August 7, 2024 • 28 mins
This week's species was voted on by Patrons: Sharks!
Ashley dives into recent shark attacks and offers tips on how to stay safe. The episode begins with a review spotlight and recaps notable shark attacks, including the tragic deaths of Simon Nellist and Tamayo Perry. Ashley discusses how these incidents occurred, the aftermath, and the measures taken to prevent future attacks.
Links mentioned in episode:
International Shark Attack File (ISAF)
Click here for a list of recorded shark attacks in Hawaii
Kai McKenzie's Instagram is @kai_mckenzie
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, check out our website GetOutAlivePodcast.com and join us on Patreon (where you can now follow us for free)!
Support the show for free by leaving a 5-star review wherever you're listening, or on GoodPods or Podchaser (where we can respond to your comments).
You can find Ashley @TheAngryOlogist on Twitter.
Thanks for listening!
Ashley dives into recent shark attacks and offers tips on how to stay safe. The episode begins with a review spotlight and recaps notable shark attacks, including the tragic deaths of Simon Nellist and Tamayo Perry. Ashley discusses how these incidents occurred, the aftermath, and the measures taken to prevent future attacks.
Links mentioned in episode:
International Shark Attack File (ISAF)
Click here for a list of recorded shark attacks in Hawaii
Kai McKenzie's Instagram is @kai_mckenzie
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, check out our website GetOutAlivePodcast.com and join us on Patreon (where you can now follow us for free)!
Support the show for free by leaving a 5-star review wherever you're listening, or on GoodPods or Podchaser (where we can respond to your comments).
You can find Ashley @TheAngryOlogist on Twitter.
Thanks for listening!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome to episode eighty three of Get Out a Live,
a bi weekly podcast about animal attacks, why they happen,
and how we can avoid them. I'm your host, Ashley,
and today's episode was voted on by patrons and it's August,
which means that we are drawing near to the end
of the summer. And this also means that Shark Week
twenty twenty four has come and gone, hosted by John Cena,
(00:38):
with shows such as six Thousand Pounds Shark, Big Shark Energy,
and The Real Sharkano. But before we get into today's episode,
I as a thank you to those of you who
take a moment to leave review for this podcast. I
read one on each episode, so this week comes from
Apple Podcasts. It's by j t ri one two three
(01:00):
titled I Love this Freaking podcast, and they say I
love this show. I've listened to all the episodes. Super
bummed that it comes out less frequently and I have
to wait for new episodes like a peasant, but I'm
always anxiously waiting. Great job, guys, Hopefully you can get
back to weekly someday. Thank you. I also hope that someday,
But thank you all for being patient and for waiting
(01:22):
for new episodes. I really really appreciate it. So although
we're not through twenty twenty four yet, there have been
some really notable attacks that have happened. So today I
wanted to go over recent chart attacks and then as usual,
at the end, we're gonna go over some ways to
stay safe and if you haven't already gathered, it's just
me for this episode, So we're going to use some
(01:44):
transition music to go between stories. Thank you Jesse in
advance for that, and yeah, let's get into it. So
the first attack, I know I just said twenty twenty four,
but the first attack I want to go over actually
happened twenty twenty two back in February, but it was
a big one and we haven't touched on it yet
(02:05):
in this podcast. Thirty four year old Simon Nellis was
a diving instructor who swam in the waters in Sydney,
Australia each day, and he belonged to the Scuba Diving
Social Club in Sydney's South. On February sixteenth, twenty twenty two,
he went out to swim around Little Bay around four
thirty pm. He was training for a charity swim and
(02:27):
went out in a black wetsuit. What happened next was
caught on video by a fisherman who witnessed it. As
Simon was swimming, a fifteen foot long great white shark
came up from below and bit him. The video starts
with Simon and the shark off screen, but the fisherman
is yelling that someone just got attacked by a shark.
(02:51):
Three seconds into the video, Simon's head breaks from the
water for a brief moment before the shark strikes him again,
pulling him underwater. The next few moments of the video
are hard to make out anything except for the man
filming saying how crazy it is. Nearly thirty seconds passed
before Simon resurfaces again and his leg, head, and back
(03:13):
appear above water and he is still alive and conscious.
The man filming says quote the person is still there.
And then the shark comes up out of the water again,
slamming into Simon, grabs him by the midsection and makes
a tearing motion. This causes Simon to be torn in half,
(03:36):
and in the video you can see half of his
body floating, and it's clear that he did not survive.
This is very reminiscent of the video Nick and I
talked about in a previous story out of Egypt where
a man was attacked, and that instance seemed more drawn
out than this one. Obviously, both are still incredibly tragic
and traumatizing, but crazy that there's like full video footage
(03:57):
of two shark attacks within like a year of weik
each other, and like the full attack. I definitely do
not recommend watching either of these videos if you are
faint of heart. Honestly, I didn't even watch the second one.
I read a recap because I just after watching the
Egypt one. I can't do it. But the Australian Shark
Incident Database listed Simon's death as unprovoked, but that was
(04:19):
not the case in the International Shark Attack File also
known as the ISAF, which is run by the University
of Florida and is a global database for all shark
attacks and we've mentioned them plenty of times in the
podcast before, but they listed Simon's death as provoked, meaning
that Simon initiated the contact with the shark, either intentionally
(04:39):
or unintentionally. Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for
Shark Research, said Simon was quote in no way intending
to provoke the shark, but had been swimming in an
area where people were fishing and an area where there
had been chum in the water. He said this could
have excited the shark and provoked this atypical behavior. The
(05:01):
fishermen also did say that the shark appeared to be
in a frenzy during the attack, likely incited by the
chum in the water. Of the witnesses, many were, of
course traumatized. One, as he spoke to the press, said
that even days later he could not stop shaking and
vomiting because what he saw was so terrible. After the attack,
(05:23):
authorities spent the following few days looking for Simon's remains,
as well as looking for a shark that could have
been responsible, but from what I gathered, they were never
able to find one. The Department of Primary Industries temporarily
installed six smart drum lines between Little Bay and Malabar
as part of a shark incident response plan. I believe
we've talked about them before, but just a recap. Smart
(05:45):
drum lines stand for Shark Management Alert in real time
and they consist of an anchor, two buoys, and a
satellite link GPS communications unit attached to a hook baited
with one sea mullet. A triggering magnet is attached to
the communications unit, and then when a shark takes the
bait and puts pressure on the line, the magnet is released,
(06:05):
alerting the boat crew and department scientists that there is
an animal on the line. Once alerted, the team responds
within thirty minutes to tag and release the shark or
whatever other marine mammal is captured. Smart drum lines are
set every single morning, depending on the weather, approximately five
hundred meters offshore at a depth between eight to fifteen
meters of water, and they are collected at the end
(06:27):
of each day and they are not left out overnight.
