Jumping the Shark...Really

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http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/17081/48/

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When a TV show has an episode that destroys its popularity, it is said to have "jumped the shark." (No, I don't know why, although it began with some ep of, "Happy Days.")

This drunken Serb did it literally... and killed the shark thought to have attacked several swimmers recently at an Egyptian resort!

Of course, the authorities had already blamed this on a mako and a white-tip that they caught. I can't tell from the photo which species this shark is. Maybe a tiger. All three species are known man-eaters.

Frankly, unless an autopsy turns up human remains, I wouldn't bet they got the right shark this time, either. Or, more than one may be involved.
The Red Sea is notorious for shark attacks.

But the way that this one was hanging out by that diving board makes it a prime suspect.

I hope this doesn't violate the taboo on news stories. It is pretty bizarre.

I'd like to turn this into a discussion of shark attacks, if anyone is interested. We can substitute that for a bear story this week.

T-Star
 
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The term comes from the Fonze doing a stunt where he jumped over sharks in a tank on Happy Days. That was said to mark an irreversible decline of the show. Hence a jump the shark moment is when something happens from which a show doesn't recover.

There was a spate of shark attacks in Egypt off the coast that was said to mirror the film Jaws recently, if memory serves. Egypt serves as a discount warm weather tourist destination for places like Romania. Some of the locals quietly blamed genetically engineered Israeli attack sharks. It did seem as though one single shark had actually developed a taste for human flesh and become a man eater.

Australia and South Africa are also popular spots for sharks to eat tourists. Maybe it's where the sharks go to relax.

Google Jaws in Illinois to turn up an older episode of Monster Quest about sharks in bodies of fresh water in the United States.
 
Sounds kind of fishy to me. I'm certainly no shark expert but would that kill a shark? How do they know the shark wasn't already dead? And to claim him a hero? He was drunk and had no idea he would land on the shark.
I was on a deep sea fishing trip once and a large shark swam right up beside the boat. The thought of jumping on his back ran through my head but only for a second. Glad I wasn't drunk.
 
rocketdog said:
shark attacks, tiger attacks ;)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/P40-fighter.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Flying_tigers_pilot.jpg

Flying Tigers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...


Interesting. Did you know that the Flying Tigers got the idea for painting shark faces on the noses of their P-40's from No. 112 Squadron, RAF, which had been doing that in North Africa?

Is that Col. Robert L. Scott in the second link?

Back to sharks. Did you know that many attacks occur in water less than waist deep?

And bull sharks can live in fresh water (see Gator's post above) and go far upriver in many rivers. In fact, the record bull shark was caught in a South African river! It went about 13 feet and a bit. It was returned to the river as part of a scientific project that upset many who live along that river and swim in it. Saw this on, River Monsters.

That species probably attacks more people than any other, but whitetips, tigers, whites, and some others are also very dangerous.
 
sipowicz said:
“told me to hold his beer and simply ran to jump."

Isn't this how most redneck Darwin award stories start?
Click to expand...


I thought they started with, "No - - - - this really happened."

Oops. That's the difference between a fairy tale and a war story.
 
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That is hilarious! The shark in the picture is very bizzare looking and with its dorsal fin so far back, it is not a maneater. It almost looks like a basking shark, which are relatively harmless to humans.

I liked it in Jaws 2 when Chief Brody used an eyedropper to put cyanide in the hollowpoints of his .38s. Then he capped them off with melted candle wax.
 
First, try using larger fonts on your posts- I fixed it for ya. :D




Texas Star said:
I'd like to turn this into a discussion of shark attacks, if anyone is interested. We can substitute that for a bear story this week.

T-Star
Click to expand...
I have long thought about a "Shark Guns" thread, having been inspired by the bear, giant snake, bigfoot, alligator, and zombie gun threads. It poses so many interesting possibilities in ballistic requirements, having to penetrate varying amounts of water and differences in the density of salt and fresh water.
Then there is the problem of power AND concealability in everything from winter fishing gear down to summer speedos and bikinis.
And what about rigs- leather or synthetic?
I've obsessed many long nights on the problem in case I'm ever attacked by a shark, and I just have not worked it out. I am most likely going to be wearing only swim trunks, and I am quite concerned about the suggestions I am going to get about how to conceal the weapon of choice. :eek:
 
Texas Star,
Thanks for the post, very interesting, and it also inspired Sip's
response, which I was waiting for.
Hand Ejector, that really cracked me up, no pun intended.
Every now and then you turn loose with something extra special.
Thanks, all. TACC1
 
There have been more shark attacks here, New Smyrna Beach, FL, than anywhere else in the world. ALL of them have been near shore(duh, where people are in the water) in murky water and when the bait is running. I have never heard of a man eating shark here although I admit the media relishes dramatizing these attacks. I kinda' doubt they happen elsewhere either.

BTW, a 9mm or .38 special will easily kill a medium size shark. I didn't like it but had to do it twice to save a catch offshore.


Bob
 
Here you go, just for Big Sharks:

Beco Products Online Catalog

Up to 50 cal. Try sticking that in your shorts.

May as well use a grenade instead. May also be hard on the thrower....

I think Tom Clancey had jack Ryan cut down a 12 ga bangstick to concealable dimensions and used it on a BG.

Bangsticks or PowerHeads work a Lot Better that a boolit....
 
When I was stationed in Diego Garcia in the late 70's/early 80's we had a hammerhead that made the lagoon his home (at least part time). By all accounts Hector was about 25 feet long. I don't remember him eating anyone out there. I used to go snorkling every day. I would take chicken out to a moray eel, saw a few small sharks but never did have a run in with Hector.

We could only swim in the lagoon, the outside of the atoll was off limits for swimming, too many sharks and other creatures.

Hector the Hammerhead - Diego Garcia

bob
 
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The people who can shoot sharks, other than cops at the beach, will normally be those who carry in a bag or cooler without ice, but with gun, lunch, camera, etc, in it.

Or, they'll be those who have their own boats or go out with a friend who is captain of his craft. Elmer Keith once went ocean fishing, and said that his .44 Magnum handloads penetrated water (and sharks) better than factory ammo.

I wondered about the dorsal fin on the shark in the link. One person posted about that. I think the forward dorsal fin is either drooping so that it's hard to see, or that someone cut it off. Remember, this shark didn't wash up on shore, dead, for several days. The Greenland shark has a small dorsal, but is not native to warm waters. It is not found in the Red Sea or the Med.

If I was a cop in an oceanfront city,I'd learn where to shoot sharks, preferably in the brain. It's sort of Y-shaped.

I also know of a number of cases where a knife or spear sufficed. None involved big White sharks...

The one killed by the jumper may have had the brain jarred loose or an internal organ damaged by the impact, as when porpoises ram sharks. Of course, a porpoise has a much greater impact. BTW, freshwater porpoises/dolphins have been known to attack people. (In the Amazon.) Don't know about the marine species. But I wouldn't count on them acting like Flipper!

T-Star
 
Texas Star said:
BTW, freshwater porpoises/dolphins have been known to attack people. (In the Amazon.) Don't know about the marine species. But I wouldn't count on them acting like Flipper!

T-Star
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Oh great.
As if I wasn't traumatized enough worrying about getting shredded by sharks and swallowed whole by pythons. Now I have to worry about getting rammed by a bottlenose.

Or drink hot beer from a cooler full of ammo.
 
Bob R said:
When I was stationed in Diego Garcia in the late 70's/early 80's we had a hammerhead that made the lagoon his home (at least part time). By all accounts Hector was about 25 feet long. I don't remember him eating anyone out there. I used to go snorkling every day. I would take chicken out to a moray eel, saw a few small sharks but never did have a run in with Hector.

We could only swim in the lagoon, the outside of the atoll was off limits for swimming, too many sharks and other creatures.

