John Townsend - Sharks

The word shark means one thing to many people DANGER! Yet sharks are in more danger from humans than we are from them. We kill thousands every day.

Every year, sharks attack people but not many. About ten people are killed by sharks in a year. Those deaths make the news. They make our blood run cold.

If you swim in Australia, South Africa or the USA, you might see some of these great creatures. They might see you, too. Would you risk swimming there?

Some sharks feed on seals near to the shore. A surf board can look just like a seal from below. That is when a shark will rise and bite with its rows of razor-sharp teeth. It will soon be over.

Bits of surf board and blood will drift away. All that will remain will be the screams from the beach

More people swim or surf now than ever before. That means there are likely to be more shark attacks. But sharks have been biting us for hundreds of years!

In 1749, 14-year-old Brook Watson went for a swim in the sea off Cuba. Thats when a shark struck.

Brooks shipmates saw the shark attack. They pulled him from the water just as his foot was bitten off. He later had to have his leg sawn off below the knee. Years later he was famous not just for his lucky escape. He became the Lord Mayor of London.

In 1778, the artist John Singleton Copley painted a picture of Brook Watsons attack.

There are many sorts of shark almost 500 species. Most of them are harmless to humans. The three types most likely to attack us are bull sharks, great white sharks and tiger sharks.

One of the worst shark attacks ever was during World War Two. In 1945, the US warship Indianapolis sank in the Pacific Ocean. About 900 American sailors jumped into the sea as the ship went down. The men wore life-vests and floated in the water all night.

At sunrise, the sharks arrived. The sailors were helpless against the hungry man-eaters. Some days later a seaplane landed to rescue the survivors. Only 317 men were rescued. It was the worst sea disaster in US Navy history. No one knew exactly how many sailors died from drowning or thirst and how many were victims of the dreaded sharks.

Many experts say the most dangerous shark of all is the bull shark. Thats because this shark can be very fierce and charge like a bull. It even swims up rivers and has been known to crunch canoes in half! Bull sharks often hunt where people swim in shallow, warm water.

BULL SHARK FACTS

They often live to about 16 years old.

They can grow to between 2 and 3.5 metres long.

They are also known by other names, such as Zambezi sharks and Ganges sharks. These are names of rivers where the sharks have killed people in small boats.

They have wide heads with a short, blunt snout.

They eat almost anything using their rows of razor-sharp teeth (which they often leave stuck in the bones of victims).

South Africa 1988

Belinda (15) and her friends went surfing before breakfast. She lay on her board with her head on her arms. It was good to feel the sun on her back and the warm sea below. She was almost asleep when a jolt spun the board and she fell into the water.

A large bull shark rushed up and bit into her leg three times. She screamed and hit out, thumping at the sharks face. It shook her in its jaws and tried to pull her under. Her friends rushed over and the shark let go, taking a chunk of Belindas leg with it.

Her friend pushed a fist into her leg to stop the bleeding. They pulled her onto the beach where they sent for help. They worked hard to stop her passing out and from seeing her leg.

A doctor came and fixed up a drip. She was rushed to hospital where she was given six pints of blood. Her leg had to be cut off just below the hip. Even so, she went home a few weeks later and lived to surf another day!

August 2013

BULL SHARK ATTACK!

A teenager is lucky to be alive after a bull shark attacked him while he was wading in Florida. He had the scare of his life while fishing near the shore.

Ive now got a hole in my leg and teeth marks, said 17-year-old Christian Mercurio. I felt like I was being bitten so I just kicked whatever it was. It bit my left foot. I just ripped my leg out of the sharks mouth and started running.

Mercurios mother wrapped up his leg and rushed him to hospital. He was lucky not to lose his foot. Im just really glad that Im still alive and with my family, said Mercurio.