A Well Deserved Shark Attack!

[coach]

A fisherman just pulled out an 8' bull shark from the Potomac River.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/09/04/8-foot-bull-shark-caught-in-potomac-in-st-marys-county-md/
Most people seem to think they don't attack people, but I've read otherwise.
While fishing the Chesapeake a buddy was pulling in a good size drum and when he got it aboard something had bit it in half. Makes you wonder about the stories of people jumping in the water off a boat and never coming back up. I hear of a few of those each year.

 

[powder smoke]

DB Agreed! ps

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I think we should try and maintain the natural balance of animals in the wild. There is no reason for man to squeeze out certain species because they get in our way. We are the ones that should learn to adapt. Upsetting the natural balance of animals is a sure way to mess up the environment forever.

 

[sfhogman]

Jimbo, I'd have been disappointed with you had you not posted that. Research is a good thing, idiot researchers not so much...you do understand that, don't you?

Jeff

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Jimbo, I'd have been disappointed with you had you not posted that. Research is a good thing, idiot researchers not so much...you do understand that, don't you?

Jeff

Don't mess with Mother Nature, she will bite you in the arse. ----- Like that? Yeah.

 

[Jeepnik]

Yesterday a kayaker off the SoCal coast was dangling his feet in the water. Hammerhead took a bite. Fortunately a near by fishing boat got him ashore fast.

I kayak. I fish. I fish from said kayak. I see sharks every time I fish. But, I don't go sticking body parts into the water for extended periods of time. The act of fishing attracts sharks. They have and will again I'm sure taken a fish off my line.

When their numbers start to increase, and it seems to happen as if by magic, I slowly move out of the area. Like the aforementioned bears they are apex predators. In this type of situation, we are not. Seems many folks have lost the natural instinct for survival that allowed our species to survive long enough to develop our brains and tools.

Fools like this should not be allowed to breed. It is cruel to their offspring.

 

[wolfsong]

I think we should try and maintain the natural balance of animals in the wild. There is no reason for man to squeeze out certain species because they get in our way. We are the ones that should learn to adapt. Upsetting the natural balance of animals is a sure way to mess up the environment forever.

Humans ARE part and parcel to the natural balance and environment. ALL animal species must have the ability to adapt or they will perish. It is the natural order of life on this planet for all species of fauna and flora.

 

[skeeter]

and humans are made out of meat too!

 

[Pat-inCO]

Humans ARE part and parcel to the natural balance and environment. ALL animal species must have the ability to adapt or they will perish. It is the natural order of life on this planet for all species of fauna and flora.

Good point. Add to that . . . . . . What percentage of the Earth's oceans do
humans populate? While I do not know, I'll bet it is a very small percentage.
As such, how would we be able to eliminate a species such as the shark?

Least an idiot try to use the whale as an example of a species that has been
adversely affected by humans, stop and think about the reproduction rate
of the whale, compared to the shark.
Can anyone say Apples and Grapefruit?

 

[ronto]

Yesterday a kayaker off the SoCal coast was dangling his feet in the water. Hammerhead took a bite. Fortunately a near by fishing boat got him ashore fast.

I kayak. I fish. I fish from said kayak. I see sharks every time I fish. But, I don't go sticking body parts into the water for extended periods of time. The act of fishing attracts sharks. They have and will again I'm sure taken a fish off my line.

When their numbers start to increase, and it seems to happen as if by magic, I slowly move out of the area. Like the aforementioned bears they are apex predators. In this type of situation, we are not. Seems many folks have lost the natural instinct for survival that allowed our species to survive long enough to develop our brains and tools.

Fools like thing should not be allowed to breed. It is cruel to their offspring.

If this is the same guy, he was fishing for sharks. He didn't figure that it works both ways.

 

[wheelgun1958]

I just couldn't believe it.

Moron.

 

[graygun]

I just couldn't believe it.

Moron.

He probably doesn't believe in bang sticks either.