Hector the Hammerhead - Diego Garcia

bob
Click to expand...


Bob-

The shark has too small a head to look like the Great Hammerhead. If the length (26 feet) is correct, it may be a world's record for hammerheads! I'll have to check my books, but that is a BIG hammerhead! It'd be about like a 30-foot crocodile!

However, the camera angle may have distorted the width of the head, making it look more like a Bonnethead hammerhead. It does look to be pretty long.

If you fed Moray eels by hand, you're a bolder man than I!

T-Star
 
handejector said:
Oh great.
As if I wasn't traumatized enough worrying about getting shredded by sharks and swallowed whole by pythons. Now I have to worry about getting rammed by a bottlenose.

Or drink hot beer from a cooler full of ammo.
Click to expand...

Lee-

Pythons HAVE to swallow people whole. They can't chew!

As for the food, put beer and pop in a separate cooler. Don't leave your stuff unguarded on the beach, of course. And be sure that it's legal to "carry" at the beach. There may be laws about that in some areas, even when one has a CCW license.

But some lives could have been saved if someone present had had a gun. I saw one case where a shark clung to its human victim, even after both were dragged out onto the sand by rescuers.

Stay out the water on the Amazon and its tribs and you won't have to worry about those dolphins. Or the many other dangerous things in that river system. Those include electric eels, tsk, tsk...shocking! :D

The editor of, Field & Stream at the time told Warren Page, "We could probably run a bear story every month." People never seem to get enough of that stuff. Snakes also garner a lot of interest.
 
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handejector said:
First, try using larger fonts on your posts- I fixed it for ya. :D





I have long thought about a "Shark Guns" thread, having been inspired by the bear, giant snake, bigfoot, alligator, and zombie gun threads. It poses so many interesting possibilities in ballistic requirements, having to penetrate varying amounts of water and differences in the density of salt and fresh water.
Then there is the problem of power AND concealability in everything from winter fishing gear down to summer speedos and bikinis.
And what about rigs- leather or synthetic?
I've obsessed many long nights on the problem in case I'm ever attacked by a shark, and I just have not worked it out. I am most likely going to be wearing only swim trunks, and I am quite concerned about the suggestions I am going to get about how to conceal the weapon of choice. :eek:
Click to expand...

Now THAT is funny...dont care who you are!!!
 
The original story reads like B.S. to me. Maybe a dead shark turned up on the beach, I agree it looks more like a basking shark than a white or other "Man eaters" The Egyptian tourist industry was happy to jump on the story hoping to convince potential tourists "the danger is over".
Steve W
 
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Stevens said:
The original story reads like B.S. to me. Maybe a dead shark turned up on the beach, I agree it looks more like a basking shark than a white or other "Man eaters" The Egyptian tourist industry was happy to jump on the story hoping to convince potential tourists "the danger is over".
Steve W
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That wouldn't surprise me, especially since they had already caught the mako and the white-tip and pronounced them "the one". Tourist boards try to suppress news of shark attacks.

Sharks definitely do make deliberate attacks on people. My son killed a blacktip (might be a whitetip; I forget) reef shark off of Guam, when it made a pass at him. He speared it, then stabbed it repeatedly until it expired. He was hanging onto a pectoral fin. Said it's the scariest thing that's happened to him in the ocean. He's a Master dive instructor, and had on his SCUBA gear. It was the only time that a shark went for him, although he did a fair amount of spearfishing for other fish.

The gentleman in Florida who thinks that sharks only attack people by mistake obviously hasn't read the accounts that I have of deliberate encounters. These include even mass attacks on victims of ship and air disasters at sea. The best known is that of the USS Indianapolis, whch was sunk by a Jap sub after delivering an atomic bomb. Most of the crew perished due to shark attack. And a ship carrying Italian POW's to South Africa went down, to the delight of many hungry sharks. Hundreds of men were eaten.

