Official GWS Thread

A group of Bay Area Sea Kayakers (I'm a member) were surfing Dillon Beach I guess Saturday 12/20, one of them Tony had his paddle smacked hard by a GW. He got a good look at the dorsal fin. They all made it back to shore without any further contact or any injuries (or indeed any damage to the paddle).

If I recollect correctly, this happened at the end of the day that included paddling around Bird's rock at Tomales Point. It was a calm day, these were all very experienced paddlers, but I personally don't paddle that area anymore because of it's GW history.

By my count that makes the 4th or 5th GW BASK incident since the 90's.

If folks are interested I can email Tony to see if he'll let me quote his story here.

mikechin

Yeah, get that BASK story copied here please.

tomales point is ground zero for GWS-human attacks. 7 I think? most divers.

John

The Dillon beach incident is at
http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm

mikechin

jmairey! what's shakin?

The homepage for bask is      http://www.baskers.org/frame.html

hit 'articles' on the left

In the list it's 'the one that let us get away' and 'jaws 2'

I was going to copy it but I saw the copyright at the bottom

Oh my god. How have I never seen those before!?

I guess Ano Nuevo and Tomales Head are about the sharkiest places on our sharky coast.

Aussie kayak fisherman knocked into water by GWS

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=11283537

The definition of "Irony": [ahy-ruh-nee], –noun
1. A man who had campaigned for many years for the protection of sharks becomes a meal for the landlord.

Anyone notice that the Aussie kayak fisherman that got knocked in the water was on a Hobie and had his fins deployed? 

Looking at the numbers (not good); 2 known kayak fishermen shark attacks = 2 Hobie's with fins.  The good news is that after they taste the plastic they go away.  I hope they don't figure out that the flavor is in the stuffing not the shell...like a tamale.  LOL

The big GWS that's cruising Pigeon Point is probably keeping his eye on the seals that hang out on the big rock just south of the cove where we usually launch from.  When we were there in November I remember seeing lots of seals out in the water and wondering when elephant seal activity was going to pick up at Ano Nuevo.  The catch of the day was Etienne's big ling but not much in the way of Dungies, which is what we were really after.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/29/shark-australia-sydney-kayakers

A local got his paddle hit by a big one in the mouth of Tomales two weekends ago. I think it was a  gaggle from BASK. The guy had just left his group to go in to Dillon because he didn't want to surf with the others. I think he paddled back to be with his friends pretty quickly. I haven't looked on BASK but I heard there were some long threads on the incident. Lurker Magoo.

Mooch! Let's go to Sydney!

VAMOS AMIGO!!! 

keep buying those lottos, I'll let you know when one comes through

 Amen Bro ... Amen   

Saw this on ABC this morning during a bit about the rise in GW attacks in Australia.  Am I the only one who spent more time checking out how they rigged their yaks Down Unda than looking at the shark? 

No milk crates?  
but still a lot of stuff there for a shark to get his teeth caught on
Man, that shark going by like that makes you just want to pop off a big crossbow into its eyeball

Daaaang. That fish had no fear a-tall.
That sucker was pretty confident! Yikes!

Daaaang. That fish had no fear a-tall.
That sucker was pretty confident! Yikes!

If I were the 2nd scariest fish in the ocean I'd be pretty confident too.

-FF

I found this on kayakAngler online. The attacks are trending up. 

Disturbing Statistics for Shark Attacks
With shark attack statistics recently released for 2008, a disturbing trend in attack frequency
continues to worry West Coast water-lovers. There were five unprovoked shark attacks
confirmed on the Pacific Coast of North America during 2008, bringing the total number of shark
attacks in this region since 2000 to 42. The Shark Research Committee says this is “more than
five times” the twentieth century annual average.
In 2008, the victims included two surfers, two kayakers and one swimmer. The deadly attack on
swimmer David Martin at Solana Beach in April was the third fatality confirmed for the 21st
century.
The most recent victim in the new report was Tony Johnson, who was kayaking near Tomales
Head at Dillon Beach, California, on December 20th, 2008. He was the eighth kayaker to be
attacked off the Pacific Coast since the first reported incident in 1989. Since 2000, kayakers
accounted for seven per cent of shark attack victims in California and Oregon, while surfers
were still the most common targets at 76 per cent.
The Great White Shark was positively identified as the causal species in all of the 2008 attacks.
According to Shark Attacks of the Twentieth Century, Great Whites were also implicated in 87
per cent of the attacks from 1900 to 1999 with an annual average of slightly more than one
attack per year.
The number of juvenile and adult Great White Sharks observed in the Southern California area
during 2008 suggests a possible change in their population dynamics and seasonal site
preferences. The location, seasonality and number of stranded marine mammal carcasses
seem to support this observation. All of this may be bringing the sharks in closer contact with
people.
For more information visit: www.sharkresearchcommittee.com
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