Howzit Jason, yep laniakea is a hot spot also. Aloha, Kokua
You can find Bethany, pre-shark attack, here at: http://www.hanaleisurf.com/surf_team.htm There is also a video of her surfing. She seems to be a very talented surfer. What a shame. There is alsa an article on Yahoo news right now. I hate how the news sensationalizes shark attacks. http://www.hanaleisurf.com/surf_team.htm
For now, Bethany is taking things day by day, undergoing a blood transfusion yesterday and preparing for a second surgery tomorrow. Anyone wanting to write to her can send e-mail to .
Wildog, our prayers are with the young lady. Stay safe.
Howzit EP, Bethany’s brother Noah is setting up a web site for her, it will be up and running in a few days, www.bethanyhamilton.com . Also Rip Curl is planning benefit events on Kauai and Oahu while the Triple Crown is running. Ay this time donations are being accepted by Hanalei Surf Co… address is P.O.Box 790 Hanalei Hi., 96714 . Aloha,mahalo nui loa , Kokua
Someone was very quick thinking and used a surfboard leash to tie off her arm and stop the bleeeding. I think that needs to be entered in Surfing 101 under shark attack as the #1 emergency first aid item. In Southern CA, we have more GW sightings along the near shore reefs - babies looking for small fry. After the longline fishing was banned in Hawaii - to save the turtles and everything else the sometimes 10 mile long lines snare (birds, mammals, you name it -) the fleet basically moved to San Pedro, CA. The lonelines clean out all the shark food. They have also forced the Pacific Turtle to the brink of extinction… And, I am sure they are what are driving the sharks to our shores here in CA more than ever. There is a lawsuit pending to create an injunction to stop longline fishing in CA. The longliners are basically operating like pirates, and have used little loopholes as they were not intended to be used, to continue this far. Hopefully, the injunction will go through. As long as most sharks have enough of their favorite - easy to catch food to eat, they will not think once about a surfer - unless, perhaps, you are dealing with a territorial animal during breeding season, etc. In Northernmost California - The Redwoods - people have been surfing with full grown huge GW’s - all the time - hardly anyone ever gets attacked. One guy got sucked out of Humboldt Bay (the tides are intense) and was chomped…but…they are sitting out there waiting for the sea lions to come and go, and it was mistaken identity. Besides being in a “strike zone” (where they are waiting to pounce on sea mammals coming in and out of fish infested river and bays) shortboarders and bodyboarders are also more on the menu because they look about the right size and more sea lion like. Bethany was probably mistaken for a turtle, and may have startled it - paddling through the wave… In otherwords, it was a mistake and if we could interview the shark, you never know what it would say, but it might say that he struck out as she frightened him…or appeared so fast - it thought she was a turtle. Anyway, if you see any fast moving turtles or seals, catch the next wave in, and stay away from any place they hang out and/or use as a highway. At dusk in Humboldt, the sea lions swim hugging the backside of the shorebreak…near the Eel River. Great place & time to go in, but only if you are into shorebreak! I’ve seen huge sea lions swimming in outside breakers on the verge of breaking - as they can just turn and catch the wave in, if they see a GW. So, even the giant ones have a drill. Wave huggers. I’ll check and see if a petition exists to ban the longlines in CA. There are two rules in terms of shark control: 1. Make sure they have plenty of their favorite food to eat 2. Stay away from where that favorite food hangs out and/or where they can easily catch it. Birdie
Howzit Birdie, Actually Holt tied off bethanys stump with a rash guard first and used the leash after they got her to shore. So now we can add either a rash guard or a leash for stemming blood loss. Just checked Tunnels, perfect 4ft. and only 1 kite boarder out. Didn’t you guys in the Hombolt area have some shark action a few years back at a spot by a pulp factory discharge zone. Aloha Kokua
“In otherwords, it was a mistake and if we could interview the shark, you never know what it would say, but it might say that he struck out as she frightened him… or appeared so fast - it thought she was a turtle.” How thoughtful! Yes Id love a personal interview. Please bring your friends, too. Any time is fine with me! Im always hungry and never frightened by new visitors. Mmmmmm… could you stay for a snack? You`ll be surprised at what I eat.
What a brave young woman! Our prayers go out to her and her family and friends.After reading and discussing the attack, things got a little quiet 'round the table Then my son asked"does this mean we’re not going to Moss tomorrow?" We went.