 

[JFB]

If you're going to be dumb you gotta be tough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aczrDOa5Asc

 

[opos]

Humans are not at the top of the food chain in the ocean. Some years back the moron libtards that want nature to just be the end all came up with the Marine Mammal protection act....Absolutely prevents anyone from "harassing" a marine mammal in any manner...so we got beaches, piers, marinas, etc that are knee deep in sea lions and seals....They "come to feed" where the fishing bait is sold and stored and it's no longer legal to shoo them off the docks....The "children's pool" in La Jolla...world famous spot is a rookery for seals and then whole area is shut off with guards and tree hugger volunteers "watching over" the seals and sea lions as they have their pups...

Enter the "man in the grey overcoat"...the Great White shark...also the Mako, the Hammerhead and others...what do they eat?...Sea lions and seals...oh yes and surfers and swimmers....we got lots of that kind of thing going on right now...We have upset the balance of nature...when some tourist sees a pitiful little sea lion that's been "damaged" or is sick..they call Sea World....and because Sea World has been the "E.R." for every seal, gull, tern, shark, whale and every known kind of marine life....they take in the poor little whelp and nurse it back to health and release it into the ocean where a great white eats it....but it looks politically correct for them to intervene....

If we let things go back to nature...if a marine mammal is injured or damaged let it just die and the remains become fish food...quit "rescuing" whales and dolphin that are sick and disoriented and beach themselves...if they were in good shape they wouldn't do that..but no...we got to call Sea World and they got to take the time and money to try and nurse some terminal animal back to health to make the tree huggers feel all warm and wiggley.

Won't be long, I'd guess that some tourists will take a dip in the ocean and their little kid will be on his paddle board and become a noon snack for a big shark...they are here in big numbers due to the el nino...we got 77 degree water along the coast and the big sharks are moving north with the warm water and the red crab infestation....

Sharks live in the ocean...we are intruders in their realm...they have a natural food chain and we interrupt that as well..they prey on injured animals like crows eat carrion...but we are so busy making things all nice and fuzzy that the sharks are going after whatever they can get.

I've spent a lifetime on the ocean...it's a wonderful place but it needs balance and by the constant interferring that the tree huggers are doing the balance is upset and bad things are happening..

It's Labor day..the tourists are leaving in droves....now we can get back to watching the wet backs sneak around the fence and land on the beaches...maybe some great whites will get a few of them...might slow the traffic a bit.

My oldest Son runs a major sportfishing business...this video was taken on a "busman's holiday" when he was fishing near the Coronado Islands about 12 miles from San Diego...it's a pod of killer whales demolishing a blue whale . This is the kind of thing that goes on and should go on..it's nature..but you should have heard the people yell "why didn't you drive the boat through the mess and stop the killing"? Killer whales kill...period...blue whales are prey...period...some folks like to "swim" in the ocean near whales...you might become the "blue whale" if they are hungry..

https://youtu.be/IeeFXs95bbI

https://youtu.be/VUoYoF8z8pw

 

[graygun]

More of these bright folks need to mingle with the sharks.

 

[gramps]

Thanks opos for the reality check. That second video pretty much says it all! You are next!
gramps

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Common sense management of wildlife is what we need. Government agencies try but don't always get it right. It is hard for them to regulate thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen and get the correct balance. They hold hearings and try to do the right things but unfortunately sometimes one side or the other seems to get control of the board.

I agree with the OP that ideas from idiot researchers should be ignored but on the other hand killing hundreds/thousands of sharks is not the answer either. Smart decisions are what we need and these come from understanding the problems as well as what a solution might be. When man tampers in the wild kingdom often times he makes mistakes. Of course things will never be what they originally were and despite our best intentions sometimes unexpected consequences happen.

