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What Do Tiger Sharks Eat Biography
Tiger sharks are recognizable by their broad head, unusually large for its sleek body; blunt snout; pronounced nostrils; and tiger-like markings on their back. They can reach lengths of 5.5 meters and a weight of almost a ton—although the biggest ones are usually around four meters and 600 kilograms—and are notorious man-eaters. They live in tropical and some temperate waters worldwide, both near the shore and in the open seas.
Studies of tiger sharks outfit with beepers have shown that they have territories, which are generally extremely large; they can dive to depths of 1,000 feet and return in 15 minutes; and they can swim absolutely straight miles for miles at a time. Some travel very long distances, migrating from the tropics to the middle latitudes in the summer.
Tiger sharks have a large upper tail lobe that helps them swim at very high speeds. Females lay eggs and sometime squirt out uterine “milk” to provide nutrients for embryos. Tiger sharks produce litters of 40 or more pups although between a dozen and two dozen are born. Young tiger sharks have distinctive black-and-white stripes that fade with age.
Describing a swim with some tiger sharks at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, Jennifer Holland wrote in National Geographic, “A dozen or so tiger sharks circle, not in the manner of vultures, but more like a mobile above a child’s bed. Their dark, watchful eyes are the size of fish, and subtle spots and bands stain their skin like batik...The big female that breaks formation and heads my way passes so close I can make out the pores that pepper her snout and enable her to sense the electromagnetic energy of living flesh. As she slides by huge and silent, I reach out and a run a hand over her side. It’s like fine-grain sandpaper, her movements stay steady and calm as she rejoins the circling sharks. For a fish with a vicious reputation, this one makes a disarming first impression.”
Tiger Shark Feeding
Tiger sharks are known for eating almost anything. They have distinctive, serrated, rooster-comb-shaped teeth with a notch that helps hold prey in place and cuts through ligament and shell tissue. In addition to fish, sea mammals, and other sharks, tiger shark stomachs have revealed tires, license plates, boat cushions, copper wire, boots, beer bottles, cans of beans and dogs.
Even so tiger sharks have a reputation for being finicky eaters. One of the few tiger sharks in captivity is kept at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. An assistant curator there, Steven Blair, who is in charge of feeding the sharks, routinely tries the feed the tiger shark restaurant-grade tuna, mahi mahi, shrimp, haddock and other fish only to have every offer refused. He told the Los Angeles Times, “Some days she won’t eat. Other days she goes on benders, feasting on one type of food, her tastes change from one day to the next. The tricky thing is figuring out what things triggers her hunger on a given day.” He said no other creature in the aquarium is as picky.
Tiger sharks generally eat fish, sea turtles, dolphins, birds, and other sharks. They often go after sea turtles and are able to rip through their carapaces like chain saws. A 13-foot tiger shark was once observed biting a gray reef shark in half in a single bite.
Tiger sharks generally hunt at twilight or at night and do not return to the site of an attack and prey there again. They are much slower than makos and they do not catch prey through shock-amd-awe surprise like great whites. They rely on persistence, stealth and awesome power to trap prey.
Tiger_shark_teeth Tiger sharks systematically move between the ocean surface and floor in search of food. They often migrate towards the shore at night and sometimes are found in very shallow waters in bays and estuaries. When they find prey they attack again and again and often chew their victims to death.
Tiger shark meat is tough and not so good. Even so tiger sharks are harvested in commercial shark fisheries. In 2000, a critter cam was hooked up to a tiger shark by National Geographic researchers.
Tiger Sharks Feeding on Young Albatrosses
Tiger sharks are known to gather around some island where albatrosses are learning to fly. Young birds that struggle get aloft and approach to close to the water are snatched by the sharks. Describing attacks on Laysan and black-ff\oot albatross fledglings at the French Frigate Shoals of the Hawaiian Islands, Bill Curtsinger wrote in National Geographic, “Big tiger sharks show up in at the peak of the fledgling season, looking to eat young albatrosses lingering in the shallows.”