These drum lines were scheduled to be set up in
that area Simon was swimming in days before the attack,
meaning it's possible that if they actually had been erected,
I'm not sure why they weren't. I'm not sure if
it was the weather, but it's possible they could have
prevented this attack. Apparently, not long before the attack, Simon
(06:49):
told his mom quote, I've taken a lot of fish
out of the water. If one takes me out, that's
the circle of life. Simon was described by those who
knew him as a kind, consider man who loved life.
He had served two tours in Afghanistan before he settled
in Australia, where he was waiting to marry his fiance Jesse.
That summer, another friend of his said, quote, the news
(07:14):
hit us like a truck because he was one of
the people who make this earth lighter. All right, onto
our next story, speaking of another person who I think
made the world a lot lighter for a lot of people.
To Mayo Perry. Tomayo Perry was born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii,
(07:37):
growing up around the corner from the Bonanzai Pipeline. The
Bonzai Pipeline is a surf reef break off of Wahu's
north shore, and a reef break is an area in
the ocean where waves start to break when they reached
the shallows of a reef, which creates large waves, and specifically,
the waves created are large, hollow, and have thick curls,
so surfers can ride the inside of the wave or
(07:59):
the tube. If you are a surfer listening to this,
I apologize for explaining things in such a basic way,
but as a nonsurfer, I thought the contacts would be
good for the rest of us. The pipeline has been
called one of the world's deadliest waves, with waves at
an average of nine feet tall or three meters, but
they've been recorded up to twenty feet tall. Quite a
(08:19):
few people have died surfing or photographing here. For example,
accomplished surfer Malick Joikes. I apologize if I'm mispronouncing his
last name, and Malick died after he was struck by
the lip of a wave enforced underwater. The leash of
his board was ripped off of him, and an autopsy
revealed that he was likely hit in the head by
(08:41):
his surfboard and knocked unconscious and was found fifteen minutes
later by another surfer, but was unable to be resuscitated.
But back to Tamaio. He started surfing at the age
of twelve and had surfed the pipeline regularly and had
surfed some of its most prominent waves. Seventeen, he went
to California and began competing in competitions, then spent the
(09:04):
next fifteen years as a professional surfer and appeared in
many films as a surfer, and in two thousand and five,
the same year that Malick was killed. Tamayo was surfing
the pipeline when he was hit in the head by
another surfer's board, which peeled his scalp from ear to
ear and required nearly fifty staples to close the wound.
(09:24):
This led to Tomayo encouraging others to wear helmets while
surfing the pipeline, and he did so for the rest
of his time surfing, but he also went on to
star in other films, most notably the fourth Pirates of
the Caribbean movie called On Stranger Tides in twenty eleven,
and he was in an episode of Hawaii five to
oh in twenty sixteen. Tomayo became a lifeguard for City
(09:47):
and County of Honolulu Ocean Safety, assisting in twenty twenty
for the rescue of Tomy Dragich, which was a Peruvian
big wave surfer who also was hit on the head
by board and was knocked unconscious while surfing at Sunset
Beach in Oahu. Tomayo and his wife, Amelia Perry, an
Australian born bodyboarder who he met while she was bodyboarding
(10:08):
the pipeline. Together, the two of them ran the Oahu
Surfing Experience offering surfing lessons on the island, so as
you can probably gather, Tomayo was an incredibly experienced surfer
and was well aware of how to stay safe in
the ocean and had been in the ocean his entire life. Now,
let's get to the incident. On June twenty third of
(10:29):
this year, twenty twenty four, Tomayo was surfing near Goat
Island off of Oahu's north shore. Around one pm, there
was a nine to one one call reporting what they
described as a fatal shark attack near Goat Island, and
they said that the victim had multiple bite wounds from
a shark. Lifeguards were able to get to the victim
(10:50):
on jet skis and identified him as Tomayo, and when
he was brought to land, he was pronounced dead by paramedics.
He was missing an arm and a leg, and he
was just forty nine years old. His wife, Amelia told
ABC News quote, it was like I went on the
best twenty five year vacation of my life with him,
and now it's over. Now I got to come back
(11:12):
to reality. His close friend and coworker Jesse King stated quote,
there was nothing out of the ordinary that would indicate
that something bad would happen to him versus anybody else
a regular day, and he also said Tomyo knew that
area like the back of his hand because he had
been there many many times before. Jesse also said Tomio
(11:32):
showed people, quote how to be a better human, to
love everybody when you have them, because you never know
when they're going to be taken away. It has not
been determined what kind of shark killed Tomayo, and if
you've listened to this podcast before, we've talked about bitemark
analysis and how it's an imperfect science so we're not
always able to determine what species was involved. However, according
(11:54):
to the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources, white tip, reef, sandbart, scallop, hammerhead,
and occasionally tiger sharks are the most frequently encountered sharks
in Hawaii's waters. There have been three other shark attacks
in Hawaii this year so far, all of which have
not been able to confirm the species, and one of
which was considered a provoked attack, meaning the person was
(12:17):
interacting inappropriately with the shark, so it wasn't the shark's fault.