Fear mongering, railing against government and railing against liberals does nothing except maybe make the poster feel better. Educating people about top predators in the wild, especially sharks, is about the best we can do until changes are made on the regulatory level. 8) 8)

 

[opos]

In some ways the biggest issue we have here is the State dept of Game and Fish...instead of doing patrols and monitoring the game laws they have become self appointed LEO's...a California Game and Fish warden can enter your property and search without a warrant....look it up...they can also conduct a full search of you and your vehicle or property..again with no warrant....They have, in many cases (not all) become the self appointed managers of the entire back country....not worrying about the laws as written..also are spending a huge amount of time and money chasing marijuana growers like a bunch of military insurgents...the claim is that the marijuana growers are making the water dirty in the mountains....We got people to chase drug runners and growers....the game wardens need to get back to managing the wildlife through law enforcement and writing tickets for too many trout...There is a TV program (reality no less) that does "ride alongs" with game wardens in California..it's like an imbeded world news reporter being along with an attack on Iraq back in those days...it's called "Wild Justice" and it's a real look at what "game wardens" do these days...

The key to management is to manage...hmmm..interesting. We have seen many private ventures like the white sea bass program (breeding and private grow out pens and release the smaller fish), coupled with size and bag limits return fisheries to a great place...the State and environmentalists have tried and tried to just shut down all the fishing and go back to "no trespassing" in those waters...all that does in bring on the predators...they are un deterred in their quest....We had millions of sea otters in So. Cal at one point...they ate sea urchins that fed on the kelp ....then the state in it's wisdom "leased out the kelp beds" to a company that makes things from kelp and it destroyed the sea urchin population and good by sea otters...no management...just let the kelp harvesting boats strip the kelp beds and destroy everything in the name of revenue....The Abalone went the same way as did many of the larger species of fish like the huge black sea bass....That's the way of the gubberment and then turn the disaster over to some pin head professor of marine biology and his answer is to shut down all fishing and recreation period...then the game and fish boys set up the buoys and patrol to catch poachers (aren't any as there is nothing to poach) and they get to run their new "go fast" boats around in the ocean chasing marijuana smugglers from Mexico.

 

[Jeepnik]

Interesting comment on the local news radio. You see the peta folks are screaming that sharks are an endangered species do to over fishing of their food source and generally murdering sharks.

Oops, it seems that the shark populations are increasing in US waters. And, it's not just the SoCal area because of El Nino. It's along all of our coastlines. One more myth perpetrated by tree huggers blown all to heck. Think they will admit it?

 

[sebtool]

I just couldn't believe it.

Moron.

+10! And prior to that the genius states that 'There are no dangerous sharks, just dangerous situations.' And this was AFTER the attack??? The gene pool would be much healthier if the darn sharks had just finished the job right the 1st time.... :roll: The video stated that the sharks are very sensitive to 'vibes' and smells. Kinda makes me think that 1 of them must have 'pee'd in the kiddie pool'....

I recall watching a NatGeo(?) show a couple of years back where they were talking about the danger from bull sharks in South Africa, Johannesburg maybe? Apparently bull sharks can thrive in brackish water, and have a tendency to migrate pretty good distances upstream, where they're not expected to be. 40-50 miles, iirc. They had a tendency to raise havoc with the local fishermen...

I had heard of a bull shark sighting in the Mississippi River before, but pretty much blew it off as BS. Mebbe not?

It's pretty obvious that just as with land based predators, governmental/quasi-scientific experts have become the problem, not the solution. Controlling the population of a predator, whether a wolf, mountain lion, or shark seems to take at least a small dose of common sense to complement all that education they've struggled thru. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a class they teach at our institutions of higher learning, where most of the 'experts' come from.

Speaking of common sense, I read thru several of the fatal attacks listed in the attached link above. Swimming with baby seals off coastal CA? Here's your sign. Jumping off the back of a fishing trawler in port? Shark must have thought 'That's an awful big piece of chum! Yum!'

Surfing, anyone?

 

[graygun]

Common sense management of wildlife is what we need. Government agencies try but don't always get it right. It is hard for them to regulate thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen and get the correct balance. They hold hearings and try to do the right things but unfortunately sometimes one side or the other seems to get control of the board.

I agree with the OP that ideas from idiot researchers should be ignored but on the other hand killing hundreds/thousands of sharks is not the answer either. Smart decisions are what we need and these come from understanding the problems as well as what a solution might be. When man tampers in the wild kingdom often times he makes mistakes. Of course things will never be what they originally were and despite our best intentions sometimes unexpected consequences happen.

