Shark (Jaws) Attacks Surfer

Shark Attacks Surfer in California
By JORDAN ROBERTSON

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Aug. 28) - A surfer was attacked by a shark in Monterey Bay early Tuesday and airlifted to a hospital with bite wounds to his torso and thigh, according to hospital and state park officials.

The 24-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was surfing with a half dozen other people at Marina State Beach when the shark attacked him from behind around 11 a.m., according to Loren Rex, a California State Parks spokesman.

The victim screamed and started punching the shark while trying to flee, Rex said.

"Then the shark took him down under the water," he said. "Witnesses saw a lot of thrashing and some blood coming up. Other witnesses saw the shark let him up before biting him one more time."

One witness said the shark was a great white shark measuring at least 20 feet long, which rescuers weren't able to immediately confirm, Rex said.

Surfers pulled the victim to shore and administered first aid, using a surf leash and a blanket as tourniquets to stop the bleeding until rescuers could arrive, Rex said.

The victim was conscious and breathing when he was taken away by ambulance. He was then airlifted to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where he was in fair and stable condition Tuesday afternoon with lacerations to his torso and thigh, according to hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou.

The victim was going into surgery and was expected to survive, Alexiou said.

The Monterey County beach, located about 35 miles south of Santa Cruz, is well known for its sand dunes, hang gliding and rugged surf with very strong rip currents. The area where the surfer was attacked is considered an advanced surfing spot suitable only for skilled surfers.

Because of the attack, state officials closed all the beaches from Monterey State Beach to Moss Landing, a 15-mile stretch where people were forbidden from entering the water Tuesday.

Rex said this was the first recorded shark attack at Marina State Beach, but added that some divers have been attacked in Monterey Bay.

Here we go again. Another shark attack in waters that are known to have sharks. Listen, YOU play with fire, YOU get burned! YOU swim with sharks, YOU run the risk of getting hit if YOU are lucky. Getting dead, if YOU are not lucky. As long as YOU go in knowing this, then it is on YOU! Remember, "the sharks live there, YOU, are just visiting"!

Animalz Rule (even Great Whites),

Bobby Sharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

College Student Mauled By Shark

Florida student mauled by shark

A college student has been bitten by a shark in Florida, leaving her needing more than 100 stitches to 17 wounds.

Andrea Lynch, 20, told how she was attacked as she floated in the sea during a boat trip off Sarasota Bay.

Doctors said the shark's teeth got close to her lungs during the attack, on Wednesday night, but missed all major organs.

Ms Lynch said local shark experts told her the animal that bit her was likely to be a 6ft (2m) bull shark.

"I got on the boat and my friend was like, 'Do I need to call 911?'", she told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper.

"I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me, and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat," she added.

The newspaper reported that it was only the seventh reported unprovoked shark bite in Sarasota County since 1882 - but the second one this year.

When the shark attack victim is YOU, it doesn't matter what number it is or, over what period of time it occurred! The best way to avoid "shark attacks", is to "stay out of the occupied water". Especially at NIGHT!

Animalz Rule, (even sharks)

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Cobra's Carry On, Check The Crocs

Crocodiles, cobras found in luggage
Mon Aug 13, 2007

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Saudi passenger tried to smuggle a large number of reptiles, including cobra snakes and infant Nile crocodiles, out of Egypt in his luggage, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Sunday.

The discovery of the reptiles in the passenger's bags triggered a brief panic among security personnel at the Cairo International Airport, witnesses said.

The 22-year-old passenger, identified only as Anas, said he needed the reptiles, which also included chameleons, for scientific research at his university in Saudi Arabia.

His collection will be handed over to Egypt's main zoo in Cairo.

Hey, what can I say, "YOU do what YOU gotta do"! Can You imagine the security personnel? I would have quit on the spot!

Animalz Rule, (even snakes and crocodiles)

Bobby Sharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Goodbye Friend, Extinction Sucks!

Dolphin Species Driven to Extinction
By Charles Q. Choi

(Aug. 8) - The Yangtze River dolphin is now almost certainly extinct, making it the first dolphin that humans drove to extinction, scientists have now concluded after an intense search for the endangered species.

The loss also represents the first global extinction of megafauna—any creature larger than about 200 pounds (100 kilograms)—for more than 50 years, since the disappearance of the Caribbean monk seal (Monachus tropicalis).

The Yangtze River dolphin or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) of China has long been recognized as one of the world's most rare and threatened mammal species.

"It's a relic species, more than 20 million years old, that persisted through the most amazing kinds of changes in the planet," said marine biologist Barbara Taylor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service. "It's been here longer than the Andes Mountains have been on Earth."

In 1999, the surviving baiji population was estimated to be as low as just 13 dolphins, compared to 400 known baiji in 1981. The last confirmed glimpse of a baiji was documented by a photo taken in 2002, although unverified sightings were reported as recently as 2006.

An international team of scientists conducted an intense six-week search for the dolphin in two research vessels during November and December 2006, covering the entire known range of the baiji in the 1,037-mile (1,669-kilometer) main channel of the Yangtze River. The researchers and their instruments failed to see or hear any evidence that the dolphin survives.

"It was a surprise to everyone on the expedition that we didn't have any sightings at all, that the extinction just happened so quickly," Taylor recalled.

This would make the baiji the first cetacean—that is, dolphin, porpoise or whale—to go extinct because of humans.

The species was probably driven to extinction by harmful fishing practices that were not even devised to harm the dolphins, such as the use of gill nets, rolling hooks or electrical stunning. The findings are detailed Aug. 7 in the journal Biology Letters.

"In the past, you had this out-of-control whaling that still didn't result in any extinctions, but these accidental deaths, which are much less visible to people, are much more insidious," Taylor said.

Even if any baiji exist that scientists did not find, the continued deterioration of the Yangtze region's ecosystem—home to roughly 10 percent of the world's human population—means the species has no hope of even short-term survival as a viable population, the researchers added.

"To help save the endangered Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis) that also live in the river, we'll likely have to keep them in lake preserves or raise them in captivity, because the situation in that river doesn't look like it can be controlled at this point," Taylor explained.

With the loss of the Yangtze River dolphin, the world's most critically endangered cetacean species now is the vaquita or Gulf of California porpoise (Phocoena sinus), of which 250 survive. The vaquita and other coastal dolphins around the world now face the same peril that claimed the baiji—accidental deaths from fishing.

"We have to find a way to let small-time fishermen put food on their tables that doesn't involve putting gill nets in the water that decimate these species," Taylor said. "Unless we figure out a way to deal with this problem, the baiji may be the first in quite a long line of animals to face extinction."

You know, this just really breaks my heart. Here, these unique creatures have been around for millions of years, and, get wiped out by humanity unintentionally and by accident. It is so sad that man, with his infinite wisdom, can't feed himself without destroying another species. Just shows the real short comings of humans.

Let's DO something so that this does not happen to anymore species!

Animalz rule,

Bobby Sharpe Bobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe