"Goodbye... old chum."
Posted on 12/06/2010 9:58:26 AM PST by george76
Tourism minister insists diving will continue because 'sharks will not attack divers'.
Foreign Office warns Britons to avoid cheap dive tour operators .
Egyptian officials have insisted it is safe for tourists to go back into the water despite a 70-year-old German woman being killed in Sharm el-Sheikh after another shark attack.
The latest attack has echoes of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film Jaws, where hunters capture a shark they claim is behind a fatal attack only for the fish to strike again when officials said it was safe to go back into the water.
Briton Ellen Barnes, 31, from Horsham, West Sussex, has described how she frantically swam for the shoreline after describing the water around her turning red with blood when the German pensioner was attacked.
She told The Sun: 'I have never felt pure terror like that. The water was churning like I was in a washing machine.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Egyptian minister says it's safe to swim despite German tourist being eaten by a shark (and some people actually believe him)
It’s safe for lawyers to swim, since sharks won’t attack them.....professional courtesy.
Egyptian minister has jumped the shark.
Egyptian minister says it's safe to swim as long as you're not eaten by a shark
I was in New Symrna beach flordia during a massive shark infestation a few years back and the surfers were actually surfing in between the shark fins. And there were a bunch of sharks out there. I asked one surfer about it and his reply was “If you don’t bother them they won’t bother you”. Those surfer dudes are CRAZY. (and it’s not there’s anything you could really call a “surf” in the basically calm waters of New Symrna beach)
Translation: “Everyone come and swim here. We want the tourist money.”
Yikes.
“You say ‘Barracuda’, and people say ‘Huh what’? But you say shark, and you’ve got a panic on Eid el Adha.” - Mayor Ali ben Vaugh
Is the Egyptian minister prepared to go swimming to prove it?
"Goodbye... old chum."
They're completely correct. As a Floridian, I can tell you that I've personally swum in waters infested by sharks and had no problems. I got bumped a few times, but they never attacked. There were at least a dozen sharks (mostly hammerheads) and none of them bothered with us. It was somewhat invigorating if not unnerving, but if you don't present yourself as prey (flailing or swimming on the surface or looking like food from below), they won't bug you.
We used to walk the inlet from north Clearwater beach to Caladesi Island during low tide when we were kids, and we'd see hammerheads, nurse, and bull sharks all the time. They'd circle us and go between our legs, but the water was only knee-high. We knew the first two were relatively harmless, but every Floridian has heard stories about the bull shark. If I see the hammer-shaped head, I don't worry, but a bull shark is something to avoid. Will they attack a swimmer? Hard to say, but the more prey-like you look, the more likely they'll come in for a test bite.
“You say ‘Barracuda’, and people say ‘Huh what’? But you say shark, and you’ve got a panic on Eid el Adha.” - Mayor Ali Vaugh
So how do you swim, if not on the surface?
Now I can't shake this mental image of Baghdad Bob wearing the 1970's suits that Amity mayor wore.
Sorry about that. I re-read and realized I didn’t explain myself.
We were wading more than swimming. During our trek across the inlets, we were regularly in knee- to waist-deep water and shuffling our feet (Stingray Shuffle). Rustling up all that sand under the water and simply walking through the water without haste makes the environment around you uncomfortable for the sharks. They try to avoid all that sand if possible, and when they’re around and you’re forced to actually swim, they recommend slow, deliberate strokes and as little splashing as possible.
Like I said, I’ve been in the water with sharks plenty of times, and unless you’re positioned to look like some sort of food, they don’t bother humans. The only incident I had was with a nurse shark biting my water shoe, but a reflexive kick to the snout sent it darting away.
The same bozos who claim Boeing brought their plane down, not a raving rouge islamist, uh...pilot.
It is just not safe for German Tourists....
I’d say that approach works every time, right up until the time it doesn’t. Sharks are nothing if not unpredictable.
Depends on the type of shark we’re talking about. Nurse sharks are as docile as they come, and we used to swim with them as kids. Hammerheads are a little unpredictable, but they’re not the brightest bulbs. I’ve never seen an unmotivated act of aggression from a hammerhead. Again, if you look like prey, they might nip to see.
Bull and tiger sharks, on the other hand, are like pit bulls: unpredictable and dangerous. I’ve been in the water with them, but they always bear watching.
I don’t make it a habit to be in the water with them, but with the right mindset and an appropriate understanding of their behavior, seeing one in the water near you won’t raise such an alarm. Tourists running from the water due to a shark sighting is more apt to trigger an attack than staying in the water and remaining calm. I’m not saying to stay in the water with a shark, but if one is around, calmly make your way to dry land.
And, whatever you do, don’t bleed. That gets them excited.
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