Shark attack IS rare, but like you said "I guess if I was in Great white territory I might worry a bit more …" About 10 years ago a young couple were on their honeymoon and were paddling the ocean in their double kayak just off the coast of the university they both attended (Pepperdine) in Malibu. I am not sure how far off shore they were but my memory tells me about 2 miles, anyway this couple were never heard from again and parts of their kayak were recovered and upon examination it was revealed that there were bite marks of a large great white on the kayak parts. From the condition of the "debris" and the size of the shark, and having found no other traces after extensive searches, it was surmised that the shark killed them both. Although their fate is not known, perhaps they were attacked and drowned instead. But there was no doubt that they were both "victims" of a great white attack. The great white is classified a "Pelagic" shark which means (if memory serves) "deep water" and it is true that they are not generally found close to shore, but these great whites are truly universal and can be found in almost any waters, warm or cold, deep or shallow. I remember reading a very good book called the "Shark Attack File" and in it were recorded many attacks and it well explained what was known (and not known) about why sharks attack and methods of defense. I know it is like thinking that lightening will strike (it probably won't), but if one is hit by a great white it will be like lightening!!

Some interesting facts to share regarding shark attack behavior. Rarely (I mean rarely) is any victim eaten alive. In fact by far the majority of attacks are one-bite affairs. Certainly less than 5% of victims are eaten with most losing some portion of flesh or limb and surviving. Another interesting fact is when an attack is of the type that is more than one "strike" by the shark and there is a rescuer in the water helping the swimmer, there have only been 2 recorded incidents (that I know of) of the shark switching from the original victim to the rescuer. In fact the shark in these cases seems deliberately to fixate on the original victim and even go around or past the rescuer to continue to only attack only the original victim. Another fact is that by far the majority of attacks occur in less than 1 foot of water! This is not as strange as it may seem at first look because it is simply a function of that being where the most people are. It is most dangerous for a lone swimmer on the surface, with divers and kayakers in much less danger. There are different attack styles with the Hollywood "frenzy" style being the most rare form of attack on a swimmer or diver. Often the encounter will start with a gentle "rub" by the shark's nose on the prospective meal. The shark has different skin from most fish in that it's skin is almost like little "teeth" and if rubbed against the grain it is like sandpaper and it is theorized that this scraping preparatory to attack is to see if the "victim" is edible, because the scraping of the sharks nose will often cause the victim to "ooze" bodily fluid and this tells the shark that it is ok to eat. I remember reading of the extensive work of the US navy to study shark attacks. It is odd to recall now that until late in WWII it was the "Official" navy position that "Sharks do NOT attack a live uninjured human being!" Period. The navy said sharks are more scared of you than they you are of them and one recommendation was to "Face the shark and make a loud slapping noise on the surface of the water, this will probably drive the shark away" Or make him MORE interested!! Eventually and after many attacks (maybe also the Indianapolis sinking and mass attacks there had an influence) they came out with the famous "Shark Repellant" sounded great and lots of downed airmen no doubt felt a bit safer while surrounded in this dye and chemical solution, but it could not last long and was soon washed away by the ocean. Besides test done in the 70's showed many sharks swam and ATE right in the middle of the stuff….. The navy wisely (if belatedly) started doing more tests to try and find a way to help protect a person who finds themselves floating in the open ocean. The solution (the only one of many, many tried) was a simple device who's name escapes me (think it was named after it's inventor) it was simply some type of plastic bag with flotation rings on top. Sort of like a black garbage bag with floats on top. The person "adrift" got inside and inflated the float rings. Inside the person was screened from view. The researchers found (not surprisingly) that at some point the shark is "attracted" by the movement and sight of hands, arms, and legs dangling and waving about. They found the relatively large block shape of the Black "bag" was not attractive (maybe why kayaks are generally not targeted either) also they found that another benefit of this device was that it kept the water around the swimmer "around the swimmer", so that none of his "smell", bloody or otherwise was emitted into the ocean, so this limited further the attractiveness to the shark.

It seems that generally sharks are cautious, with great white being a pronounced exception. Because they are generally without predators (yes, I have seen the footage of a great white being killed by a killer whale and know the "legends" of dolphins "butting" sharks to death, but not much threatens an adult great white so they are particularly bold on occasions). Most attacks from great white occur in Australia and South Africa. So many in fact that they undertook many things to "keep the beaches safe" in the end they found that the practice known "meshing" was most effective. Instead of trying to "net off" popular beaches (they did it but it was hell keeping the nets up and the nets always developed holes and then were destroyed entirely by a storm or just normal wave action) they found that if they just placed a "strategic" length of netting at various points and distances off the coast that it caught an amazing number of sharks and the number of overall attacks feel dramatically. This method of "meshing" worked so well that it lowered the numbers of large predatory sharks available to attack anything at all. Don't know if they still employ this method there, but it and some success with the method of "streaming foul smelling bubbles from a line buried in the sand are the only methods I have heard of for effective shark control, excepting active hunting of a particular shark after an attack has occurred in the area. In the US attacks outside of Florida are rare with most attacks there being attributed to the "Tiger" shark. These are very dangerous sharks that thankfully tolerate only warmer waters and are not found in cooler waters. But the great white can and does "hit" anywhere, anytime, and although most great white attacks in California occur north of San Francisco they can occur down south here nearer to LA as evidenced by the attack I mentioned at the start of this post. Back east I recall a incident known as "Mattawan Creek". In 1916 there were a series of attacks over a number of days where it was thought there could be no other explanation then that a "rouge" shark was responsible for all the shark attacks. All were particularly vicious and most resulted in death to the victim (5 or 7 in all, over 3 days). Here if I recall was attacked one of the rescuers of a little boy (the rescuer dived to retrieve the boy and actually succeeded in wrenching the boy from the very mouth of the shark while still underwater. The rescuer was returning to shore (from a popular swimming hole in Mattewan creek) when he was attacked by the shark and the boy ripped from his arms. As I recall this rescuer bleed to death after suffering the loss of his leg. So these attacks while rare are real.

I for one have thought of my deep water paddling and never want to be looking a great white in the eye thinking "Well, I was too busy to make provision for any defense for this, so…. ) I will have at least a "shark Billy" (Invented by Jaugues Coustoue of the Calypso) it is just a short club with a long nail driven through it so the sharp end sticks out 1 ½" or 2". Or for long trips I am taking my "bang stick" just in case!!! Sorry for the long post about sharks but once I got going it kinda wrote itself :-)

Joe