But none of the other attacks resulted in a fatality.
I also went through Hawaii's list of shark related incidents
and found in most cases the species is actually unknown,
but in the last few years tiger sharks have been
one of the more prominent sharks involved in attacks, obviously
in instances where the species was recorded, but none of
(12:39):
those attacks were fatal. There was also one really interesting
attack I did want to touch on from twenty twenty
three because this is a species I've always been super
interested in, and I had no idea that they could
attack people like this, So let's get into it. On
March nineteenth, twenty twenty three, fifty year old Andy Wahlber
was swimming in the Molokai Channel around six pm. He
(13:03):
had someone in the support kayak with him that had
attached to it two shark deterrent devices around eleven fifty
five PM, so he started swimming at six Still swimming
around eleven fifty five, now twelve miles off the coast,
as he was two to three hundred yards behind his
support boat and five to six feet from his support kayak,
(13:24):
he felt something hit his chest and when he closed
his hand around it, he was sure it was a
cookie cutter shark, although by no means the biggest shark
out there. They only get up to around twenty inches
in length. But cookie cutter sharks are not to be
taken lightly. They often hunt in pears, and they will
eat things like squids or crustaceans. But they are also
(13:46):
probably most infamous for taking cookie size shapes out of
larger prey like seals, tuna, and even other sharks. They've
also been recorded taking chunks out of submarines. To do this,
they put their mouth on a host with its upper teeth,
Then they spin in a circle and they use their
lower teeth to suck in scoop and tear off a
(14:08):
trademark circular piece of flesh. They're considered more of a
parasite than a predator, like a great white, for example,
but of course, if you are twelve miles off the coast,
this can be a devastating injury to have a hole
taken out of your chest. So Andy grabbed the shark
and threw it as far as he could and kept swimming.
(14:31):
But only a few seconds later he was hitting the
chest again, and he assumed that he just hadn't thrown
the shark far enough, so he simply threw it again
and it wasn't until later that he realized that they
hunted pears, so he had been hit by two separate
cookie cutter sharks. Taking a moment to calm down given
the fact that it was so close to midnight and
the water was still, he felt his stomach didn't feel
(14:53):
any major damage and kept swimming. When he stopped to
take a break on his support boat, they saw that
he had two half circle marks in his chest, likely
from the upper teeth of the sharks, but the sharks
hadn't been able to sink their lower teeth in and
start spinning. After this, he kept swimming for another six
(15:14):
and a half hours. Like I said, he didn't sustain
any major injuries, but he said before he went swimming,
he had rubbed diaper cream all over his body and
credits it for preventing the sharks from being able to
latch onto him. Although there are other cookie cutter shark
attacks in history on people, they're very unlikely due to
(15:36):
the fact that they're nocturnal and they live in deeper
waters than most sharks. But either way, back to Tomayo,
the attack on him was the first fatal attack in
Hawaii since December of twenty twenty three, when a man
surfing off of Maui was killed one hundred and fifty
yards off of shore. The attack on Tomayo was the
first in recent times to occur outside of Maui. All right,
(16:01):
before we continue, let's take a quick break for ads. Now,
let's cover a story that happened just a month later
after Toamayo's death. Twenty three year old Kai mackenzie is
an Australian free surfer sponsored by Rage, an Australian surf
(16:22):
hardware company. In just July of this year, twenty twenty four,
he was finally returning to the sport of surfing after
breaking his back. On July twenty third, he was surfing
near Port Macquarie in New South Wales, Australia. It was
mid morning and the conditions of the water were clear
and clean. As he was surfing, Kai noticed quote the
(16:46):
largest shark he'd ever seen approach him. It was reported
that the shark was a great white, reportedly three meters
or nine point eight feet long. Great whites had been
spotted in the area before the attack, and more had
been sighted in the morning before Kai set out to surf.
Kai started attempting to paddle away and actually kicked at
(17:07):
the shark, but it was not deterred and bit the
lower portion of his right leg completely off. Kai managed
to catch a wave back to shore, where he got
the attention of a retired police officer who happened to
be walking his dog on the beach, which I swear
so many shark attack stories, it just happens to have
some like emergency professional person nearby, and thank god he
(17:30):
was spotted by someone with medical experience, because the retired
officer used his dog's leash as a makeshift tournique on
Kai's leg to slowed the blood loss, which authorities later
said saved Kai's life. Kai was assisted by paramedics on site,
but was then airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle,
(17:52):
which was one hundred and twenty four miles away, where
he was stabilized. A short while after the attack, Kai's
leg washed up on shore and locals thankfully saw it
and had the wherewithal to put it on ice and
bring it to the same medical facility that Kai was
brought to, and then his leg was then flown to
(18:14):
the same hospital one hundred and twenty four miles away
on ice from an Instagram post in which Kai wrote
in a caption quote, spot something missing for a picture
in which his leg is absent. It is assumed that
the reattachment was not successful or possible because this attack
was only two weeks ago. Of course, Kai is still recovering,
(18:36):
and he has a go fund me on his Instagram
to cover his ongoing medical expenses, which I will link
in the episode description, and you can also, of course
give him a follow and stay updated on his recovery.
All Right, I know this is a shorter episode, but
I want to end with some very recent attacks happening
(18:57):
here in the US. On June twenty sixth, twenty twenty four,
in the morning, the Nassau County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit,
which is a mouthful, got a distress call in the
Amelia River near Fernandina Beach, about thirty five miles north
of Jacksonville. The man involved, still unnamed as far as
(19:18):
I can tell, was fishing and caught a shark on
his line. I'm hesitant to call this one an attack
because the man was likely trying to remove the shark
from his line, but either way, the shark got a
grip on his forearm and gave him a severe injury.
