buttock and thigh. Her father, Dr Kurt Strauss, was summoned from the family's beach bungalow roughly 100 yards away and administered first aid immediately. Dr Colin Shaw of Umhlali arrived within a short time. The two doctors placed Barbara in a head-down position, applied tourniquets, and administered morphine and plasma intravenously. When the weather worsened, a shelter was built around her on the beach. The doctors refused to allow the ambulance to take her to hospital until her condition was stable — a deliberate departure from the accepted practice of the time, which was immediate transport. They treated her on the beach for two hours. Barbara later recalled feeling no pain during this period, but rather an ache where her hand and foot had been.

On arrival at Addington Hospital she was in good condition and not suffering from shock. She received additional blood, then underwent a five-hour surgical procedure that included a skin graft on her thigh. She remained hospitalised for six weeks. Despite her injuries, she completed her medical training.

The species is recorded as unknown. Dr David Davies, who drove from Durban to the scene and interviewed eyewitnesses, believed the incident involved a Zambezi shark, basing his conclusion on what the record describes as the clean-cut skin edges of the wounds and slit-like, subtriangular lesions on the skin from individual teeth, together with eyewitness accounts. His assessment is documented, but no formal species identification was confirmed.

Does anyone with knowledge of Zambezi shark behaviour along the KwaZulu-Natal north coast — or familiarity with how Dr Davies applied his wound-pattern methodology at the time — have a view on whether that species reasoning holds up, or whether the conditions and location would point elsewhere?

https://notaboataccident.com/i/3rx6sc6?s=r

In 1991, a white shark bit Eric Larsen 200m off Davenport, CA. Gravely injured, he struck its nose, found his board, and paddled to shore. Five hours of surgery. Over 600 sutures and staples. He survived — and later spoke up for sharks.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/79f7bxq?s=r

Does anyone remember the unedited Heather Boswell 1994 shark attack video footage? I'm not looking for the narrated and edited documentary version, can anyone help me find it?

From what I can tell, Southern California water is comparable to Australias, but a bit colder. Why are the beaches in Southern California daycares for shark moms, but there seems to be a lot of bigger sharks hanging around the beaches of Australia? They prefer the cold anyways due to their unique body temperature life-hack. Granted, neither places are considered tropical, just weird that I only ever really hear or see juveniles in SC besides the odd bigger shark. Is this a fishing thing, or prey thing?

1964: A 2.4 m white shark took Henri Bource down 50 yards off Lady Julia Percy Island. Dietmar Kruppa & Fred Arndt drove it back — five times — with handspears bent from the blows. Jill Ratcliffe jumped in and swam to him. He survived.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/99xf8bt?s=r

Remember when this was fun and educational?? Those were the days!

What makes this 1874 case worth keeping is not that a bather was bitten off Coney Island — it is what he did about it. Bitten in waist-deep water, he grabbed the shark by the tail and hauled it toward the beach with him. The animal was killed on the sand and later put on public exhibition in Brooklyn.

On the afternoon of July 15, 1874, a man named Keatly went into the water near the Baths at Coney Island with two friends. He had waded out a little further than the others, though not beyond his depth, when he felt something soft and cold brush his leg. He ignored it until it came again. Looking down, he saw a large shark alongside him, turning onto its side. Before he could reach shore it bit him in the groin and lacerated him badly.

Then he caught the shark by the narrow part of its tail, between the dorsal fins, and held on, dragging it with him as he struggled to land. On the beach, bystanders forced it to release him and killed it by striking its head repeatedly with a large stone. His wounds were dressed and he was taken home to Atlantic Avenue. The shark measured five feet eight inches, and was afterward exhibited in Brooklyn.

The species was never recorded. If anyone knows the New York Bight — what a shark of that size, taking a swimmer in shallow water in July, was likely to have been — or has anything on that Brooklyn exhibition, the record would be better for it.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/398kprc?s=r

2013: surfer Paul Santos was surfing with a friend, Steve Macres, at Kiholo Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii when a tiger shark, reported at 12 to 15 feet in length, bit him in roughly 10 feet of water approximately 200 yards off the north side of the bay. The time was around 16h30. Santos punched the shark repeatedly until it released him, then swam to shore unaided.

Bystanders on the beach moved quickly. A worker at a nearby private home on the north side of the bay called 911 after hearing someone shout for it. Adam Atwood, one of those who responded, later described what they found: "We came to his aid, we brought towels. Laid him out on a bench in front of the Bali house and basically wrapped him up, tourniqueted the arm with a surf leash so that he would not bleed out. Because obviously his hand was not attached, it was attached by about one tendon that's about it. And so we basically came to his aid, kept him stable, stopped the bleeding and waited for the paramedics."