“Oblivious to the danger, the 30 or 40 chicks knew only that their departure time was now...Some of the birds caught the wind, sailed out clumsily over the water, gained momentum and flew off...Others landed a mere 30 yards from shore, where the situation was wilder. A shark would swim over to the spot and a hapless chick would disappear in a microsecond.” In an hour “five of the 16 fledglings” Curtsinger observed “were attacked and killed. Another was attacked and escaped. As the day progressed, more wind meant more flights, And the stronger winds gave the birds and extra edge, lifting them far offshore beyond the danger zone. The victims would fly, splash down, and preen their wigs, unaware of the danger intil disaster struck.”
“The sharks were often not as efficient as one might expect. I saw them miss their prey by several feet on the first try, spiral around for another assault, and zoom in for the kill. Sometimes the chick would get away before the second attack...Even if a bird survived an initial attack because the shark missed its target, the young albatross would often stay in the water. Some chicks even faced their pursuer and feebly pecked at the shark in a vain effort to ward off the 14-foot predator. Then they disappeared dragged underwater, swallowed whole. A few feathers remained drifting in the water along with bits of flesh that sank slowly to the bottom, erasing all evidence of the recent drama.”
Tiger Shark Attacks
Tiger sharks are said to the world’s most dangerous sharks after great white sharks. Tiger sharks are one three species of sharks along with great whites and bull sharks involved in a large number of attacks on humans. Between 1876 and 2001, tiger sharks were involved in 83 recorded unprovoked attacks, 29 of them fatal.
In November 1998, a 9-year-old boy was killed by a six-foot (1.8-meter) tiger shark as he swam in the ocean, the first such attack in Florida in 10 years. James Willie Tellasmon was with his mother when he was attacked near Ocean Beach at Jaycee Park, some 70 miles north of West Palm Beach along Florida's east coast. “Witnesses said he started to flail, and then he was gone,'' police chief Jim Gabbard said. “He just went under.'' The boy was flailing to stay afloat in fairly deep water, which probably attracted the shark, shark expert George Burgess said.
Sometimes human remains found in the stomachs of tiger sharks are the result not of an attack but a shark feeding on a body that was already dead. In June 2001, the head and bones found in the stomach of a tiger shark off Australia's coast were identified as belonging to 75-year-old Arthur Apple. He was last seen walking along Middle Beach on Lord Howe Island, 440 miles north east of Sydney. Scott Wilson and Mark Thompson caught the 12 foot long shark off the island and discovered the remains when they sliced it open. Police had earlier said the body parts may also have belonged to Ross Symens, who also went missing close to where the shark was caught. Police would not speculate as to how Mr Applet ended up in the shark's stomach. [Source: Ananova]
Tiger Shark Attacks in Hawaii
In 1992, two people were killed by tiger sharks in Hawaiian waters: An 18-year-old body surfer who bleed to death from wounds on the beach off Oahu, and a woman snorkeler who died after having an arm and both legs bitten off. In addition, a surfer disappeared but his board was found with a chunk bitten off. A surfer who was attacked around the same time by a 10-foot tiger shark and had a big chunk taken out of his board told reporters, "I remember distinctly seeing the eye just below the water level and the big round snout. [It] was trying to swallow the piece, and I remember looking...into the soft white part of the mouth."
In October 1999, a 16-year-old surfer was attacked by a 10-foot tiger shark near Kona. The shark came halfway out of the water and pushed him off his board and clamped on to his arm. " I could almost see the whole shark. My elbow was down his throat, the surfer said. The shark ripped muscles, tendons and blood vessels than bit the board and swam way. The surfer kept his arm but lost his ability to grip.
In August 1999, a 53-year-old visitor from France was severely bitten at 11:00am on the lower left leg by a tiger shark while windsurfing in waters seven miles off Kanaha on Maui. In August 2002, a 16-year-old boy was bitten on the left foot by a 10-foot-long tiger shark while surfing near Kewalo's harbor channel.