When authorities responded, he was losing a lot of blood,
so a deputy boarded the boat and applied to tourniquet.
(19:42):
Another official commandeered the boat and took the man to
a boat ramp where local fire rescue officials were waiting.
The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital and was
stabilized and is currently still recovering. This attack marked the
third shark attack in Florida in June alone. The other
two a attacks in the Florida Panhandle in early June,
(20:03):
one of which had a woman who was attacked and
part of her arm was amputated after being bitten, which
was in northwest Florida, and at another beach just miles away,
and on the same day, two teenage girls were attacked
while in the water. One of the girls suffered quote
significant injuries to the upper leg in one hand, while
(20:24):
the other had minor injuries on one of her feet.
Three more attacks were reported in the US, one in
southern California and two in Hawaii, one of which was Tomayo.
Although this is slightly more attacks than normal for a
given year, shark by I'll just say that this is
pretty and we've also seen this on the podcast over
the years we've been recording and talking about sharks attacks
(20:47):
do spike in the summer because there's just simply more
people in the water and sharks tend to be migrating
to either warmer waters up north or it really depends
on the shark species, but either way, the number fatal
Florida reported sixteen unprovoked shark bite incidents last year, according
to the isaf's annual Shark Attack Report, that represents forty
(21:10):
four percent of the thirty six total unprovoked bytes in
the US in twenty twenty three, in a little less
than a quarter worldwide, but Florida is still seen as
the shark attack capital of the world, making the US
the country with the highest amount of shark attacks, and
then following US is Australia. And I think this is
(21:30):
just a matter of the amount of people you have
in the water, especially in Florida. But of course, let
us end with some ways that we can stay safe
out there in the water as we wrap up the
warm summer months. All right, if you're a patron of ours,
(21:52):
One thing we just talked about in last month's Bonus
episode was not wearing flashy jewelry and whether or not
this was like true, But it's thought that the flash
of jewelry could mimic fish scales or just attract sharks
because of the shine. So if you are nervous about
being around sharks, maybe forego wearing your jewelry in the ocean.
(22:12):
As we learn in the case with Simon in this episode,
avoid swimming near where people are fishing and where there
may be chum in the water. In the last case
we discussed in Florida, a researcher said that it's possible
small baitfish that shark feed on are swimming closer to
shore at this time of year. So keep an eye
as always on your surroundings, and if you see groups
of small fish, don't forget what feeds on them. And
(22:35):
if you see fish or turtles around behaving erratically or
leaving the area very quickly, be mindful as to why
they may be doing that. Keeping that in mind, don't
swim at dusk or dawn, when predators like sharks are
more active. Although to note, according to Hawaii's government, this
does not apply to tiger sharks, which have been reported
(22:55):
to bite people at any time of day, and they
do have an infographic on their website. I will link
it which shows you, like a graph of tiger shark
bites and at what time they occurred, and it's all
over the place. But not swimming at down or dusk
is how you could avoid being or in the middle
of the night, avoid being attacked by a cookie cutter shark,
which sounds and looks horrifying. If you haven't looked up
(23:17):
a cookie cutter shark, please do it. But when you
see their bite wounds, it is literally like someone took
a cookie cutter and just took a piece of flush
out of things. It's horrifying. Also, according to Hawaii's government,
avoid murky waters, harbor entrances, and areas near stream moltse,
especially after heavy rains, channels or steep drop offs. These
(23:38):
types of waters are known to be frequented by sharks.
Don't enter the water if you're actively bleeding. They can
smell blood from a very far distance. This isn't to
say if you like have an open cut from a
cat per se like I happened to have, that you
shouldn't go in the ocean. But if you are actively bleeding,
don't go in also still discourse out there as to
(24:01):
what color swimsuit to wear, which we covered in our
last bonus episode as well and included an infographic on
that episode if you're a patron, want to go check
it out. So, the theory is, if you wear like
a black swimsuit or a blue swimsuit, the contrast in
your swimsuit isn't high enough, and that's what may make
sharks believe you're something like a seal. But also there's
(24:24):
no way to really test if wearing a high contrast
color like orange or pink, for example, would make you
less likely to be attacked, because to do that you
would have to basically ask people who've been attacked by sharks,
what were you wearing when you were attacked, which isn't great.
So there's really no way to prove this. But in
our bonus episode, after we talked through it, we concluded
(24:46):
that wearing brightly colored swimsuits or what suits is probably
a good idea, even if there's no scientific evidence. It
can just make you more easily visible to people trying
to help you in any emergency situation next as best
as you can, which of course is way easier said
than done. Stay calm, because excessive splashing can also get
(25:08):
a shark's attention because it might mimic like a fish
or some other type of animal in distress. But of course,
which we also talked about in our last Bonus episode,
because we were talking about sharks and myths around sharks,
they have a lot of sensory organs to detect what
their normal prey should be, which of course is why
(25:28):
shark attacks are so rare. And as we've talked with
Jada Elcock in our episode about sharks but a year
or two years ago, a lot of these cases of
shark quote unquote attacks are mistaken identity. Like Tomayo's case,
he was missing an arm in a leg, but he
wasn't consumed, so it's unlikely the shark was trying to
actually eat him. I can't say the same for Simon's
(25:51):
case because he was torn in half and half of
him was found, but not the entire body was found,
So it is tough. But in most cases it does
seem like a shark bites and then it just happens
to not be what they are supposed to be eating.