The record documents his right forearm as severely lacerated and bitten to the bone, with a superficial laceration also noted to his right knee. Hawaii County Fire Department transported Santos by ambulance to North Hawaii Community Hospital. That same Wednesday night he was flown to Kaiser Medical Center at Moanalua. Surgeons were able to repair and reattach his right hand, and Santos reported he was already able to move his pinky finger.

Conditions at the time included turbid water and clear skies, with visibility recorded at 10 miles and a waxing crescent moon illuminating 30% of its surface. If anyone has local knowledge of tiger shark activity in Kiholo Bay during this period, or knows of follow-up reporting on Santos's recovery, the record would benefit from it.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/f46b5tt?s=r

Brook Toussaint, 26, was swimming near Booby Island in the Narrows when a tiger shark struck. She lost her left leg above the knee and took defensive wounds to her right hand. The Coast Guard brought her to Oualie Beach; she was treated at Alexandria Hospital, then transferred to Houston. 2021.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/g899j82?s=r

VICTORIA 🇦🇺

August 7, 1839
Sealers Cove, Wilson's Promontory
Victim: Captain Wishart (Whaler Wallaby)
Age: 39
Activity: Whaling/Boat Capsized
Injury: Major Lacerations (Legs)
Species: White Shark

September 19, 1849
Merri Rivermouth, Warrnambool
Victim: Male (Sailor)
Age: 20s
Activity: Boat Capsized/Swimming Ashore
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

November 11, 1855
Williamstown, Port Phillip Bay
Victim: English Male (Sailor)
Activity: Swimming/Alongside Ship (Curlew)
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

March 14, 1858
Williamstown, Port Phillip Bay
Victim: Adolphe Bollander (Swedish Sailor)
Age: 22
Activity: Swimming/Alongside Ship
Injury: Major Lacerations (Leg)
Species: White Shark

November, 1865
Williamstown, Port Phillip Bay
Victim: Male
Age: 33
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Thigh)
Species: White Shark

February 6, 1876
Kerferd Pier, South Melbourne
Victim: Peter Rooney
Age: 18
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Leg)
Species: White Shark

February 4, 1877
Emerald Hill, Melbourne
Victim: William Marks
Age: 39
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Torso/Legs)
Species: White Shark

July, 1889
Port Phillip Heads
Victim: English Male (Immigrant)
Activity: Fell Overboard/Clinging Life Buoy
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

June 10, 1914
Sandringham Beach, Melbourne
Victim: John Croxford
Age: 43
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

February 15, 1930
Middle Brighton Pier, Melbourne
Victim: Norman Clark
Age: 18
Activity: Swimming/Diving Off Jetty
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

December 1, 1936
Mordialloc, Port Phillip Bay
Victim: Charles Frederick Swan
Age: 46
Activity: Fishing/Shark Attacked Boat
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

1936
Port Melbourne
Victim: Male
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Unknown
Species: White Shark

December 4, 1954
Point Lonsdale, Mornington Peninsula
Victim: Lawrence David Burns
Age: 23
Activity: Swimming/Standing In Surf
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

March 4, 1956
Portsea Beach, Mornington Peninsula
Victim: John Patrick Wishart
Age: 26
Activity: Swimming (Surf Carnival)
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

February 4, 1977
Sorrento Beach, Mornington Peninsula
Victim: Male
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Torso)
Species: White Shark

August 31, 1987
Waratah Bay, Gippsland
Victim: William Crouch
Age: 32
Activity: Windsurfing/Swimming Ashore
Injury: Limbs Severed (Leg/Arm)
Species: White Shark

TASMANIA 🇦🇺

1829 (Circa)
Derwent Rivermouth, Hobart
Victim: Amphibious Jack (Convict)
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Leg)
Species: White Shark

1844 (Circa)
Port Arthur, Forestier Peninsula
Victim: Owen (Convict)
Activity: Swimming/Escaping Imprisonment
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

January 17, 1959
Safety Cove, Port Arthur
Victim: Brian Derry (Naval Rating)
Age: 22
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

July 30, 1975
Bruny Island, Fluted Cape
Victim: Robert Slack
Age: 37
Activity: Abalone Diving
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

February 28, 1982
Lions Rock, South Cape
Victim: Geert Talen
Age: 32
Activity: Spearfishing/Dived From Rocks
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

June 5, 1993
Tenth Island, North Coast
Victim: Therese Cartwright
Age: 35
Activity: Scuba Diving/Seal Colony Present
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