Fear mongering, railing against government and railing against liberals does nothing except maybe make the poster feel better. Educating people about top predators in the wild, especially sharks, is about the best we can do until changes are made on the regulatory level. 8) 8)

This guy was educated to the nth degree and came to the conclusion that sharks were his friends.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Just curious about California. What did people do to keep the seals and sea lions at reasonable levels and off the beaches and marinas before that marine mammal act was passed. Just looking at pics and videos of areas where they have taken over is disgusting.

 

[stevemb]

Have shark recipe, yum. Guess brilliant guy should'a stayed in school and earned more degrees. Sharks have big pointy teeth, end of lesson one.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Just curious about California. What did people do to keep the seals and sea lions at reasonable levels and off the beaches and marinas before that marine mammal act was passed.

Hi,

Jimbo, "rumor had it" when I was a kid in San Diego that every commercial fishing boat was armed... there wasn't as much worry about piracy, drug runners or terrorists then, so you can take some of the "why" from there!

Rick C

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Just curious about California. What did people do to keep the seals and sea lions at reasonable levels and off the beaches and marinas before that marine mammal act was passed.

Hi,

Jimbo, "rumor had it" when I was a kid in San Diego that every commercial fishing boat was armed... there wasn't as much worry about piracy, drug runners or terrorists then, so you can take some of the "why" from there!

Rick C

Have those furry critters destroyed the Abalone industry? I used to hear that the divers would protect their hunting grounds pretty vigorously also.

 

[sfhogman]

The furry critters you're referring to are sea otters, an endangered species whose numbers have remained low since they were hunted to near extinction for their fur, back in the 1800s. They have no effect on the abalone industry because there is no abalone industry in California, only limited private fishing. One problem with the abalone population is poaching, generally done by small teams of recent Asian immigrants, or so I hear in the news. According to Wikipedia, sea otters and abalone don't do well together because the otters are good at finding abalone and eating them. They like urchins and all kinds of mollusks. They have fast metabolisms and eat a lot.

When you hear of a critter getting shot it's usually a seal or sea lion shot by a commercial fisherman who's tired of having his catch stolen or nets damaged. It's hard enough for those guys to make a living...I can't recall the last time I heard of a sea otter being shot.

We're not trying to save the whole world, just the cute parts,

Jeff

 

[graygun]

Folks out there can convert their pools to salt water and put a few sea lions in...very cute.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

The furry critters you're referring to are sea otters, an endangered species whose numbers have remained low since they were hunted to near extinction for their fur, back in the 1800s. They have no effect on the abalone industry because there is no abalone industry in California, only limited private fishing. One problem with the abalone population is poaching, generally done by small teams of recent Asian immigrants, or so I hear in the news. According to Wikipedia, sea otters and abalone don't do well together because the otters are good at finding abalone and eating them. They like urchins and all kinds of mollusks. They have fast metabolisms and eat a lot.

When you hear of a critter getting shot it's usually a seal or sea lion shot by a commercial fisherman who's tired of having his catch stolen or nets damaged. It's hard enough for those guys to make a living...I can't recall the last time I heard of a sea otter being shot.

We're not trying to save the whole world, just the cute parts,

Jeff

Thanks a bunch 'sfhogman', all those critters kinda look alike to me.

 

[hesco]

Reminds me of that austrailian, that was killed by a stingray a few years ago.

 

[opos]

Just curious about California. What did people do to keep the seals and sea lions at reasonable levels and off the beaches and marinas before that marine mammal act was passed. Just looking at pics and videos of areas where they have taken over is disgusting.