I don't doubt that some attacks are due to sharks seeing a white foot flash in murky water, where they may think it's a fish. But their sensory capabilities are so high that even that may be doubtful. Many other cases are in clear water, where the shark has circled and "bump tasted" the intended quarry. Receptacles along their sides tell them if something is good to eat.

I do think that some attacks by white and tiger sharks may be due to surfers lying on their boards being mistaken for seals or sea lions. From below, they also look like certain turtles.

Overall, I think that a hungry shark or one that just sees an opportunity for a meal may strike. As will some if approached too closely. Territorial issues are also sometimes involved, with elaborate body language showing potential aggression.

Sharks are very interesting, from several angles.

T-Star
 
"Jaws" was based on a true story, but many of the facts were changed. It actually took place in a town in NJ in the twenty's several miles upstream from the ocean. It was a bull shark that killed two people and maimed one. Great white attacks on people are usually unintentional. They love seals, hunt by sight, and like to prowl the surfline for cover. I used to live near San Fransisco in what's known as the red triangle, a notorious great white feeding area. Surfers used to get nailed there on a regular basis but were "spit out" after the shark realized what they had. Unfortunately, one bite from these bad boys is one too many!
 
seagill said:
"Jaws" was based on a true story, but many of the facts were changed. It actually took place in a town in NJ in the twenty's several miles upstream from the ocean. It was a bull shark that killed two people and maimed one. Great white attacks on people are usually unintentional. They love seals, hunt by sight, and like to prowl the surfline for cover. I used to live near San Fransisco in what's known as the red triangle, a notorious great white feeding area. Surfers used to get nailed there on a regular basis but were "spit out" after the shark realized what they had. Unfortunately, one bite from these bad boys is one too many!
Click to expand...

I think the shark went up a creek called Matawan, in 1916. I agree that it was probably a Bull shark (C. Leucas) because of the distance it travelled in fresh water.

Peter Benchley greatly changed the facts in creating, Jaws, which is an even better book than it is a movie. And it was a darned good movie! I do have some reservations about the casting of several characters. I was especially disappointed in seeing who Spielberg chose to portray the police chief's wife and the icthyologist. I can't say here why I think this was, but it was a bitter disappointment for one who admired the book.

If you haven't read, Jaws, by all means do. It is a remarkable book. And it is more complex and interesting than the film.

BTW, Bull sharks have been found a LONG way up such big rivers as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Zambezi. They are also the sharks found in Lake Nicaragua. Some people there claim that some live only in the lake, but that others commute via a river to and from the sea.

Some species seem especially likely to attack known (recognized) humans. The White-tip, Bull, and the Tiger are probably the top three of that group. I got quite a laugh when an episode of, Baywatch described tiger sharks as benign.

T-Star
 
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Texas Star said:
. Of course, a porpoise has a much greater impact. BTW, freshwater porpoises/dolphins have been known to attack people. (In the Amazon.) Don't know about the marine species. But I wouldn't count on them acting like Flipper!
Click to expand...

Dolphins do seem to attempt to drown humans every now and again, apparently for fun. Disturbingly though, most dolphin on human assaults are of a sexual nature with the dolphin being the agressor. For whatever reason, they'll often attempt to mate with humans, quite forcefully.
 
You always hear about the cute dolphins who saved the poor drowning human and took them to the beach.

Of course, you never hear about the humans the dolphins take out to sea to play with until the human sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Dead men tell no tales! ;)

bob
 
Disturbingly though, most dolphin on human assaults are of a sexual nature with the dolphin being the agressor. For whatever reason, they'll often attempt to mate with humans, quite forcefully.


Gator-

Now I know why Aussie actress Rachel Blakely looked so happy when she played a mermaid on, Flipper! :eek: :D

She could turn into a human (with normal legs) out of water, too. Looked great in a silver bikini...

What is it with these creatures like dolphins and Abominable Snowmen and human chicks? I don't like their women...:confused:
 
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