Bull sharks attack boat for four days..............>>>>>

[Johnny SixPack]

Damn! 

What's going on in Florida, Steve P.?

http://www.local6.com/news/10942485/detail.html

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. -- A crew aboard a shrimping boat were rescued after a group of bull sharks rammed and bit the vessel until it eventually sank off the Florida coast, according to an Associated Press report.

Captain Roger Schmall said a group of sharks had been slamming into the Christy Nichole's hull for four days. But then a 14-foot bull shark broke the boat's tail shaft, leaving Schmall and his crew of two adrift about 100 miles off the coast.

Schmall radioed for help, and another vessel picked the crew up about two hours later.
Schmall remained aboard his ship to pump water out while the other boat pulled it back to land. He said it was working for a couple of hours, but the waves eventually took their toll on Schmall's boat and the boat sank.

I wonder if the increase in shark/elephant/deer/bear/etc. attacks is simply mother nature pushing back against the the human juggernaut.

Or maybe the sharks had just seen, "Jaws", and were eager to, uh, 'get some'?


Johnny

[Afturhrz]

Sounds like Bull to me.

[Johnny SixPack]

Sounds like Bull to me.

Maybe Bronze was on the boat?



J/K kiddin'! 

[skip68]

That seems a little bit FISHY to me. 

[bull]

I think these animals heard about the global warming report and they're getting back at us.

[Orange_Crush]

Man hasn't always gotten the best of the sperm whales as an incident from 1820 shows:

The whaling ship Essex was in the South Pacific on November 20th of that year. She was three months out of Nantucket Island and the voyage had so far been very successful. A thousand barrels of oil had been collected from whales already and the ship was half-filled. The crew was beginning to anticipate a quick trip home with high profits. They were very wrong.

By eight o'clock that morning spouts had been spotted on the horizon. The captain brought the Essex, a 238-ton ship to a stop and 18 of the crew took to three long boats to start the attack. The steward and cabin boy were left on board. The captain, George Pollard, took charge of one boat; the first mate, Owen Chase, took charge of the second; and the second mate, Matthew Joy, handled the final boat.

Each boat rowed toward the school of sperm whales and picked out a target. Chase's boat attacked first. The boat carefully came in beside the prey. After the harpoon was thrown, the boat was turned quickly away to try and avoid the thrashing tail of the injured creature.

The whale unexpectedly changed course and its flukes hit the boat, knocking a hole in it. The crew let the whale go, and rowed back to the Essex to make repairs.

After hoisting the boat aboard, Chase noticed a large sperm whale had left the school and was lying off the bow of the ship. Chase was amazed when the animal suddenly started swimming toward the vessel at full speed. The whale struck the Essex with its head just behind the bow.

"The ship brought up as suddenly and violently as if she had struck a rock and trembled for a few minutes like a leaf," recalled Chase. "We looked at each other with perfect amazement, deprived almost of the power of speech."

The whale had smashed through the bulkhead and the ship was leaking badly. Chase set the crew to work on the pumps and signaled the other boats to return immediately. The whale, meanwhile, had moved off some distance and was apparently badly injured. It was leaping and twisting in convulsions, beating the water around it to foam.

Then suddenly the animal was racing toward the ship again, its head high above the water like a battering ram. It hit, stoving in the port side of the ship. The Essex was doomed.

The whale disappeared, probably fatally wounded. The crew threw all the supplies it could into the remaining long boats and abandoned ship. A few minutes later the Essex rolled on its side.

The other two boats had successfully killed and secured two whales when they noticed that the ship had disappeared. Cutting the whales free, the boats rowed back to where they'd left the ship. The captain was speechless as Chase told him what had happened.

The situation was desperate. They were thousands of miles away from land in three light boats. The captain ordered that the masts of the ship be chopped away so they could right the vessel long enough to get some food off her. After salvaging everything they could, the boats headed east. Several of the crew starved during the trip. Two were left on Henderson Island, an isolated and barren piece of land, in order to raise the chances of the others surviving to reach civilization.

The boats got separated in a storm and on February 15th Chase's group was rescued by the ship Indian of London. Captain Pollard's boat reached the Island of Santa Maria off of Chile on February 23rd. The third boat disappeared and was never heard from again. A ship was sent to Henderson Island and the two crew left there were rescued on April 5th.

It is assumed the surviving crewmembers had learned a healthy respect for the power of the sperm whale.

[Old Moparz]

That's why I don't go fishing.

[Brock Samson]

wow! 

that's some whaling yarn...

[Johnny SixPack]

Aye, it do be a whale of a tale, Ahab, but she be a true one none the less:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaleship_Essex

[tan top]

 
scary stuff . i do go fishing but.... i am never going in a boat  now 

[Silver R/T]

they were just hungry. people kill lots of fish, taking food away from them so they ought to get some snack eventually

[dkn1997]

are those sharks like the bull queers from shawshank redemption?  they just keep ramming you until you go under?

[Steve P.]

Damn! 

What's going on in Florida, Steve P.?

This isn't anything new. They show stuff like this on the news every now and again.. Now they are blaming it on El Nino..    Yup, blame it on something Mexican..   

Lately divers and fishermen alike are having trouble with the Jew Fish. They are really salt water Bass that are older than Christ and can weigh upward of 1400 pounds.  My buddy has pics. of a Jew Fish that he and his brother speared while in the Keys many years ago. A few years after that Florida outlawed killing them. Now they are going back on the wanted list as they are cleaning out reefs and attacking man.

I for one don't even go to the beech..

[dkn1997]

Lately divers and fishermen alike are having trouble with the Jew Fish. They are really salt water Bass that are older than Christ and can weigh upward of 1400 pounds.  My buddy has pics. of a Jew Fish that he and his brother speared while in the Keys many years ago. A few years after that Florida outlawed killing them.

[Lord Warlock]

Nawwww, the bull sharks are just trying to reestablish their dominance after the damn stingrays got Steve Irwin (croc hunter) and they've been rubbing it in.  The bull sharks have had the reputation as the most common man eater/attacker for decades.  Its been embarrassing. 

[Lowprofile]

From the Bass Pro Shop


Each of these grouper is different in their own way. The jewfish, for instance, grows to more than 700 pounds, yet can live in tidal creeks beneath mangrove trees in the Everglades. Most prefer wrecks in 50 to 100 feet of water. They have been accused of trying to eat scuba divers on occasion. They're now protected from harvest, however. (The jewfish, not the scuba divers.) Divers speared thousands of ancient jewfish until stocks faltered and the fish were accorded federal protection.

[Steve P.]

They should have shown the scale with that fish on it. The one my buddy Ray got isn't much bigger than that one and went over 860 pounds.  It even had a few chomps taken out of it while dragging it back to the pier.

I would say the 700 pounds in the article is a bit on the light side. 


Oh yeah, they also say it isn't politically correct to call them Jew Fish anymore..