Several things...first there is a huge mortality rate in any ocean creature....only a few of the population survive...Sea Lions (the ones with ears and rear flippers they kind of sit up on..like the entertaining kind) and seals (the ones that don't have ears and sort of flop along on their stomachs) are, as with any species nothing more than a food source. They lived in the kelp forests (as did the sea otters ...the cute little guys that hammer a shell open on their stomach while they lay on their back)....The kelp forests have been devistated over the years by commercial harvesting. The Abalone that they fed on are gone with the kelp as are the sea urchins that are an Asian favorite...all gone now fished out and with no kelp to speak of the whole biosystem is gone...with it would have gone the lions and seals but they moved "inshore" to the places the board are..they eat the bait...people feed them...they eat the trimmings and guts from the fish cleaning and they devistate a fishing party by stealing fish off the lines. Yes they did often get shot but no more...not even a wrist rocket sling shot or bb gun.

The baby seals and sea lions pretty much stayed close to the rookeries for a while and the orcas and other creatures like the bigger sharks fed on them...many hundreds were injured each year and they have been "rescued" for places like Sea World, etc to nurse them back to health....so the population is not "growing naturally"....

Fishermen (commercial guys with long lines that are miles long) would snag and tangle sea lions and seals and just cut them loose to drown...they also would shoot or kill the seals that got into their areas...no, not natural but a fact of life. Today there are laws about the numbers of permits for various kinds of fishing and equipment used...and you best not take a shot at a sealion that's in your chum line or you lose the boat and go to jail....

Disease spread through the seal and sea lion heards every few years...devistated them...today when a sick sea lion is found....off to Sea World for shots and care...sort of like getting flu shots....the "flu" was needed to keep the animal population in check...sort of like people..all the medical intervention keeps folks alive and "healthy" much longer than the "normal" life span....so more are around and more need feeding and a place to live.

Finally the seemingly incessant need for people to "swim with the sharks"....The damn sharks are predators....if you chum and feed them so people can take their little gopro cameras into a cage and film the "killer whites" the killer whites prey on what the boats feed them and not on the seals and sea lions. There is an island about 200 miles below and outside of San Diego...it's called Guadalupe. I fished "the Lupe" for many years....we would go there on several day trips and fish for yellowtail and tuna...always had sharks around the boat and now and then they would grab a fish off the line...but that has become a major tourist attraction with many boats going in....dropping anchor and having "white shark adventures"...they feed and feed and feed the sharks to hold them.. If you have seen the 'shark feeding t.v. programs in Mexico..it's probably at Guadalupe Island...instead of feeding on the thousands of seal pups that inhabit the "Lupe" they are eating fresh dead tuna tied to ropes near the cages...it's going on all up and down the coast line.

The seals are so bad that if an angler (recreational) goes yellowtail fishing (major game fish) they will be lucky to land 1 out of about 5 hooked...seals and lions grab them...we used to carry "seal bombs" that are like a 3" salute firecracker....when the seals were around....quit chumming and toss a few seal bombs...the seals moved on and the fishing went on...it's illegal to use seal bombs now..don't want to hurt their ears.

That's just a little look...this has been going on for 15 or 20 years so the whole ecology of the lions and seals is dependent on the care and feeding of the people...if you see pictures of some of the marinas and bait receives you will see hundreds of mature breeding seals that have taken over ... you can't even yell at them or turn a hose on them ...you do, you get caught...it's a huge federal fine...

Astoria, Oregon...a one time major fishing area (commercial and recreational)....just a few years of "protecting the cute little furry things" and here you go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgEhRCrZSvA

Pier 39 in San Francisco near fisherman's wharf..where the little colorful crab boats moored and fished from every day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1c4-rzRGCA

Finally the world famous "children's pool" at Lajolla near San Diego...a wonderful and upscale resort area...great place for tourists to visit..wonderful fishing a mile or so offshore....great protected waters for the kids to swim (not any more) and the seals are now in charge..there are "booths" of environmentalists all around "guarding" the seals...the beach is all chained off to protect the seals...it's a pup rookery and the offshore canyons are getting more and more big white sharks all the time....been a number of attacks off La Jolla and many more to come..kids on a paddle board look very much like a seal swimming...ummmm tasty..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-FQjUs-g9w

And oh yes ...great to be having a beautiful outdoor patio dinner..fresh sea food...soft breezes....swaying palm trees and the smell of thousands of pounds of rotting sea lion and seal poop wafting over the landscape..