Thursday 5 April 2012

Sharks

Yesterday there was a shark attack at a surf spot on the North Shore called Left Over's. The surfer, a 28 year old man, was bit twice in the foot by a ten foot Tiger Shark. He received 42 stitches from the Wahaiwa General and will be ok. (Read More Hear)


To quote Finding Nemo, "Fish are friends, not food."
I would be lying if I told that I'm not afraid of sharks, but to be honest it's not something I really think about while I'm surfing. I know I'm going to sound like a total hippy saying this but as a surfer I have really come to appreciate and find the ocean comforting.  It's such a special place for me and I can't help but feel so alive when I'm sitting out in the ocean on my board or riding down the face of a wave.


Seeing sea life, big or small, while I'm surfing is kind of cool and definably reassuring. I think it would be really scary if you didn't see anything other than surfers in the ocean. Seeing turtles, sharks, seals, fish and manta rays all let you know the ocean is alive. Thats a good thing an means that we haven't totally trashed the whole thing!


One a side note consider these stats:



Annual Risk Of Death During One's Lifetime
Disease and Accidental Causes of DeathsAnnual DeathsDeath Risk During One's Lifetime
Heart disease652,4861 in 5
Cancer553,8881 in 7
Stroke150,0741 in 24
Hospital Infections99,0001 in 38
Flu59,6641 in 63
Car accidents44,7571 in 84
Suicide31,4841 in 119
Accidental poisoning19,4561 in 193
MRSA (resistant bacteria)19,0001 in 197
Falls17,2291 in 218
Drowning3,3061 in 1,134
Bike accident7621 in 4,919
Air/space accident7421 in 5,051
Excessive cold6201 in 6,045
Sun/heat exposure2731 in 13,729
Lightning471 in 79,746
Train crash241 in 156,169
Fireworks111 in 340,733
Shark attack11 in 3,748,067
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2 comments:

  1. Nick5 April 2012 at 06:17

    Wild... I read the news article from your facebook - that's scary stuff. Reminds me of the first day I was surfing in NZ and the next morning an ariel photo of a pack of sharks in teh same area in the news paper! Enjoy the rest of your time Hawaii!

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  2. Alex16 April 2012 at 14:36

    Cool! But... Your analysis fails to account for the fact that as a regular surfer you are at a higher risk of being attacked by a shark. If you take the analysis from the point of view of someone being a surfer and look at shark attacks for 1 in every X regular surfers you will get a very different number. I would estimate it would be around 1 in 35,000. This number would imply about 1 in 100 people surf regularly.

    That said, I still feel your conclusion is valid.

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