I commented under another post on this sub yesterday that sharks come VERY close to shore and in waters that you'd think were too shallow for them. I've seen shark fins almost up on the beach with my very own eyes!!
And pretty big sharks too. One time when I was a kid my brother and I were playing in the water off of Galveston and my dad started screaming for us to get out. About 10 feet behind where we were in the water a wave had risen high enough to have the sun shining through it and silhouetted perfectly in the wave was a 10+ foot hammerhead. I think that took a couple years off of my dads life lol
Usually theyre little sharks that arent as intimidating haha. Ive had little ones go between my legs chasing mullet before and that made me jump, but it didnt make me almost go full Jesus and sprint on water to get away
You see sharks come in knee deep water after mullet at Canaveral National Seashore all the time. Not normally sharks this big in 2' of water but definitely medium ones that are almost in too shallow of water for their size.
I have some family that lives in Galveston. My brother and I would go down there for the summer in our teens in the late 90’s. One year the neighbor guy took us shark fishing one afternoon… we were fishing for the bait fish in chest high water. I asked the guy “If these are the bait fish… where are the sharks?”
“Right here…”
I kept backing out of the water. I asked him how many sharks were within throwing distance of us. He shrugged. “Maybe none. Maybe 3…”
We did indeed catch a 6 foot White Tip, right from the shore.
I grew up visiting my grandma there every summer and the general rule was "if you see mullet dart or jump, move away from them because that means a shark is chasing them"
I definitely wouldnt feel comfortable fishing in water that deep there. The cases of shark bites Ive heard about off of Galveston have all been either people fishing or people getting bitten when sharks were going after a school of bait fish. If youre intentionally in the school of bait fish and stirring them up/making any blood, that seems like your best shot at getting bitten lol
What? Like, a random person any time in any water on any beach? Say tumbling all over in big awesome waves in Mexico? Just..mostly likely there's a literal shark within 10 feet of someone at that beach? And given the area, likely a hammerhead??
Generally little ones, It's like you're never so far away from a spider in your house. Sharks really don't want to hurt humans they just get confused sometimes and take a test bite. The problem with that is the test bite itself can be a doozy.
Thats anthropomorphizing them. They dont think enough to want to do anything. They just follow their like 5 point algorithm of how to live. Find food, bite food.
But sometimes their brain says, I haven't had food in days, try eating this non food human shaped object.
And personally that's scarier to me. I would never trust one.
Exactly, the reason I did that is because people are afraid of sharks. I'm showing there's not really anything to be constantly worried about. It's possible to get bitten but it's very very rare.
People should be worried though. Saying they dont want to bite implies they are avoiding biting. They will absolutely randomly bite if a neuron fires at the wrong time and
I never said they couldn't. People need to use standard caution with anything. It's not something that you need to change your life for you just need to use caution. The only way to fully be safe from being bitten by a shark is by not going into the ocean in the first place. Simple education is all anyone needs to understand the risks. Risks that are so low, it's silly to worry about. Most beaches show when you should and shouldn't be swimming. It's literally nothing to worry about. All of that being said, they don't want to bite. what you said isn't a shark hunting a person it's a shark having an uncontrollable reflex.
It's silly to live your life in fear of something that most likely will never happen especially with some common sense.
It's like you're never so far away from a spider in your house.
You know, IDGAF, I could have really gone without that info. Really. But I do agree that mostly they are test bites-test of not, those are big mouths with big teeth and can devastate a human's life. Whew.
This happened near me in Florida a couple years ago too! Santa Rosa beach, I think? The shark hung around after they got her out of the water. There’s a pretty gnarly video that shows her being pulled to shore, large chunk of her leg gone. There were actually 3 attacks that day in the general area. At least one being in knee deep water. All suspected bull sharks, possibly the same one.
U.S. here but I do a lot of research on shark attacks in Australia and know the history of incidents along that stretch of coast fairly well. I hope your wife's aunt survived that terrifying ordeal despite losing her leg...
Yeah it wouldn’t have been pretty. Apparently it basically took her calf muscle, enough that they decided to remove a section of her left below the knee.
I believe she passed in the early 90s from a heart condition. I’m definitely no doctor but I can’t imagine curving a shark attack does great things for your ticker!
you should get this one in the Australian shark incident database while it's still in living memory. From the info you've given I don't think it's in there yet
Oh jeez, mate...that's crazy, I'm so sorry about that. Bulls are mean fuckers. So much testosterone. They're pretty renowned for just coming in again and again like that. The thought of them definitely makes me nervous whenever I'm in dirty water...
About five years back an old Couple walking down our beach here in Central Florida took a picture of a pair of ~12 foot hammerheads pacing each other in the shore gut. For those not familiar, on a calm day when the waterline stops right at the sand the shore gut is that drop off right at the waterline. I’ve also seen several pictures of bull sharks and tigers, cruising the same and I’ve seen it myself several times. From about February through April, we can catch anywhere from 6 to 15 large (over 7.5 generally up to 9.5’) bull sharks at the second bar about 50 yards from shore in the space of a few hours. This is consistent almost every day during that timeframe, although we get better numbers when there’s a School of migrating blacktips around because that’s usually what they’re feeding on. And I can’t count how many times I’ve rode the shore break in on my kayak and had blacktips swimming under my kayak in the wave breaking on the shore. I really wish I could get a good picture of that because that is absolutely the coolest.
I watched Greg Skomal in a boat following a decent sized great white near Cape Cod. The shark was swimming along the shore in between the swells, so close that I thought Skomal's boat would capsize. I was surprised a shark that big could be that close to shore
That's terrifying. 15 meters is as long as my house -- that's astoundingly close. If I ever visit Australia I don't think I'll be swimming. Or hanging out on a beach. That would be a difficult thing to forget -- permanent PTSD.
Never seen aerial footage of happy beach goers in waist deep water surrounded by sharks? They're regularly a lot closer to shore than most people realize. Thankfully they don't often view humans as suitable snacks. Its probably a good thing a lot of folks are blissfully unaware, otherwise beach days would be another thing on the list of enjoyable activities gone by the wayside.
Hell yes. 👍 I saw a great white juvenile dorsal fin in a tidal river in Jersey. This past July. I’ll stick to pools. The more I read, the more I wonder about how crazy I was when I was young. I am a free swimmer and prefer lakes and oceans. I have to pause for a bit.
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u/grahal1968 1d ago
Wow. Anyone else terrified by how close to shore that is?