There has been some attacks around the mouth of Humboldt Bay, which is near where the pulp mill was…but, if you watch the sea lions…they’ll tell you waz up. When the tide starts to haul ass out of the Bay - just as it is starting to turn and go out - they high tail it all the way into the part of the bay where the mudflats get exposed at low tide…which is to say, they get as far away from the mouth as possible, and snooze on the mudflats, til the incoming tide wakes up. Anyway, it isn’t just the sharks at Hum Bay that can get you - it’s the 35’ extra thick peelers that can come through there in the winter…and unlike Hawaiian waves, these are not warm. They can be 47 - 54F monsters right atta Alaska. There are ice cream headaches and then, there’s Hum Bay. People drown surfing it and they also drown - a lot - by being on the jetty and get whacked by a monster rogue wave. If you are on a gun over 8’ or anything over 8’, the GW’s don’t seem to have any interest. They swim under surfers all the time at some of the regular spots…cruising…but…they have LOTS of their fav food there and it is much easier to catch than some big old longboard. Plus, the big old sharks are up that far, and they’re not only smart but lazy. Let’s face it, they like to bite just once maybe twice and then leave the meal to die and then, they come back and eat it. No way are they willing to thrash the meal around and fight it til it’s dead. Why bother! Like I said - they are smart and lazy. They don’t want to get hurt anymore than anything else. Anyway, the GW’s hang just outside of the jetty mouth…waiting for dinner. From the sounds of it, the tigers do this as well, in Hawaii. As tempted as I’ve been, I do not bodyboard up in Humboldt anywhere. I have spent too much time observing the sea lions and noting my likeness in full suit, hat, and flippers to do it…oh…and I am not into shorebreak. If I was, and there was good shorebreak, I would…but…why put myself on the menu? I seems to me, that a board 8’ or more is the golden rule. In recent years, I have been followed by a shark in the Santa Monica Bay - up near Sunset/PCH. People started waving and jumping up and down and that whole bit to get me to come in…very near where the baby GW’s were spotted this year. I’ve also had the local harbour seal follow me around for more than an hour, and watch/wait for me to paddle back out to it after catching waves (it’s like having a dog in the line-up waiting for you to keep coming back). So, I am guilty of bodyboarding in Southern CA where baby 5 foot GW’s are known to be, where the one off seal or sea lion show up, and where I have been followed by sharks before. However, no one has ever been bitten. Not in the Bay. And millions surf/swim there. Babies, even 5 - 7 foot ones haven’t grown up enough to have any interest in killing mammals that are as big or bigger than them…they’re just kids and want sand sharks, halibut, sardines…pup food. It’s the freakin’ teenagers you have to watch out for up around Santa Cruz. They’re just learning about mammal food. The big stuff. They make more mistakes. In Southern Cal, we’ve had near shore babies and I think the woman that got killed 200 miles north up in Avila - was probably struck by an extra hungry mom GW, who had made the trip down to Southern Calif from Humboldt to give birth, and was returning north. They drop the kids off down here as the water is warmer, calmer…good for the kids. As they grow and get better at hunting, they head north. They don’t need big mammal meals until they are bigger and in colder water with stronger currents. Meanwhile, we need to make sure the Mom’s (which are HUGE) have plenty to eat out at sea, so, they they don’t come in near shore for some fast food. Bethany will end up with a special arm attachment. They have come a long long way in their design, and even with the old models, people did amazing things with them. She’ll be part bionic now. She’ll be able to do things normal people cannot. She needs to know this. Birdie
Predators and prey are interdependent. Prey depend on predators to limit competition, and to selectively breed their strongest members. Predators rely on prey for food. How many prey animals are required to support one predator? It can be worked out on a weight ratio. As I remember the ratio for cold blooded predators, like sharks, is about 40-to-1. This ratio means, at an average time, every pound of predator requires 40 lbs of live prey to hunt. Warm blooded predators require more than twice that ratio. Absent other limiting factors predators in a higher ratio environment, say 80 lbs of prey to each lb of predator, will flourish and thrive. Their numbers will grow as they deplete their supply of prey. After the ratio reduces to below the equilibrium ratio, say 20:1, predators get desperate for food. Such predators search out other forms of prey. So if you feed hungry sharks lots of food you will increase their numbers for a time when they overeat the food supply. Then you will have gobs of hungry sharks looking for another form of prey, the human form. The recent Kauai shark attack happened in clear deep water. The surfer’s arm was bitten off, but the shark didn’t attack with the purpose of biting off the surfer’s arm. The shark bit across half of the surfboard. I’m sure the surfer wouldn’t have remembered the attack very well. I certainly wouldn’t have. She probably saw the shark at the last instant and pulled away from it. Anyone who would say that a given stupid shark attacked a person by accident is assigning more intelligence to the shark than he possesses. But what about the tens of other shark attacks every year? Are they all “accidents”? Hardly. It’s true, you can’t blame a dumb shark for biting somebody. That’s what predators normally do. But what prey normally do is try and protect themselves from predators. Previous lies in this thread are disturbing because they defend the sharks’ “natural” predation of humans while attempting to convince humans to relinquish their natural right to defend themselves. No, we shouldn’t blame sharks for the human suffering and loss. We should blame the people who protect sharks in the pursuit of selfish political gain. Every mangled human torso is on their hands.