Near Miss with a Tiger Shark in Hawaii
September 1999, Rick Reeder was in the water between Lanai and Maui in Hawaii, finishing a relay leg in the nine-mile Maui Channel Swim this month unaware that a tiger shark was closing in fast on him. Reeder was 25 yards from the escort boat when the boat's captain saw the shark moving toward Reeder, about 75 yards behind. The captain ordered the boat put in reverse and Reeder's teammates from the Irvine Novaquatics Masters Team started waving at the swimmer. Reeder was still unaware. [Source: Martin Beck, Los Angeles Times]
"I saw them waving their arms and my first thought was that they're waving to encourage me," Reeder said this week. "When I got close, I lifted my head up and I heard someone yell, 'Get in the boat now, shark.' I put my face back down in the water and started to swim to the boat as fast as I could." Reeder, didn't have much time to think. "It did cross my mind," he said, "that I hope he investigates me before he eats me." The shark--at an estimated 15 feet, more than twice as long as the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Reeder--caught up fast; Reeder reached the boat with little time to spare. "We all grabbed for Rick, his legs and arms and everything," said Novaquatics team captain Scott Zornig, "and just as we pulled his feet out of the water, the shark made a beeline for him and probably came within five feet of him."
The shark continued to circle the boat for about 15 minutes. The Novaquatics tried by radio to warn the other 57 boats in the race about the aggressive shark, but many boats had their radios turned off, Zornig said, so the warnings went unheeded. They decided to pull out of the race and warn other teams in person. Fifteen boats pulled their swimmers out of the water, including one woman who saw the shark pass under her.
Woman Bitten by Shark at Maui
In October 2000, as he watched Henrietta Musselwhite swim out to her favorite snorkeling spot off Camp Pecusa off Olowalu longtime kayaker Ron Bass started to get "real strong shark vibes." Minutes later, Bass heard a scream and turned around to see his vibes had become all too real. "It was this big gray thing, coming up out of the water," said Bass."I saw it go up three times and come back down with a big thrashing. It was a shark. And the woman was yelling." [Source: Valerie Nonson, Honolulu Star-Bulletin]
After the attack occurred Bass immediately began paddling for the victim, even though he didn't know if the shark would attack him, as well. Right behind him was the woman's daughter. Bass was the first to reach Musselwhite, who managed to pull herself onto the back of his vessel. "I told her daughter to follow us and if the shark came back, to whomp it on the head or something," said Bass.
Bass immediately responded, pulled the woman to shore and began treating wounds from two bites— one on her lower back above her right hip and what appeared to be a puncture from a tooth in her thigh. "She'd lost a lot of blood," said Bass. "She was hyperventilating and we had to calm her down." From descriptions provided by Bass and the victim, officials believed the attack was caused by a tiger shark between 6 and 8 feet long. The incident, which occurred less than a mile from where a Maui woman was killed by a shark in 1991.
The incident is the second attack reported in three months around Maui, along with several reports of sharks sighted near popular swimming areas. In August, a French windsurfer was attacked by a shark off Kanaha Beach Park, suffering severe lacerations to a foot.
Tiger Shark Attacks Bethany Hamilton
Tiger shark caught off Hawaii In November 2003,Bethany Hamilton, a 13-year-old surfer with a promising career ahead of her, was attacked by a 12- to 15-foot tiger shark while surfing with some friends near her home in Kauai. While shouting “A shark bit me,” the predator took off her arm above the elbow and swam away. A fellow surfer wrapped her wound with a T-shirt, swam her to shore, quickly fashioned a tourniquet from a surfboard leash to slow the bleeding and took her to a nearby hospital. Had the tourniquet not been applied she probably would have bled to death.
The shark took an 16-by-8-inch bite out of Hamilton’s surfboard. Hamilton was the only one who saw the shark and she was conscious through the whole ordeal. She told a local televison station the shark pulled her around “but I just held on to my board and then it let go.” Four inches of bone was left below her shoulder.
As she did most mornings, Hamilton was surfing with her best friend and fellow competitor, Alana Blanchard, as well as Alana's father, Holt, and brother, Byron. About six other surfers were also in the lineup. At about 7:30 a.m. the shark attacked Hamilton at a surf spot known as Tunnels, at Makua Beach on Kauai's North Shore. [Source: Brandon Lee, Honolulu the Star-Bulletin]
"Nobody saw the shark," said Hamilton’s 21-year-old brother, Noah. "It was a small day at Tunnels, with clear water, and she paddled over to her friends after the attack, with just one arm...She never cried once. Losing her arm will change a lot for her, but she never cried once. The doctor was amazed at how well she is holding up. She told one of her friends that she's glad this happened to her, 'because now I can tell the whole world about God.'"
