Shark Attack
This afternoon I went diving with my friend Shannon. We had just rolled off the boat into the water when I spied a gray reef shark circling beneath me. Usually I consider it a good omen when I spot a shark first thing, a sign that there will be more to view. … Our dive site was close to the west reef where divers seldom venture due to the distance and because most of the year the water is far too rough on this side of the lagoon. Summer time is the doldrums here so I like to take advantage of the calmer weather to visit this spot. I like it there because the fish are not as use to divers and the sharks will often come closer to find out what you are. Today was no exception. The gray approached me making ever nearer circles. I looked around for Shannon and he was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile the shark kept getting closer and closer on every pass.
Attack Story 1
I could not help but think of stories I have heard of shark attacks. For the most part sharks will leave humans alone because we don’t taste that good to them I suppose. I hate to perpetuate the myth of sharks as fierce aggressors but there have been a few instances here in the past. The first story I will relate happened during the war. As you may recall from past stories my father with the assistance of the rest of the US Navy and armed forces helped liberate the Marshall Islands from the Japanese during the war1. Towards the end of the war a team of doctors and nurses collected blood donations to take to the front. Their plane had just taken off from Kwajalein when it developed problems and was forced to crash into the ocean. Most of the passengers survived the crash itself. But large amounts of blood and plenty of nearby sharks is a recipe for disaster. It was not long before the blood drew the attention of the local pelagics. The sharks attacked the survivors viciously while helpless bystanders looked on from the shore. At that point in time there was not a pass from the lagoon to the ocean anywhere close to where they were so by the time help could arrive the victims died a gruesome death. Now a days there is a pass close by and it is rumored the pass was created to allow rescue teams to arrive to avoid a similar disaster.
Attack Story 2
This story has a happier ending. A guy I work with here name Dave has an 11-year-old son who loves to fish. The boy had been out spear fishing and had caught a fish. Naturally the blood from the fish and struggle it made in its death throes attracted a shark. The shark came after my friend’s son. The boy had been coached by his Dad on what to do in this circumstance. When the shark attacked he poked it in the nose with his spear gun. The shark swam away but came back a second time. This time he shot the spear at the shark. The spear did not strike the shark but it scared it enough that it swam away another time. But once again the shark came back for more. This time the plucky youngster punched the shark in the nose (we’ve all heard that is what you are suppose to do but who would actually think it would work). Fortunately it worked and the shark swam away long enough for the boy to make it to shore before another attack. I find the story a bit fantastic and not beyond the imagination of a typical 11 year old but my friend said it really did happen and that his son followed the advice he had always told him.
Figure 2 Another File photo
Attack Story 3 (short but not sweet)
Recently a tragedy occurred here. A Marshallese man from Ebeye was out fishing and he fell off the boat. Whether he could not swim or not I never heard the details but somehow he drowned. Several days later they found his head and part of his torso. The rest of his body had been chewed off by sharks.
Attack Story 4 (short and semi sweet)
Naturally when we go out diving sharks are a common topic of interest since hardly a dive goes by that we do not see these wonderful animals. My friend Jeff commented that sharks do not normally bite humans. He said they really do not want to risk losing their teeth striking a man whom they do not want to eat anyways. Instead they will usually bump into you to try to keep you away from the food that they want to eat. He said that has happened to him several times and that it feels like getting a kidney punch. I have never had that happen to me. I would also like to comment that more people are killed each year by cocoanuts than by shark attacks.
Attack Story 5 and 5.5 (some of my own experiences)
One of my funniest sharks stories (in my opinion) is as follows. One day I was diving with Eric, Joe, and Virgil. We were doing our surface interval (time between dives to allow your system to out gas) and were snorkeling and swimming about in the water close to the boat to stay cool. Eric and Joe were using my weight belt to sink fast to be able to go down and see the sharks that were circling beneath us. Virgil was taking pictures of other things. I was just swimming. I could tell that the shark was getting annoyed with them. It was at this time that Eric accidentally kicked the shark in the head with his flipper. This was the last straw. The shark came after Eric. Joe and I went through the cut out in the side of the boat like the 3 stooges going through a doorway. Our shoulders slid past the side as we squeezed in. Eric was in the boat right after us leaving poor Virgil to defend himself. Fortunately he had a large underwater video camera. He pushed the shark away with it then climbed in the boat himself. The problem was we needed to raise the anchor and it needed to be freed. We made Eric go back in after the anchor since he was the one that annoyed the shark. We did let him wait until the shark seemed to go away.
I had another experience where I was diving with Dan who is no longer out here. I was watching a shark beneath us as I did my safety stop (normally we rest at 15 feet for 3 to 5 minutes to prevent the bends). I noticed the shark acting erratically. He was puffing out his sides and wiggling his head queerly from side to side. I was new at the time otherwise I would have realized the shark was posturing. Dan waved at me to get in the boat right away, which I did, thus preventing an attack. Dan followed me in to the boat shortly afterwards.
Return to Today’s Story
OK, where did I leave off? As I mentioned before, a lot was going through my mind. One thing was I did not want to turn my back to the shark. Sharks are incredibly quick and he could have if he wanted, circle around me and bite me in my behind before I could say blub blub blub. But I felt better if I had my eye on him. My next thought was that if he did attack me I better get a picture of him first to show my son Joel (if me and my camera survived). Even if I didn’t survive I figured Joel would want to see the shark that killed his Dad. No one wants to have their father die but if he does have to go it is so much cooler if he is killed by a shark than say if he died sticking a butter knife in a toaster to get a pop tart out. So I wanted a picture of this guy. I also thought of past times when Joel and I whimsically remarked that it would be cool to get attacked by a shark if you survived and had a scar to show people. I guess you could use it to pick up chics, “Hey baby want to see my scar?” The first thing we always do when entering the water for a dive is to check the anchor to make sure it will hold. I swam over to the coral head (ever watching my new friend) and checked the anchor. I felt a lot less vulnerable there because I had something behind me. It also had an advantage in allowing me to blend in with the scenery behind me. I checked the anchor while keeping a wary eye out for Mr. Gray. I was also praying a good deal. In a past story I mentioned that fishing brought out a desire to pray. Well, let me tell you, I was praying every bit as much if not more today when I was the bait. But the good Lord answered my prayers and I did not get eaten. I decided I would wait for Shannon by the anchor and he would be sure to turn up. Sure enough he did. It turns out he had trouble with his dive computer when he entered and went back to the boat to get a different computer. The rest of our dive went without incident. We saw a very large puffer fish. Shannon is fairly new here and his past diving experience is in quarries in Missouri so he is always very impressed with things I take for granted. He spotted a huge clam shell (about 4 feet long) but it was dead so I did not think much of it and did not intend to take a picture because I have plenty of them already of living clams. Later we spotted a living clam that was even bigger so he was very impressed with that. We made it through both our dives with the worse incident being myself scraping my wrist against some coral when I was freeing the anchor after the last dive.
1 I have no evidence that my father actually fought here in the Marshall Islands but there is a Japanese submarine that ran aground on the reef and in my imagination I picture my Dad chasing it there in his sub chaser. Hey, it could have happened.
2 Responses to “Shark Attack”
 Comment by Duane July 26th, 2007 at 3:41 pm |
Glenn, A map of the Marshall Islands on your site may be helpful. |
 Comment by Wise July 30th, 2007 at 12:31 pm |
This is a pretty cool pic. |