WW II Shark Attacks

[Tamas]

A buddy of mine and I were talking about WW II shark attacks on sailors that went down and could not figure out the sharks that were responsible for all the attacks and deaths. He said it was the blue while I said the bull sharks.

Anyone know which they were?

 

[humanFish]

A buddy of mine and I were talking about WW II shark attacks on sailors that went down and could not figure out the sharks that were responsible for all the attacks and deaths. He said it was the blue while I said the bull sharks.

Anyone know which they were?

I recently saw an IMAX film "Sharks 3D" I believe it was called. Unless my memory is failing they said that bull sharks are responsible for the majority of shark fatalities when a ship or plane goes down in open water.

BTW - It's a really good film, although sad, as they show how critically endangered a lot of these sharks are. I was quite moved by it.

 

[Lil' Irish Temper]

Probably the worse attack was the USS Indianapolis in 1945. After being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, approximately 900 survivors floated in the water while their blood drew sharks. For five excruciating days, sharks stalked and attacked. When rescuers finally arrived, only 317 men were left alive.

It's pretty safe to say that the sharks didn't kill all those men (probably cold, thirst, wounds, etc.)

If you are going to do research that would be a good place to start.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Blues are opportunistic and will feed off dead whale carcases etc, but they would not be on the top of my list of sharks to worry about if I fell overboard, ditched or were ship wrecked. I see them more as late arrivals to feed on the scraps and dead or near dead that have drifted away from the group.

Tigers, bulls and oceanic white tips are all very opportunistic feeders that would not hesitate to cash in on a ship wreck buffet. Personally, I think any pelagic shark would be nuts to pass up an easy meal.

Oceanic whitetips will approach swimmers and boats with no hesitation in the open ocean so they would top my list if I were offshore in tropical waters. I think they were probably responsible for many if not most of the attacks in WWII in tropical mid ocean locales.

Closer to shore, I would worry more about tiger sharks as they are basically scavengers that will eat just about anything including people. Bull sharks fall in the same eat anything category. Bronze whalers are also potential candidates if in inshore waters and they also have a history of attacking swimmers when excited by splashing etc.

 

[MoonWrasse]

Probably the worse attack was the USS Indianapolis in 1945. After being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, approximately 900 survivors floated in the water while their blood drew sharks. For five excruciating days, sharks stalked and attacked. When rescuers finally arrived, only 317 men were left alive.

It's pretty safe to say that the sharks didn't kill all those men (probably cold, thirst, wounds, etc.)

If you are going to do research that would be a good place to start.

The light cruiser Indianapolis had just dropped off Little Boy to be dropped on Hiroshima when it was torpedoed a week before that event. Supposedly the worst US naval disaster, on the part of the sharks eating the men.

http://www.ussindianapolis.org/

 

[Tamas]

Probably the worse attack was the USS Indianapolis in 1945. After being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, approximately 900 survivors floated in the water while their blood drew sharks. For five excruciating days, sharks stalked and attacked. When rescuers finally arrived, only 317 men were left alive.

It's pretty safe to say that the sharks didn't kill all those men (probably cold, thirst, wounds, etc.)

If you are going to do research that would be a good place to start.

I did some looking into that particular ship, but the *type* of shark is never mentioned.

 

[MoonWrasse]

I did some looking into that particular ship, but the *type* of shark is never mentioned.

It's the type that makes men scream in the night, according to a Survivor.

http://www.ussindianapolis.org/woody.htm

 

[Chaseh]

I just read Abandon Ship, an older book on the Indianapolis. A very detailed account which didn't spend as much time focused on sharks as some accounts. Many men were already injured. Many died from various complications (physical and mental) associated with floating in salt water for days without fresh water or food.

As far as what sharks were involved, don't think you could say. In those waters, it could be bulls, blues, tigers, or even reefs. Although is was very very deep water, the region is teeming with reef sharks.

 

[drbill]

My understanding based on material I read decades ago was that blue sharks were responsible for most of the deaths in the Pacific including those on the Indianapolis. The blues in open water are generally larger than the smaller ones we used to see in coastal waters or around Catalina a few decades ago. Back then they were quite numerous, but I haven't seen one in years.

Keep in mind that blues are generally more numerous than tigers or oceanic white tips, and the devastation was done by a larger number of sharks.

Dr. Bill

 

[Tanked]

According to Quint from Jaws, they were tigers.