Hamilton had, up to this point, been home-schooled so she could surf regularly. A long and lean, goofy-footed (right foot forward) surfer, she was the second-ranked surfer from the Hawaii region. In the previous season's national championships at San Clemente, Calif., she took the runner-up spot in the open women's division and fifth place in the explorer women's. Hamilton is also a former state champion.
Hamilton has been the subject of a number of print and television pieces and has received several awards for her inspiring story. Her autobiography Soul Surfer was released in 2004. The film version, with Carrie Underwood and Helen Hunt, is scheduled for release in 2011. Hamilton has also launched her own line of perfume, self-help books and accessories.
Tiger Shark Attack in South Africa
In November 2004, a fatal shark attack near a popular South African diving resort was linked to spear fishing, an activity that can draw unwanted attention from sharks. Police originally said Sheldon Jee, a 21-year-old dive instructor, was presumed to have fallen victim to a shark while scuba diving off Sodwana Bay on South Africa's northeast coast. His severed left hand was all that was found. [Source: Ed Stoddard, Reuters]
But his diving school said Jee had been spear fishing at the time. They think he was attacked by a 13-foot tiger shark far from the dive sites of Sodwana, famed for stunning coral formations and tropical fish. The fact that he was spear fishing at the time will come as a relief of sorts for the thousands of scuba divers who will descend on Sodwana as sharks almost never attack divers. "Scuba divers usually don't get attacked. The shark recognizes them as non-food because of their odd shape such as the tank. The bubbles may also bother them," said Phil Heemstra, a marine biologist with the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity.
Tiger shark range Spear fishing is a different matter: "Spear fishermen sometimes pass out from holding their breath, and he may have blacked out and then been taken by a shark. "They (sharks) also pick up the vibrations and blood from the speared fish and that gets them excited and puts them in feeding mode," Heemstra said. Debby Oscroft, who works for Jee's diving school Coral Divers, said: "Sheldon was spear fishing when he went missing and he was in deep water hundreds of meters out from the reefs where people scuba dive. "The divers who searched for him Thursday came across a four-meter tiger shark in the area where he went missing. It was so big that a search plane also saw it from the air," she told Reuters.
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat Biography
Tiger sharks are recognizable by their broad head, unusually large for its sleek body; blunt snout; pronounced nostrils; and tiger-like markings on their back. They can reach lengths of 5.5 meters and a weight of almost a ton—although the biggest ones are usually around four meters and 600 kilograms—and are notorious man-eaters. They live in tropical and some temperate waters worldwide, both near the shore and in the open seas.
Studies of tiger sharks outfit with beepers have shown that they have territories, which are generally extremely large; they can dive to depths of 1,000 feet and return in 15 minutes; and they can swim absolutely straight miles for miles at a time. Some travel very long distances, migrating from the tropics to the middle latitudes in the summer.
Tiger sharks have a large upper tail lobe that helps them swim at very high speeds. Females lay eggs and sometime squirt out uterine “milk” to provide nutrients for embryos. Tiger sharks produce litters of 40 or more pups although between a dozen and two dozen are born. Young tiger sharks have distinctive black-and-white stripes that fade with age.
Describing a swim with some tiger sharks at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, Jennifer Holland wrote in National Geographic, “A dozen or so tiger sharks circle, not in the manner of vultures, but more like a mobile above a child’s bed. Their dark, watchful eyes are the size of fish, and subtle spots and bands stain their skin like batik...The big female that breaks formation and heads my way passes so close I can make out the pores that pepper her snout and enable her to sense the electromagnetic energy of living flesh. As she slides by huge and silent, I reach out and a run a hand over her side. It’s like fine-grain sandpaper, her movements stay steady and calm as she rejoins the circling sharks. For a fish with a vicious reputation, this one makes a disarming first impression.”
Tiger Shark Feeding
Tiger sharks are known for eating almost anything. They have distinctive, serrated, rooster-comb-shaped teeth with a notch that helps hold prey in place and cuts through ligament and shell tissue. In addition to fish, sea mammals, and other sharks, tiger shark stomachs have revealed tires, license plates, boat cushions, copper wire, boots, beer bottles, cans of beans and dogs.