Yo, Flipper - dude, settle down. Humans are not and I repeat are not the natural prey of sharks. There are thousands and thousand and hey - millions of sharks out there. If humans were their natural prey - they’d have grown legs by now, and be pounding on your door. I hate to tell you this - but fiberglass and foam are even less on the menu than a skinny boney human. You may like to sit around and eat buckets of chicken wings, but sharks prefer easy to chew FAT and Cartiledge containing creatures. Much easier to bite into and digest. They don’t care for bones much. Give them a nice big whale carcass, and they are in heaven! They are seriously into blubber. Now, if you are middle aged and have a BIG beer belly, I agree, you are getting closer to putting yourself on the menu. If you have a typical boney human arm or leg and your lucky and they chomp into that - chances are, you’ll be spit out and dismissed as a hard object to chew. If they get you around the middle, you have a big problem on your hands. Don’t believe me? Fine, everyone raise their hand who has heard of sharks hunkering down and chewing away on human arms and legs like they were chicken bones. Humans are not their natural prey. And yes, sharks are very intelligent. There is mounting evidence all the time of this… I find it fascinating that the top predator on land and sea, the human, thinks the shark is an idiot. Typical human arrogance. If GW’s are so stupid and humans are their natural prey, how is it that people surf around them every day in certain places in California and don’t get attacked but for extremely rarely and under certain conditions that can be attributed to the humans stupidity when venturing into the sharks territory? There is a huge difference between being in another creatures territory and being on the menu, except that if you broke into any number of homes - you could possibly get yourself shot, especially if dressed up in a ski mask. So, territorial issues, mistaken identity, and scaring some creatures - can get you whacked… But those all have F*ck all to do with being the natural prey of a shark. Humans simply are not. Never have been. That’s a hollywood fantasy. Get over it. Everyone who surfs, is out there with sharks. All the time. Get a clue. Hardly anyone ever gets bit compared to the number of encounters, known and unknown. If humans were the natural prey of sharks, as you contend, Flipper, there would be no surfing industry except maybe in water parks. Why ? Because sharks are all over. I just spent the past few months bodyboarding with several GW pups and several other kinds of sharks. They are truly magnificent and important creatures. You should learn to respect them. Humans are famous for overeating the food supply, of being idiots, and a few other things you mentioned. I think you project too much on to the sharks from your own limited perspective. Nothing like sitting around, chewing the fat, huh? Birdie
Whops, that was suppose to be a “Feed the Sharks” response…not Toyota truck hybrids —>Baja.
Last year a similar incident happen at Poipu beach were a young man lost his leg to a shark atack. When this incident happen we were getting a lot of rain and the water near the shore was very murky (red dirt). Kauai again has been getting a lot of rain this last week making the shore very murky. Although my hart goes out to the young girl, I have to wonder what were her parents were thinking to let her surf in that condition. John
“Natural prey”? Mmmmmm… I live in the moment, endlessly restless, to stalk and savage whatever I desire. The sea is abundant with choices. What is this word you call “fear”? I have never known of it.
Seals are nice and fatty, mmm we know you love their blubber, tons of energy to store up out of a nice fat sea lion. Plz don’t bite my board, I worked hard to get it. You’re very pretty and the times I’ve seen you have been memorable. Love, Ted
I am an apex predator. The sea is mine. I hunt the the young, the old and the weak. Seals are good and human beings among the most helpless. Do not deceive yourselves. I make no mistakes. The diversity of my menu is complimented by my stomach`s ability to digest almost anything I can swallow. Bite, withdraw, wait and then devour. Life is a smorgasbord, no?
would you like fries with that?
Howzit John, Actually the water was very clear and glassy that morning. Yes we have had rain but since tunnels is not near any rivermouths there wasn’t any brown water. One thought is that it was so clear,calm and small, that the shark was able to cruise right next to tha reef looking for some pupus to munch on. The news last night told how Bethany’s dad was getting ready to have knee sugery when the doctors were informed of the traumatic accident and Tom’s surgery would have to be postponed til after bethany was cared for. Tom said he just had a feeling and hoped it wasn’t his daughter. His doctor went to get some info on who and how bad the shark incident was, as soon as the doc returned to Tom’s room ,Tom said he knew it was Bethany before the doc told him. Aloha, Kokua
The comment on shark’s “natural” food was off base in one respect: The attack was by a tiger shark, which is known to prefer sea turtles as food items. Sea turtles by nature are not fatty, blubbery creatures, what with the shells, hard skins and all. While the white shark may look for the fatty blubbery prey, (i.e. seals, whales), the tiger is known to be less discretionary about it’s prey. Any comment from the experts out there?