Attention ATS: there are Sharks in the ocean. That is all.

Do they sell helmets for clown fish?

a reply to: network dude

Shark week is coming up

Oh and sharknado

I opened this thread with the mild excitement of some type of code phrase, based on the title.

Disappointed, I will still respond with

The rooster is in the henhouse, I repeat, the rooster is in the henhouse.

Sharks will only bite you if you're wet.

Stay dry people, stay dry.

SPAM REMOVED BY ADMIN

a reply to: network dude
Generally agree with what you wrote but would like to add a few things. Just for info, I grew up in Sth Australia and went swimming in the ocean quite a lot. Sth Australia is known as one of the places that Great Whites hang out.

You mentioned that sharks can bite you in about 2 feet of water. True. Surfing organizations keep stats on shark encounters and most attacks occur in water 1 - 3 feet deep.

General guidleline: you are not safe from a cruising shark unless you are completely out of the water. I have seen one swim right up into the shallows, jaws going like sixty as people fled from it. It didn't turn away until the water was only about a foot deep. (It was only a smallish shark, maybe 5 feet long. But quite capable of doing nasty damage.) This was in the middle of the afternoon. While it's true that most sharks hunt at night and swimming in a sharky area after dark is not wise (especially alone), they are eating machines and if they're a bit peckish they'll have a nibble of whatever is close by. Any time.

After a big shark is caught and opened up, they often find all sorts of things inside it. Like old coke cans, bits of car tires, shoes (empty, usually), bits of boats or boards they chomped, and whatever animals they gobbled last. Like I said: eating machines.

If you have dolphins around your swimming area, be very glad. Not just because dolphins are cool, but because of their own shark alarm system. If a shark approaches, the dolphins will probably know about it way before you do. And their usual reaction is to stop their normal dolphinesque splashing and jumping around and just take off at a great rate of knots. But sometimes and especially if they have young dolphins in their pod, the adults will even attack the shark!

So, if you see the dolphins suddenly skedaddle or go very crazy, head for the beach and as soon as you can stand up and wade, do so. Not just because you can probably wade faster than you can swim, there is less of your body in the water for a shark to take chunks out of. Okay? And warn anyone who is not aware that the dolphins are in "shark alarm" mode.

If you're on a board, stay on it and check the water all around you before you put your hands in to paddle.

It is true that dolphins will sometimes help to get people back to the beach if they sense the people are in danger. I have heard several reports of dolphins basically pushing people close in to shore. And yes, there are confirmed reports of dolphins forming protective rings around swimmers when a shark was nearby, and they can take other action to help save people as well.

Viz eg this article on Dolphins World.

The main thing is, as long as the dolphins are just cruising around, you're probably pretty safe.

Sharks are natures way of saying stay on the beach and drink beer.

a reply to: DBCowboy
I had more than a few times when my friends and I did just that. If the spotter plane few over and then the warning sirens went off (meaning everyone out get of the water right now), we just called it a day and spent our time cooling off with various brews.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

To be fair,sharks are yummy tucker for Orca.

No shark in the world is a match for intelligent ten metre long bastards.

ETA:JustMike, don't let people get too comfortable about dolphins, they are potential rapists and killers,roaming about in gangs and smiling all the time.

I have never encountered a shark that was not delicious when grilled, basted with butter, and garlic and searved with a nice baked potato and salad.

a reply to: network dude

The poor sharks get a bad wrap; If a big yellow fin Tuna washed up ashore we would eat it. It works both ways.

Sharks dont see us as humans, they see us as prey and they have been hunting prey for hundreds of millions of years. When you enter the water, you enter their domain. Some want to punish them by revenge killing but in truth we are carnivorous predators just like them.

originally posted by: Signals
I opened this thread with the mild excitement of some type of code phrase, based on the title.

Disappointed, I will still respond with

The rooster is in the henhouse, I repeat, the rooster is in the henhouse.

Psssst, bats fly at midnight.

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
a reply to: network dude

The poor sharks get a bad wrap; If a big yellow fin Tuna washed up ashore we would eat it. It works both ways.

Sharks dont see us as humans, they see us as prey and they have been hunting prey for hundreds of millions of years. When you enter the water, you enter their domain. Some want to punish them by revenge killing but in truth we are carnivorous predators just like them.

They really don't see us as prey all that often. We aren't all that tasty; we don't have the right concentration of body fat to make us worth their while in most cases.

Problem is that they do like to sample things .... just to be sure.

Bull sharks are very hostile and territorial, and not being close to a coastline cannot even ensure your safety from them.

The species has been spotted 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) up the Amazon River in South America and dwell in Lake Nicaragua, a freshwater lake in Central America. Bull sharks have traveled up the Mississippi River as far north as Illinois and are regularly spotted in India's Ganges.

In any case, I have been in Florida all my life and on average I venture to the water almost every month. No attacks on me. But I have had plenty of fun dolphin encounters. They are really nice water humans. Truth is more people die from lighting strikes in the US annually than are killed by sharks globally in a five year period.

What happens if you are struck by lightning though while being attacked by a shark? I will assume this:

a reply to: network dude

Sharks don't worry me, I'm landlocked so no issues there!

What bothers me is this tidbit:

Still, the university notes that fatal shark attacks, while undeniably graphic, are so infrequent that beachgoers face a higher risk of being killed by sand collapsing as the result of over achieving sand castle builders.

YIKES!

If death by shark is 3 per year, what's the risk on this one?

a reply to: network dude

Did the Bull shark suffer from being over hunted after the movie Jaws came out? You know, when shark fishing was all the rage? In any case, let's put that shark on the endangered list!

Years ago Some locals on the island of Kauai really saved my butt from a possible incident with a Tiger shark.

I was body boarding by myself in this tiny little cove on the east side of the island called "running waters."

The water was anywhere from 2-6 feet deep.

All of the sudden some guys working up on a hill just behind the beach whistled down to me and kept making a fin gesture with their hands.

I never saw the shark but I understood what they were trying to convey and caught the first whitewash back in.

Sure enough there was a big tiger shark hanging out in running waters, it visited that area for nearly a week. Local kids still surfed during that time. I did not lol.

This still wasn't nearly as scary as the time I almost drowned in a big set of waves at the same spot.

Good times

S&F OP

a reply to: Sublimecraft

I think it's the "jaws that crush steel" that bother most folks...

I was a kid when Jaws came out...cured me of ever, and I mean ever, going out into the ocean to swim.

Go to the beach? Sure. Go swimmin' while I'm there? No. No. ...and no.

Sharks do what sharks do...they just ain't gonna do it to me.

a reply to: Ericthedoubter

Orcas are no joke and some species are pro's at hunting sharks, even the dreaded Great White!

a reply to: Sublimecraft

hahaha

I've even heard of some larrikins taking the leash off & lending them the keys to the commodore to pick up a slab of VB's. The poor sheilas, i mean poor great whites, would do any thing to drive the pass me down commodore,

Yeap those Rockingham bogans got it sussed!

Sharks are just misunderstood carnivores with a jaw that can crush steel.

Oh so now you're a SJW and an apologist! - next you'll go really PC on me and say we can't swim in the Indian Ocean.

Don't tell me you're starting to wear skinny jeans and drink Chai Lattes!!! - cough cough

(hehehe)