Even so tiger sharks have a reputation for being finicky eaters. One of the few tiger sharks in captivity is kept at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. An assistant curator there, Steven Blair, who is in charge of feeding the sharks, routinely tries the feed the tiger shark restaurant-grade tuna, mahi mahi, shrimp, haddock and other fish only to have every offer refused. He told the Los Angeles Times, “Some days she won’t eat. Other days she goes on benders, feasting on one type of food, her tastes change from one day to the next. The tricky thing is figuring out what things triggers her hunger on a given day.” He said no other creature in the aquarium is as picky.
Tiger sharks generally eat fish, sea turtles, dolphins, birds, and other sharks. They often go after sea turtles and are able to rip through their carapaces like chain saws. A 13-foot tiger shark was once observed biting a gray reef shark in half in a single bite.
Tiger sharks generally hunt at twilight or at night and do not return to the site of an attack and prey there again. They are much slower than makos and they do not catch prey through shock-amd-awe surprise like great whites. They rely on persistence, stealth and awesome power to trap prey.
Tiger_shark_teeth Tiger sharks systematically move between the ocean surface and floor in search of food. They often migrate towards the shore at night and sometimes are found in very shallow waters in bays and estuaries. When they find prey they attack again and again and often chew their victims to death.
Tiger shark meat is tough and not so good. Even so tiger sharks are harvested in commercial shark fisheries. In 2000, a critter cam was hooked up to a tiger shark by National Geographic researchers.
Tiger Sharks Feeding on Young Albatrosses
Tiger sharks are known to gather around some island where albatrosses are learning to fly. Young birds that struggle get aloft and approach to close to the water are snatched by the sharks. Describing attacks on Laysan and black-ff\oot albatross fledglings at the French Frigate Shoals of the Hawaiian Islands, Bill Curtsinger wrote in National Geographic, “Big tiger sharks show up in at the peak of the fledgling season, looking to eat young albatrosses lingering in the shallows.”
“Oblivious to the danger, the 30 or 40 chicks knew only that their departure time was now...Some of the birds caught the wind, sailed out clumsily over the water, gained momentum and flew off...Others landed a mere 30 yards from shore, where the situation was wilder. A shark would swim over to the spot and a hapless chick would disappear in a microsecond.” In an hour “five of the 16 fledglings” Curtsinger observed “were attacked and killed. Another was attacked and escaped. As the day progressed, more wind meant more flights, And the stronger winds gave the birds and extra edge, lifting them far offshore beyond the danger zone. The victims would fly, splash down, and preen their wigs, unaware of the danger intil disaster struck.”
“The sharks were often not as efficient as one might expect. I saw them miss their prey by several feet on the first try, spiral around for another assault, and zoom in for the kill. Sometimes the chick would get away before the second attack...Even if a bird survived an initial attack because the shark missed its target, the young albatross would often stay in the water. Some chicks even faced their pursuer and feebly pecked at the shark in a vain effort to ward off the 14-foot predator. Then they disappeared dragged underwater, swallowed whole. A few feathers remained drifting in the water along with bits of flesh that sank slowly to the bottom, erasing all evidence of the recent drama.”
Tiger Shark Attacks
Tiger sharks are said to the world’s most dangerous sharks after great white sharks. Tiger sharks are one three species of sharks along with great whites and bull sharks involved in a large number of attacks on humans. Between 1876 and 2001, tiger sharks were involved in 83 recorded unprovoked attacks, 29 of them fatal.
In November 1998, a 9-year-old boy was killed by a six-foot (1.8-meter) tiger shark as he swam in the ocean, the first such attack in Florida in 10 years. James Willie Tellasmon was with his mother when he was attacked near Ocean Beach at Jaycee Park, some 70 miles north of West Palm Beach along Florida's east coast. “Witnesses said he started to flail, and then he was gone,'' police chief Jim Gabbard said. “He just went under.'' The boy was flailing to stay afloat in fairly deep water, which probably attracted the shark, shark expert George Burgess said.