And last but not least, of course, as is our advice,
while recreating in pretty much any place in the wild
(26:13):
or the outdoors, traveling groups, and specifically for sharks and
in the ocean. It's even better if you can swim
near a lifeguard. These stories are always scary, and I
know sharks are a really big one that stop people
from enjoying the ocean. But there are millions of people
(26:34):
in the ocean like every day, and on average, only
around five I don't I say only obviously it's tragic
every time it happens, but around five people are killed
by sharks each year. And once again, as I've said
what feels like also a million times on this podcast,
sharks have so much more to fear from us because
we kill millions of them each year out of fear
(26:56):
or for delicacies like shark fin soup. I know this
was a shorter one. Once again, I really appreciate you
guys's patience. I have some great interviews coming up I'm
so excited for, but until we get to that, thank
you for listening to this episode. I hope you're having
a safe and happy summer. Check out the episode description
for links to things I mentioned or to our social
(27:18):
media as in our website, and if you're someone who
pre ordered Lakuzi, keep an eye out forward over the
next week or so as I send them out, and
thank you so much for your support. Thank you so
much to my good friend Josh Walsh for making our
intro music and his brother Jesse Walsh for all the editing.
And we'll be back in two weeks with a new
animal tech story with an awesome guest who has some
(27:38):
great insights as both a survivor and an expert. See ya,
Welcome to episode eighty three of Get Out a Live,
a bi weekly podcast about animal attacks, why they happen,
and how we can avoid them. I'm your host, Ashley,
and today's episode was voted on by patrons and it's August,
which means that we are drawing near to the end
of the summer. And this also means that Shark Week
twenty twenty four has come and gone, hosted by John Cena,
(00:38):
with shows such as six Thousand Pounds Shark, Big Shark Energy,
and The Real Sharkano. But before we get into today's episode,
I as a thank you to those of you who
take a moment to leave review for this podcast. I
read one on each episode, so this week comes from
Apple Podcasts. It's by j t ri one two three
(01:00):
titled I Love this Freaking podcast, and they say I
love this show. I've listened to all the episodes. Super
bummed that it comes out less frequently and I have
to wait for new episodes like a peasant, but I'm
always anxiously waiting. Great job, guys, Hopefully you can get
back to weekly someday. Thank you. I also hope that someday,
But thank you all for being patient and for waiting
(01:22):
for new episodes. I really really appreciate it. So although
we're not through twenty twenty four yet, there have been
some really notable attacks that have happened. So today I
wanted to go over recent chart attacks and then as usual,
at the end, we're gonna go over some ways to
stay safe and if you haven't already gathered, it's just
me for this episode, So we're going to use some
(01:44):
transition music to go between stories. Thank you Jesse in
advance for that, and yeah, let's get into it. So
the first attack, I know I just said twenty twenty four,
but the first attack I want to go over actually
happened twenty twenty two back in February, but it was
a big one and we haven't touched on it yet
(02:05):
in this podcast. Thirty four year old Simon Nellis was
a diving instructor who swam in the waters in Sydney,
Australia each day, and he belonged to the Scuba Diving
Social Club in Sydney's South. On February sixteenth, twenty twenty two,
he went out to swim around Little Bay around four
thirty pm. He was training for a charity swim and
(02:27):
went out in a black wetsuit. What happened next was
caught on video by a fisherman who witnessed it. As
Simon was swimming, a fifteen foot long great white shark
came up from below and bit him. The video starts
with Simon and the shark off screen, but the fisherman
is yelling that someone just got attacked by a shark.
(02:51):
Three seconds into the video, Simon's head breaks from the
water for a brief moment before the shark strikes him again,
pulling him underwater. The next few moments of the video
are hard to make out anything except for the man
filming saying how crazy it is. Nearly thirty seconds passed
before Simon resurfaces again and his leg, head, and back
(03:13):
appear above water and he is still alive and conscious.
The man filming says quote the person is still there.
And then the shark comes up out of the water again,
slamming into Simon, grabs him by the midsection and makes
a tearing motion. This causes Simon to be torn in half,
(03:36):
and in the video you can see half of his
body floating, and it's clear that he did not survive.
This is very reminiscent of the video Nick and I
talked about in a previous story out of Egypt where
a man was attacked, and that instance seemed more drawn
out than this one. Obviously, both are still incredibly tragic
and traumatizing, but crazy that there's like full video footage
(03:57):
of two shark attacks within like a year of weik
each other, and like the full attack. I definitely do
not recommend watching either of these videos if you are
faint of heart. Honestly, I didn't even watch the second one.
I read a recap because I just after watching the
Egypt one. I can't do it. But the Australian Shark
Incident Database listed Simon's death as unprovoked, but that was
(04:19):
not the case in the International Shark Attack File also
known as the ISAF, which is run by the University
of Florida and is a global database for all shark
attacks and we've mentioned them plenty of times in the
podcast before, but they listed Simon's death as provoked, meaning
that Simon initiated the contact with the shark, either intentionally
(04:39):
or unintentionally. Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for
Shark Research, said Simon was quote in no way intending
to provoke the shark, but had been swimming in an
area where people were fishing and an area where there
had been chum in the water. He said this could
have excited the shark and provoked this atypical behavior. The
(05:01):
fishermen also did say that the shark appeared to be
in a frenzy during the attack, likely incited by the
chum in the water. Of the witnesses, many were, of
course traumatized. One, as he spoke to the press, said
that even days later he could not stop shaking and
vomiting because what he saw was so terrible. After the attack,
(05:23):
authorities spent the following few days looking for Simon's remains,
as well as looking for a shark that could have
been responsible, but from what I gathered, they were never
able to find one. The Department of Primary Industries temporarily
installed six smart drum lines between Little Bay and Malabar
as part of a shark incident response plan. I believe
we've talked about them before, but just a recap. Smart
(05:45):
drum lines stand for Shark Management Alert in real time
and they consist of an anchor, two buoys, and a
satellite link GPS communications unit attached to a hook baited
with one sea mullet. A triggering magnet is attached to
the communications unit, and then when a shark takes the
bait and puts pressure on the line, the magnet is released,
(06:05):
alerting the boat crew and department scientists that there is
an animal on the line. Once alerted, the team responds
within thirty minutes to tag and release the shark or
whatever other marine mammal is captured. Smart drum lines are
set every single morning, depending on the weather, approximately five
hundred meters offshore at a depth between eight to fifteen
meters of water, and they are collected at the end
(06:27):
of each day and they are not left out overnight.
