Swimmer killed by shark off New Zealand North Island

[peterbj7]

Not a diver but could easily have been.

BBC News - Man killed in New Zealand shark attack

 

[jewelofnile69]

I had read this earlier today. I wonder what it was that drove the shark to this man (something "shiny"?)? Hopefully the autopsy will tell what kind of shark it was. But I still feel that being on the top of the water is likely what contributed to this attack. For some reason I feel much more at peace with the ocean when I am under the water and diving.

RIP!

 

[AfterDark]

I had read this earlier today. I wonder what it was that drove the shark to this man (something "shiny"?)? Hopefully the autopsy will tell what kind of shark it was. But I still feel that being on the top of the water is likely what contributed to this attack. For some reason I feel much more at peace with the ocean when I am under the water and diving.

RIP!

You can be sure it wasn't a North Carolina Sandie!

 

[Tigerman]

Not a diver but could easily have been.

BBC News - Man killed in New Zealand shark attack

Actually knowing the statistics of swimmers/snorklers that get attacked by sharks vs how many divers does in combination with knowing how most sharks that attack people hunt - Not that likely to happen to a diver at all, fortunately. Which is why I rather stay submerged than on the surface.

Tragic incident though. Heard on the news they suspect it to be a GW but knowing how reliable news is with regards to accidents and wildlife - who knows..

 

[oldschoolto]

We look like a seal when we float on in the ocean..... Don't float.... There was a show on it....

Jim...

 

[ajduplessis]

Teenager drowns in pool.....

Not a diver but could easily have been.

 

[supergaijin]

Sharks are common in that area- GWs are fairly regular, just usually not a problem. Most of the public never know how many biiiiiiig females migrate from Australia each year. Luckily for kiwis they usually aren't in 'eating' mode.

The cops fired about 20 rounds in to the water when they saw a shadow- if they're a better aim than Empire State Building cops- they may have scared it away.....about 200 metres away that is.

 

[Adobo]

Sharks are common in that area- GWs are fairly regular, just usually not a problem. Most of the public never know how many biiiiiiig females migrate from Australia each year. Luckily for kiwis they usually aren't in 'eating' mode.

The cops fired about 20 rounds in to the water when they saw a shadow- if they're a better aim than Empire State Building cops- they may have scared it away.....about 200 metres away that is.

I saw an episode of mythbusters where they were firing rounds into a swimming pool to see how far a bullet can travel in water and still cause damage. Here is a copy and paste of their results:

In their first experiment, the experimenters shot the 9mm pistol straight down into the water. At a range of up to seven feet, the 9mm round was effective in completely penetrating the ballistics gel – meaning a person at the same range would be killed. At eight feet, the bullet entered but did not exit the gel, indicating a possible non-fatal wound. Past eight feet, the gel was undisturbed.

The shotgun, loaded with a 3” deer slug instead of buckshot, not only "killed" the ballistic gel target at six feet, it destroyed the acrylic water tank, ending that method of testing.

The team then switched to a swimming pool to continue the experiments – and to make the test more realistic, switched from shooting straight down to an angle of twenty to thirty degrees off the vertical, approximating a shooter standing on the edge of the water and shooting out into it.

The first candidate for this test was the Civil War rifle. At a range of 15 feet, the ballistics gel was completely unharmed; likewise at five feet. Only when the range was reduced to three feet did the bullet finally penetrate the gel, suggesting that diving under water was probably a pretty effective way of dodging slugs during the Civil War.

The experimenters moved on to the hunting rifle, which was loaded with a full-metal jacket .223 round that emerged at roughly 2,500 feet per second. At ten feet, the bullet disintegrated and the gel was untouched. At three feet, the bullet again broke up, with its tip coming to rest on the gel – not nearly enough power to damage flesh.​

A bullet from the M1 Garand, with a muzzle speed of 2,800 ft/sec, also disintegrated at the ten-foot range. At two feet, the slug penetrated about four inches into the gel, suggesting a non-fatal wound. The armor-piercing .50 caliber round didn’t do any better – it, too, came apart at distances greater than five feet and lost most of its punch by three feet.

​

In other words, people shooting their guns aiming at an underwater object likely do little more than make noise.

Incidentally, is this particular "incident" directly relevant to scuba?

 

[Tigerman]

Well he did say if they had better aim than Empire state cops theid SCARE it.. which is probably the only thing they even hoped for in the first place..

 

[supergaijin]

They were shooting at the sharks to retrieve the body. Apparently after the intial attack (probably GW), another few immediately came in- these were probably whaler sharks- not more GW's.
Shark Attacks Kills Adam Strange at Auckland's Muriwai... | Stuff.co.nz

Whaler sharks are our verision of bulls, fairly large robust sharks which enter brackish water with a bite first, ask questions later kind of attitude. They got their name from tearing in to whale carcasses when whaling was a staple industry in NZ.

A reaction and interesting point made to the shooting
What lies beneath - bull-dust - blogs - national | Stuff.co.nz