Sometimes human remains found in the stomachs of tiger sharks are the result not of an attack but a shark feeding on a body that was already dead. In June 2001, the head and bones found in the stomach of a tiger shark off Australia's coast were identified as belonging to 75-year-old Arthur Apple. He was last seen walking along Middle Beach on Lord Howe Island, 440 miles north east of Sydney. Scott Wilson and Mark Thompson caught the 12 foot long shark off the island and discovered the remains when they sliced it open. Police had earlier said the body parts may also have belonged to Ross Symens, who also went missing close to where the shark was caught. Police would not speculate as to how Mr Applet ended up in the shark's stomach. [Source: Ananova]
Tiger Shark Attacks in Hawaii
In 1992, two people were killed by tiger sharks in Hawaiian waters: An 18-year-old body surfer who bleed to death from wounds on the beach off Oahu, and a woman snorkeler who died after having an arm and both legs bitten off. In addition, a surfer disappeared but his board was found with a chunk bitten off. A surfer who was attacked around the same time by a 10-foot tiger shark and had a big chunk taken out of his board told reporters, "I remember distinctly seeing the eye just below the water level and the big round snout. [It] was trying to swallow the piece, and I remember looking...into the soft white part of the mouth."
In October 1999, a 16-year-old surfer was attacked by a 10-foot tiger shark near Kona. The shark came halfway out of the water and pushed him off his board and clamped on to his arm. " I could almost see the whole shark. My elbow was down his throat, the surfer said. The shark ripped muscles, tendons and blood vessels than bit the board and swam way. The surfer kept his arm but lost his ability to grip.
In August 1999, a 53-year-old visitor from France was severely bitten at 11:00am on the lower left leg by a tiger shark while windsurfing in waters seven miles off Kanaha on Maui. In August 2002, a 16-year-old boy was bitten on the left foot by a 10-foot-long tiger shark while surfing near Kewalo's harbor channel.
Near Miss with a Tiger Shark in Hawaii
September 1999, Rick Reeder was in the water between Lanai and Maui in Hawaii, finishing a relay leg in the nine-mile Maui Channel Swim this month unaware that a tiger shark was closing in fast on him. Reeder was 25 yards from the escort boat when the boat's captain saw the shark moving toward Reeder, about 75 yards behind. The captain ordered the boat put in reverse and Reeder's teammates from the Irvine Novaquatics Masters Team started waving at the swimmer. Reeder was still unaware. [Source: Martin Beck, Los Angeles Times]
"I saw them waving their arms and my first thought was that they're waving to encourage me," Reeder said this week. "When I got close, I lifted my head up and I heard someone yell, 'Get in the boat now, shark.' I put my face back down in the water and started to swim to the boat as fast as I could." Reeder, didn't have much time to think. "It did cross my mind," he said, "that I hope he investigates me before he eats me." The shark--at an estimated 15 feet, more than twice as long as the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Reeder--caught up fast; Reeder reached the boat with little time to spare. "We all grabbed for Rick, his legs and arms and everything," said Novaquatics team captain Scott Zornig, "and just as we pulled his feet out of the water, the shark made a beeline for him and probably came within five feet of him."
The shark continued to circle the boat for about 15 minutes. The Novaquatics tried by radio to warn the other 57 boats in the race about the aggressive shark, but many boats had their radios turned off, Zornig said, so the warnings went unheeded. They decided to pull out of the race and warn other teams in person. Fifteen boats pulled their swimmers out of the water, including one woman who saw the shark pass under her.
Woman Bitten by Shark at Maui
In October 2000, as he watched Henrietta Musselwhite swim out to her favorite snorkeling spot off Camp Pecusa off Olowalu longtime kayaker Ron Bass started to get "real strong shark vibes." Minutes later, Bass heard a scream and turned around to see his vibes had become all too real. "It was this big gray thing, coming up out of the water," said Bass."I saw it go up three times and come back down with a big thrashing. It was a shark. And the woman was yelling." [Source: Valerie Nonson, Honolulu Star-Bulletin]
After the attack occurred Bass immediately began paddling for the victim, even though he didn't know if the shark would attack him, as well. Right behind him was the woman's daughter. Bass was the first to reach Musselwhite, who managed to pull herself onto the back of his vessel. "I told her daughter to follow us and if the shark came back, to whomp it on the head or something," said Bass.
Bass immediately responded, pulled the woman to shore and began treating wounds from two bites— one on her lower back above her right hip and what appeared to be a puncture from a tooth in her thigh. "She'd lost a lot of blood," said Bass. "She was hyperventilating and we had to calm her down." From descriptions provided by Bass and the victim, officials believed the attack was caused by a tiger shark between 6 and 8 feet long. The incident, which occurred less than a mile from where a Maui woman was killed by a shark in 1991.