These drum lines were scheduled to be set up in
that area Simon was swimming in days before the attack,
meaning it's possible that if they actually had been erected,
I'm not sure why they weren't. I'm not sure if
it was the weather, but it's possible they could have
prevented this attack. Apparently, not long before the attack, Simon
(06:49):
told his mom quote, I've taken a lot of fish
out of the water. If one takes me out, that's
the circle of life. Simon was described by those who
knew him as a kind, consider man who loved life.
He had served two tours in Afghanistan before he settled
in Australia, where he was waiting to marry his fiance Jesse.
That summer, another friend of his said, quote, the news
(07:14):
hit us like a truck because he was one of
the people who make this earth lighter. All right, onto
our next story, speaking of another person who I think
made the world a lot lighter for a lot of people.
To Mayo Perry. Tomayo Perry was born and raised in Oahu, Hawaii,
(07:37):
growing up around the corner from the Bonanzai Pipeline. The
Bonzai Pipeline is a surf reef break off of Wahu's
north shore, and a reef break is an area in
the ocean where waves start to break when they reached
the shallows of a reef, which creates large waves, and specifically,
the waves created are large, hollow, and have thick curls,
so surfers can ride the inside of the wave or
(07:59):
the tube. If you are a surfer listening to this,
I apologize for explaining things in such a basic way,
but as a nonsurfer, I thought the contacts would be
good for the rest of us. The pipeline has been
called one of the world's deadliest waves, with waves at
an average of nine feet tall or three meters, but
they've been recorded up to twenty feet tall. Quite a
(08:19):
few people have died surfing or photographing here. For example,
accomplished surfer Malick Joikes. I apologize if I'm mispronouncing his
last name, and Malick died after he was struck by
the lip of a wave enforced underwater. The leash of
his board was ripped off of him, and an autopsy
revealed that he was likely hit in the head by
(08:41):
his surfboard and knocked unconscious and was found fifteen minutes
later by another surfer, but was unable to be resuscitated.
But back to Tamaio. He started surfing at the age
of twelve and had surfed the pipeline regularly and had
surfed some of its most prominent waves. Seventeen, he went
to California and began competing in competitions, then spent the
(09:04):
next fifteen years as a professional surfer and appeared in
many films as a surfer, and in two thousand and five,
the same year that Malick was killed. Tamayo was surfing
the pipeline when he was hit in the head by
another surfer's board, which peeled his scalp from ear to
ear and required nearly fifty staples to close the wound.
(09:24):
This led to Tomayo encouraging others to wear helmets while
surfing the pipeline, and he did so for the rest
of his time surfing, but he also went on to
star in other films, most notably the fourth Pirates of
the Caribbean movie called On Stranger Tides in twenty eleven,
and he was in an episode of Hawaii five to
oh in twenty sixteen. Tomayo became a lifeguard for City
(09:47):
and County of Honolulu Ocean Safety, assisting in twenty twenty
for the rescue of Tomy Dragich, which was a Peruvian
big wave surfer who also was hit on the head
by board and was knocked unconscious while surfing at Sunset
Beach in Oahu. Tomayo and his wife, Amelia Perry, an
Australian born bodyboarder who he met while she was bodyboarding
(10:08):
the pipeline. Together, the two of them ran the Oahu
Surfing Experience offering surfing lessons on the island, so as
you can probably gather, Tomayo was an incredibly experienced surfer
and was well aware of how to stay safe in
the ocean and had been in the ocean his entire life. Now,
let's get to the incident. On June twenty third of
(10:29):
this year, twenty twenty four, Tomayo was surfing near Goat
Island off of Oahu's north shore. Around one pm, there
was a nine to one one call reporting what they
described as a fatal shark attack near Goat Island, and
they said that the victim had multiple bite wounds from
a shark. Lifeguards were able to get to the victim
(10:50):
on jet skis and identified him as Tomayo, and when
he was brought to land, he was pronounced dead by paramedics.
He was missing an arm and a leg, and he
was just forty nine years old. His wife, Amelia told
ABC News quote, it was like I went on the
best twenty five year vacation of my life with him,
and now it's over. Now I got to come back
(11:12):
to reality. His close friend and coworker Jesse King stated quote,
there was nothing out of the ordinary that would indicate
that something bad would happen to him versus anybody else
a regular day, and he also said Tomyo knew that
area like the back of his hand because he had
been there many many times before. Jesse also said Tomio
(11:32):
showed people, quote how to be a better human, to
love everybody when you have them, because you never know
when they're going to be taken away. It has not
been determined what kind of shark killed Tomayo, and if
you've listened to this podcast before, we've talked about bitemark
analysis and how it's an imperfect science so we're not
always able to determine what species was involved. However, according
(11:54):
to the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources, white tip, reef, sandbart, scallop, hammerhead,
and occasionally tiger sharks are the most frequently encountered sharks
in Hawaii's waters. There have been three other shark attacks
in Hawaii this year so far, all of which have
not been able to confirm the species, and one of
which was considered a provoked attack, meaning the person was
(12:17):
interacting inappropriately with the shark, so it wasn't the shark's fault.
But none of the other attacks resulted in a fatality.
