![]() ![]() ![]() PAT tags automatically “pop-up” after nine months and upload this data to a satellite, which then emails it to researchers.īut for everything that made this event extraordinary, it exemplifies many of the things that make shark attacks similar. PAT tags record depth, water temperature and light data at predetermined intervals to track the shark’s positions. On Anzac Day, 1992, after losing half his blood, and lying on the beach for 15 hours in the care of his colleagues overnight, Fraser endured the longest single-engine helicopter rescue in history to survive with the inauspicious title of the world’s most southerly shark attack victim. ![]() The shark turned and swam off, and Fraser looked down to see the mangled remains of his right arm. Pushing hard with his knees, Fraser managed to tear his left arm free. A dense, black, expressionless eye stared back. It was a single moment of clarity in the thrashing white water. He was driven up to the surface again, and in a moment he will never forget, Fraser turned his head and looked at the shark. The jaws of his assailant had closed firmly over both arms, sinking its teeth through the neoprene wetsuit and into the bone. Like a train hitting a bicycle, the force of the impact drove him deep underwater and knocked the mask from his face. This far south, sharks were the furthest thing from his mind-it was believed at the time that great whites never inhabited water less than 10✬. He was hoping, in coming days, to snorkel with the southern right whales that linger at Campbell Island each April. The sea lions, which can normally be seen tumbling through the weed, were conspicuously absent.įraser and his friends spent 20 minutes investigating the rocks and crevices of the bay and examining the sandy bottom that shelved gradually out to sea. He looked back to see his four colleagues enter the water, and together they swam through kelp that swayed rhythmically in the Southern Ocean surge like twisted ribbons in the wind. Mike Fraser picked his way over the rocks of Campbell Island’s Northwest Bay, pulled a thick neoprene hood over his head, slipped on his fins, placed his mask over his eyes, blew a couple of rasping breaths through his snorkel, then slid into the water. Great whites are ambush predators, striking, often unseen, from below. But this evocative picture could not be further from the truth. Slicing through calm water, a dorsal fin is one of the most iconic images of the animal kingdom-the sinister, premeditated advance of a killing machine. In New Zealand, paua divers are calling for a stop to shark cage diving in areas where they work, terrified that the sharks may make this fatal connection. While the metal bars of a shark cage provide fairly effective protection for those within, there are concerns that sharks are being habituated to associate boats, and divers, with food. Above the water operators use minced fish and tuna oil to attract the predators. But in this zoo, the people are in cages-the subjects of intense scrutiny by curious great white sharks. Off the coast of Guadeloupe in Mexico, shark tourism is thriving. ![]()
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