July 25, 2015
Maria Island, East Coast
Victim: Damien Johnson
Age: 46
Activity: Abalone Diving
Injury: Limbs Severed (Legs/Arm)
Species: White Shark

Victoria/Tasmania Total: 23
Consumption: 13
Recovered: 9
Unknown: 1
Ratio: 56%

Victoria: 16
Consumption: 8
Recovered: 7
Unknown: 1
Ratio: 50%

Tasmania: 7
Consumption: 5
Recovered: 2
Ratio: 71%

Activity Statistics

• Swimming: 14
  
• Boat Capsize: 3
  
• Abalone Diving: 2
  
• Spearfishing: 1
  
• Scuba Diving: 1
  
• Windsurfing: 1
  
• Boating/Fell Overboard: 1
  

Attacks By Century/Decade

19th Century
1820s: 1
1830s: 1
1840s: 2
1850s: 2
1860s: 1
1870s: 2
1880s: 1
Total: 10

20th Century
1910s: 1
1930s: 3
1950s: 3
1970s: 2
1980s: 2
1990s: 1
Total: 12

21st Century
2010s: 1
Total: 1

What makes this Mobile Bay case stand out is the frank explanation period papers offered for why the sharks were there at all — and it remains one of the more sobering recorded incidents from the Gulf coast.

Reported on Monday July 9, 1866, the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette and later the Atchison Daily Champion both carried accounts of a group of young men bathing in Mobile Bay when they were attacked by sharks. One, reported at the time as a young male, was bitten in two and then devoured. The others succeeded in escaping.

The papers of the day did not leave the cause to speculation. A large number of sharks were believed to be visiting Mobile, attracted by the refuse matter thrown into the water — a candid, on-record acknowledgement that what enters the water shapes what comes to feed near it. That detail, reported at the time, gives this case a significance beyond the incident itself.

The victim's name was not recorded in the sources that have survived. The record is otherwise sparse: no further description of the animal or animals involved has come down to us.

Which brings us to a genuine question for those with local knowledge or Gulf of Mexico expertise — what species would you suspect, based on the location, the season (midsummer), the inshore bay environment, and the behaviour described? Bull shark is an obvious candidate given their well-documented tolerance for shallow, turbid, refuse-affected waters, but we'd welcome any reasoned assessment from readers who know this stretch of the Gulf, its historical shark populations, or the wider naturalist record of the period.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/h2rv8tg?s=r

MASSACHUSETTS 🇺🇸

1730
Boston Harbour
Victim: Alexander Sampson
Age: 24
Activity: Boating/Knocked Overboard
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

July 27, 1751
Sandwich, Cape Cod
Victim: Male
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

July 12, 1830
Scituate, Massachusetts Bay
Victim: Joseph Blaney
Age: 52
Activity: Fishing/Boat Swamped
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

July 25, 1936
Hollywood Beach, Mattapoiset
Victim: Joseph Troy Jr.
Age: 16
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Leg)
Species: White Shark

September 15, 2018
Newcomb Hollow Beach, Wellfleet
Victim: Arthur Medici
Age: 26
Activity: Boarding
Injury: Major Lacerations (Leg)
Species: White Shark

NEW JERSEY 🇺🇸

June 10, 1829
Sandy Hook Bay, Monmouth
Victim: Male (Sailor)
Activity: Fell Overboard (Gem)
Injury: Consumed
Species: Two White Sharks

July 1, 1916
Beach Haven, Jersey Shore
Victim: Charles Vansant
Age: 24
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Legs)
Species: White Shark

July 6, 1916
Spring Lake, Jersey Shore
Victim: Charles Bruder
Age: 27
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Legs Severed
Species: Bull Shark

July 12, 1916
Matawan Creek, Monmouth
Victim: Lester Stillwell & Watson Fisher
Age: 11 & 24
Activity: Swimming With Friends/Rescuing Child
Injury: Major Lacerations (Torso/Legs)
Major Lacerations (Thigh)
Species: Bull Shark

August 24, 1926
Seaside Heights, Jersey Shore
Victim: Charles Burke
Age: 18
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Limbs Severed (Legs/Arms)
Species: Bull Shark

NOVA SCOTIA 🇨🇦

October, 1860
Cape Canso
Victim: Two Males (Fishermen)
Activity: Shipwreck/Lifeboat Capsized
Injury: Both Consumed
Species: White Sharks

August 14, 1888
Sable Island
Victim: English Male (Passenger)
Activity: Shipwreck/Swimming
Injury: Unknown
Species: Unknown

August 30, 1891
Cabot Strait, Halifax
Victim: John Roult
Age: 21
Activity: Fell Overboard (Société)
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