I also went through Hawaii's list of shark related incidents
and found in most cases the species is actually unknown,
but in the last few years tiger sharks have been
one of the more prominent sharks involved in attacks, obviously
in instances where the species was recorded, but none of
(12:39):
those attacks were fatal. There was also one really interesting
attack I did want to touch on from twenty twenty
three because this is a species I've always been super
interested in, and I had no idea that they could
attack people like this, So let's get into it. On
March nineteenth, twenty twenty three, fifty year old Andy Wahlber
was swimming in the Molokai Channel around six pm. He
(13:03):
had someone in the support kayak with him that had
attached to it two shark deterrent devices around eleven fifty
five PM, so he started swimming at six Still swimming
around eleven fifty five, now twelve miles off the coast,
as he was two to three hundred yards behind his
support boat and five to six feet from his support kayak,
(13:24):
he felt something hit his chest and when he closed
his hand around it, he was sure it was a
cookie cutter shark, although by no means the biggest shark
out there. They only get up to around twenty inches
in length. But cookie cutter sharks are not to be
taken lightly. They often hunt in pears, and they will
eat things like squids or crustaceans. But they are also
(13:46):
probably most infamous for taking cookie size shapes out of
larger prey like seals, tuna, and even other sharks. They've
also been recorded taking chunks out of submarines. To do this,
they put their mouth on a host with its upper teeth,
Then they spin in a circle and they use their
lower teeth to suck in scoop and tear off a
(14:08):
trademark circular piece of flesh. They're considered more of a
parasite than a predator, like a great white, for example,
but of course, if you are twelve miles off the coast,
this can be a devastating injury to have a hole
taken out of your chest. So Andy grabbed the shark
and threw it as far as he could and kept swimming.
(14:31):
But only a few seconds later he was hitting the
chest again, and he assumed that he just hadn't thrown
the shark far enough, so he simply threw it again
and it wasn't until later that he realized that they
hunted pears, so he had been hit by two separate
cookie cutter sharks. Taking a moment to calm down given
the fact that it was so close to midnight and
the water was still, he felt his stomach didn't feel
(14:53):
any major damage and kept swimming. When he stopped to
take a break on his support boat, they saw that
he had two half circle marks in his chest, likely
from the upper teeth of the sharks, but the sharks
hadn't been able to sink their lower teeth in and
start spinning. After this, he kept swimming for another six
(15:14):
and a half hours. Like I said, he didn't sustain
any major injuries, but he said before he went swimming,
he had rubbed diaper cream all over his body and
credits it for preventing the sharks from being able to
latch onto him. Although there are other cookie cutter shark
attacks in history on people, they're very unlikely due to
(15:36):
the fact that they're nocturnal and they live in deeper
waters than most sharks. But either way, back to Tomayo,
the attack on him was the first fatal attack in
Hawaii since December of twenty twenty three, when a man
surfing off of Maui was killed one hundred and fifty
yards off of shore. The attack on Tomayo was the
first in recent times to occur outside of Maui. All right,
(16:01):
before we continue, let's take a quick break for ads. Now,
let's cover a story that happened just a month later
after Toamayo's death. Twenty three year old Kai mackenzie is
an Australian free surfer sponsored by Rage, an Australian surf
(16:22):
hardware company. In just July of this year, twenty twenty four,
he was finally returning to the sport of surfing after
breaking his back. On July twenty third, he was surfing
near Port Macquarie in New South Wales, Australia. It was
mid morning and the conditions of the water were clear
and clean. As he was surfing, Kai noticed quote the
(16:46):
largest shark he'd ever seen approach him. It was reported
that the shark was a great white, reportedly three meters
or nine point eight feet long. Great whites had been
spotted in the area before the attack, and more had
been sighted in the morning before Kai set out to surf.
Kai started attempting to paddle away and actually kicked at
(17:07):
the shark, but it was not deterred and bit the
lower portion of his right leg completely off. Kai managed
to catch a wave back to shore, where he got
the attention of a retired police officer who happened to
be walking his dog on the beach, which I swear
so many shark attack stories, it just happens to have
some like emergency professional person nearby, and thank god he
(17:30):
was spotted by someone with medical experience, because the retired
officer used his dog's leash as a makeshift tournique on
Kai's leg to slowed the blood loss, which authorities later
said saved Kai's life. Kai was assisted by paramedics on site,
but was then airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle,
(17:52):
which was one hundred and twenty four miles away, where
he was stabilized. A short while after the attack, Kai's
leg washed up on shore and locals thankfully saw it
and had the wherewithal to put it on ice and
bring it to the same medical facility that Kai was
brought to, and then his leg was then flown to
(18:14):
the same hospital one hundred and twenty four miles away
on ice from an Instagram post in which Kai wrote
in a caption quote, spot something missing for a picture
in which his leg is absent. It is assumed that
the reattachment was not successful or possible because this attack
was only two weeks ago. Of course, Kai is still recovering,
(18:36):
and he has a go fund me on his Instagram
to cover his ongoing medical expenses, which I will link
in the episode description, and you can also, of course
give him a follow and stay updated on his recovery.
All Right, I know this is a shorter episode, but
I want to end with some very recent attacks happening
(18:57):
here in the US. On June twenty sixth, twenty twenty four,
in the morning, the Nassau County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit,
which is a mouthful, got a distress call in the
Amelia River near Fernandina Beach, about thirty five miles north
of Jacksonville. The man involved, still unnamed as far as
(19:18):
I can tell, was fishing and caught a shark on
his line. I'm hesitant to call this one an attack
because the man was likely trying to remove the shark
from his line, but either way, the shark got a
grip on his forearm and gave him a severe injury.
When authorities responded, he was losing a lot of blood,
so a deputy boarded the boat and applied to tourniquet.
(19:42):
Another official commandeered the boat and took the man to
a boat ramp where local fire rescue officials were waiting.
The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital and was
stabilized and is currently still recovering. This attack marked the
third shark attack in Florida in June alone. The other
two a attacks in the Florida Panhandle in early June,
(20:03):
one of which had a woman who was attacked and
part of her arm was amputated after being bitten, which
was in northwest Florida, and at another beach just miles away,
and on the same day, two teenage girls were attacked
while in the water. One of the girls suffered quote
significant injuries to the upper leg in one hand, while
(20:24):
the other had minor injuries on one of her feet.
Three more attacks were reported in the US, one in
southern California and two in Hawaii, one of which was Tomayo.