The incident is the second attack reported in three months around Maui, along with several reports of sharks sighted near popular swimming areas. In August, a French windsurfer was attacked by a shark off Kanaha Beach Park, suffering severe lacerations to a foot.
Tiger Shark Attacks Bethany Hamilton
Tiger shark caught off Hawaii In November 2003,Bethany Hamilton, a 13-year-old surfer with a promising career ahead of her, was attacked by a 12- to 15-foot tiger shark while surfing with some friends near her home in Kauai. While shouting “A shark bit me,” the predator took off her arm above the elbow and swam away. A fellow surfer wrapped her wound with a T-shirt, swam her to shore, quickly fashioned a tourniquet from a surfboard leash to slow the bleeding and took her to a nearby hospital. Had the tourniquet not been applied she probably would have bled to death.
The shark took an 16-by-8-inch bite out of Hamilton’s surfboard. Hamilton was the only one who saw the shark and she was conscious through the whole ordeal. She told a local televison station the shark pulled her around “but I just held on to my board and then it let go.” Four inches of bone was left below her shoulder.
As she did most mornings, Hamilton was surfing with her best friend and fellow competitor, Alana Blanchard, as well as Alana's father, Holt, and brother, Byron. About six other surfers were also in the lineup. At about 7:30 a.m. the shark attacked Hamilton at a surf spot known as Tunnels, at Makua Beach on Kauai's North Shore. [Source: Brandon Lee, Honolulu the Star-Bulletin]
"Nobody saw the shark," said Hamilton’s 21-year-old brother, Noah. "It was a small day at Tunnels, with clear water, and she paddled over to her friends after the attack, with just one arm...She never cried once. Losing her arm will change a lot for her, but she never cried once. The doctor was amazed at how well she is holding up. She told one of her friends that she's glad this happened to her, 'because now I can tell the whole world about God.'"
Hamilton had, up to this point, been home-schooled so she could surf regularly. A long and lean, goofy-footed (right foot forward) surfer, she was the second-ranked surfer from the Hawaii region. In the previous season's national championships at San Clemente, Calif., she took the runner-up spot in the open women's division and fifth place in the explorer women's. Hamilton is also a former state champion.
Hamilton has been the subject of a number of print and television pieces and has received several awards for her inspiring story. Her autobiography Soul Surfer was released in 2004. The film version, with Carrie Underwood and Helen Hunt, is scheduled for release in 2011. Hamilton has also launched her own line of perfume, self-help books and accessories.
Tiger Shark Attack in South Africa
In November 2004, a fatal shark attack near a popular South African diving resort was linked to spear fishing, an activity that can draw unwanted attention from sharks. Police originally said Sheldon Jee, a 21-year-old dive instructor, was presumed to have fallen victim to a shark while scuba diving off Sodwana Bay on South Africa's northeast coast. His severed left hand was all that was found. [Source: Ed Stoddard, Reuters]
But his diving school said Jee had been spear fishing at the time. They think he was attacked by a 13-foot tiger shark far from the dive sites of Sodwana, famed for stunning coral formations and tropical fish. The fact that he was spear fishing at the time will come as a relief of sorts for the thousands of scuba divers who will descend on Sodwana as sharks almost never attack divers. "Scuba divers usually don't get attacked. The shark recognizes them as non-food because of their odd shape such as the tank. The bubbles may also bother them," said Phil Heemstra, a marine biologist with the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity.
Tiger shark range Spear fishing is a different matter: "Spear fishermen sometimes pass out from holding their breath, and he may have blacked out and then been taken by a shark. "They (sharks) also pick up the vibrations and blood from the speared fish and that gets them excited and puts them in feeding mode," Heemstra said. Debby Oscroft, who works for Jee's diving school Coral Divers, said: "Sheldon was spear fishing when he went missing and he was in deep water hundreds of meters out from the reefs where people scuba dive. "The divers who searched for him Thursday came across a four-meter tiger shark in the area where he went missing. It was so big that a search plane also saw it from the air," she told Reuters.
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
What Do Tiger Sharks Eat
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