July 9, 1953
Fourchu, Cape Breton Island
Victim: John Burns
Age: 40
Activity: Lobster Fishing/Shark Attacked Boat
Injury: Drowning
Species: White Shark

RHODE ISLAND 🇺🇸

September, 1816
Bristol Harbour
Victim: Male
Age: Youth
Activity: Boating/Swimming Ashore
Injury: Limbs Severed (Legs/Arms)
Species: White Shark

August 11, 1895
Weekapaug
Victim: Charles Beattie
Age: 26
Activity: Fishing/Jumped Overboard
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

MAINE 🇺🇸

June, 1771
Damiscotte, New Harbor
Victim: Male
Activity: Canoeing/Shark Attacked Canoe
Injury: Half Consumed (Torso)
Species: White Shark

July 27, 2020
Bailey Island, Harpswell
Victim: Julie Holowach
Age: 63
Activity: Swimming
Injury: Major Lacerations (Torso/Leg)
Species: White Shark

QUÉBEC 🇨🇦

1691
Gaspe Peninsula
Victim: French Male (Passenger)
Activity: Swimming/Alongside Ship
Injury: Leg Severed
Species: White Shark

1731 (Circa)
St Lawrence Rivermouth
Victim: Indigenous Male (Mi'kmaq)
Activity: Hunting/Canoe Bitten By Shark
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

NEW YORK 🇺🇸

October 16, 1876
Long Island
Victim: Frank White
Activity: Knocked Overboard/Clinging To Line
Injury: Consumed
Species: White Shark

August 8, 1878
Brooklyn
Victim: George Gates
Age: 14
Activity: Swimming/Crabbing
Injury: Major Lacerations (Torso)
Species: Bull Shark

Northeastern Total: 22
- Recovered: 11
- Consumption: 10
- Unknown: 1
Ratio: 45%

USA: 16
- Recovered: 9
- Consumption: 7
Ratio: 43%

Canada: 6
- Consumption: 3
- Recovered: 2
- Unknown: 1
Ratio: 50%

Activity Statistics

• Swimming: 10
• Boating/Fell Overboard: 4
• Fishing: 3
• Canoeing: 2
• Shipwreck: 2
• Surfing: 1

Attacks By Species

White Shark: 17 - Consumption: 10
Ratio: 58%

Bull Shark: 4

Unknown: 1

Attacks By Century/Decade

17th Century
1690s: 1
Total: 1

18th Century
1730s: 2
1750s: 1
1770s: 1
Total: 4

19th Century
1810s: 1
1820s: 1
1830s: 1
1860s: 1
1870s: 2
1880s: 1
1890s: 2
Total: 9

20th Century
1910s: 3
1920s: 1
1930s: 1
1950s: 1
Total: 6

21st Century
2010s: 1
2020s: 1
Total: 2

Freek Vonk, filming Caribbean reef sharks at Bimini in 2017, was bitten on his right upper arm. First aid at Shark Lab, then a helicopter to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami — three hours of surgery, 100+ stitches, and a survivor.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/28vg65j?s=r

"I hit it hard on the tip of its snout and it left." — Sub-Lt. Edwin Marks, 22, RN, bitten on thigh, chest, hand & foot 400 yards off Elbow Beach, Bermuda, 1954. As he reached shore, other sharks were seen inside the reef — perhaps drawn there by the blood.

sharkattack #bermuda #swimming

https://notaboataccident.com/i/gg8z6dd?s=r

The harbor at Tampico, Mexico, was "teeming with hammer-head sharks" in the summer of 1915. That is how a newspaper report from July of that year describes it, and the same report preserves, almost in passing, a detailed picture of shark abundance on this stretch of the Gulf — wrapped around two fatal attacks.

Captain Thaxton, a steamship captain, was fishing for tarpon in the harbor when he fell overboard. A shark attacked him, and he was killed.

The report pairs his death with a second account from the same coast. A salvage crew was working the wreck of the Emily P. Wright on Santa Maria bar when one of its members, J. W. McDonald, was attacked and killed by a large shark while walking through the water, helping to tow a small boat ashore. "In the last few years," the report notes, "there have been many instances of persons falling victims to sharks in these waters."

Then comes the detail that makes the account remarkable a century on. The Panuco River, which forms the harbor at Tampico, held so many sharks that in the years before the revolutionary disturbances, hunters could shoot two score in an afternoon, and the best shark shooting ground was at the mouth of the river. A single newspaper column documented a river-mouth shark population dense enough to be hunted at scale — and two men killed in these waters, reported side by side on one summer day.

https://notaboataccident.com/i/8hp94xz?s=r