Although this is slightly more attacks than normal for a
given year, shark by I'll just say that this is
pretty and we've also seen this on the podcast over
the years we've been recording and talking about sharks attacks
(20:47):
do spike in the summer because there's just simply more
people in the water and sharks tend to be migrating
to either warmer waters up north or it really depends
on the shark species, but either way, the number fatal
Florida reported sixteen unprovoked shark bite incidents last year, according
to the isaf's annual Shark Attack Report, that represents forty
(21:10):
four percent of the thirty six total unprovoked bytes in
the US in twenty twenty three, in a little less
than a quarter worldwide, but Florida is still seen as
the shark attack capital of the world, making the US
the country with the highest amount of shark attacks, and
then following US is Australia. And I think this is
(21:30):
just a matter of the amount of people you have
in the water, especially in Florida. But of course, let
us end with some ways that we can stay safe
out there in the water as we wrap up the
warm summer months. All right, if you're a patron of ours,
(21:52):
One thing we just talked about in last month's Bonus
episode was not wearing flashy jewelry and whether or not
this was like true, But it's thought that the flash
of jewelry could mimic fish scales or just attract sharks
because of the shine. So if you are nervous about
being around sharks, maybe forego wearing your jewelry in the ocean.
(22:12):
As we learn in the case with Simon in this episode,
avoid swimming near where people are fishing and where there
may be chum in the water. In the last case
we discussed in Florida, a researcher said that it's possible
small baitfish that shark feed on are swimming closer to
shore at this time of year. So keep an eye
as always on your surroundings, and if you see groups
of small fish, don't forget what feeds on them. And
(22:35):
if you see fish or turtles around behaving erratically or
leaving the area very quickly, be mindful as to why
they may be doing that. Keeping that in mind, don't
swim at dusk or dawn, when predators like sharks are
more active. Although to note, according to Hawaii's government, this
does not apply to tiger sharks, which have been reported
(22:55):
to bite people at any time of day, and they
do have an infographic on their website. I will link
it which shows you, like a graph of tiger shark
bites and at what time they occurred, and it's all
over the place. But not swimming at down or dusk
is how you could avoid being or in the middle
of the night, avoid being attacked by a cookie cutter shark,
which sounds and looks horrifying. If you haven't looked up
(23:17):
a cookie cutter shark, please do it. But when you
see their bite wounds, it is literally like someone took
a cookie cutter and just took a piece of flush
out of things. It's horrifying. Also, according to Hawaii's government,
avoid murky waters, harbor entrances, and areas near stream moltse,
especially after heavy rains, channels or steep drop offs. These
(23:38):
types of waters are known to be frequented by sharks.
Don't enter the water if you're actively bleeding. They can
smell blood from a very far distance. This isn't to
say if you like have an open cut from a
cat per se like I happened to have, that you
shouldn't go in the ocean. But if you are actively bleeding,
don't go in also still discourse out there as to
(24:01):
what color swimsuit to wear, which we covered in our
last bonus episode as well and included an infographic on
that episode if you're a patron, want to go check
it out. So, the theory is, if you wear like
a black swimsuit or a blue swimsuit, the contrast in
your swimsuit isn't high enough, and that's what may make
sharks believe you're something like a seal. But also there's
(24:24):
no way to really test if wearing a high contrast
color like orange or pink, for example, would make you
less likely to be attacked, because to do that you
would have to basically ask people who've been attacked by sharks,
what were you wearing when you were attacked, which isn't great.
So there's really no way to prove this. But in
our bonus episode, after we talked through it, we concluded
(24:46):
that wearing brightly colored swimsuits or what suits is probably
a good idea, even if there's no scientific evidence. It
can just make you more easily visible to people trying
to help you in any emergency situation next as best
as you can, which of course is way easier said
than done. Stay calm, because excessive splashing can also get
(25:08):
a shark's attention because it might mimic like a fish
or some other type of animal in distress. But of course,
which we also talked about in our last Bonus episode,
because we were talking about sharks and myths around sharks,
they have a lot of sensory organs to detect what
their normal prey should be, which of course is why
(25:28):
shark attacks are so rare. And as we've talked with
Jada Elcock in our episode about sharks but a year
or two years ago, a lot of these cases of
shark quote unquote attacks are mistaken identity. Like Tomayo's case,
he was missing an arm in a leg, but he
wasn't consumed, so it's unlikely the shark was trying to
actually eat him. I can't say the same for Simon's
(25:51):
case because he was torn in half and half of
him was found, but not the entire body was found,
So it is tough. But in most cases it does
seem like a shark bites and then it just happens
to not be what they are supposed to be eating.
And last but not least, of course, as is our advice,
while recreating in pretty much any place in the wild
(26:13):
or the outdoors, traveling groups, and specifically for sharks and
in the ocean. It's even better if you can swim
near a lifeguard. These stories are always scary, and I
know sharks are a really big one that stop people
from enjoying the ocean. But there are millions of people
(26:34):
in the ocean like every day, and on average, only
around five I don't I say only obviously it's tragic
every time it happens, but around five people are killed
by sharks each year. And once again, as I've said
what feels like also a million times on this podcast,
sharks have so much more to fear from us because
we kill millions of them each year out of fear
(26:56):
or for delicacies like shark fin soup. I know this
was a shorter one. Once again, I really appreciate you
guys's patience. I have some great interviews coming up I'm
so excited for, but until we get to that, thank
you for listening to this episode. I hope you're having
a safe and happy summer. Check out the episode description
for links to things I mentioned or to our social
(27:18):
media as in our website, and if you're someone who
pre ordered Lakuzi, keep an eye out forward over the
next week or so as I send them out, and
thank you so much for your support. Thank you so
much to my good friend Josh Walsh for making our
intro music and his brother Jesse Walsh for all the editing.
And we'll be back in two weeks with a new
animal tech story with an awesome guest who has some
(27:38):
great insights as both a survivor and an expert. See ya,
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