RIP Brother, Prayers to the family and friends.:(
Don Paul
Palm beach kite surfer killed by Shark
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I saw this before I went to bed last nite.
RIP
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Sad...prayers to the family and friends and the departed
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I moved the thread to the Florida section.
That's just crazy, I don't know what to think right now.
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When I first moved here, Emil and I did a shore dive along this same beach to some shallow artificials about half a mile off shore. Emil stayed on the beach and I made my way out on a boggie board with a dive flag. I shot about 5 big sized sheepshead and was ravaged by a pretty good sized shark that came out of nowwhere and took all five fish in what seemed a single swoop then came charging at me in a very agressive posture. He literally was so fast I still don't know to this day if it was a reef, bull or spinner. He apparently made some splashing when taking the fish and some of the tourists at the shore were all alarmed pointing in my direction yelling "shark". It was the last time I ever did a shore dive off Stuart beach.
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I moved the thread to the Florida section.
That's just crazy, I don't know what to think right now.
Thanks Dan, I should off thought to do that.
Don -
wow rolo...that is terrifying...were you out in the winter months?
note to self...stay away from Stuart..
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Crazy story Rolo. Too bad they don't eat shark over here. I think the population needs to be thinned out some.
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What are the water temps there, are they cooler then normal.?
Don -
Yes, it was in the middle of winter as most of the SH congregate on structure and spawn during these months. There were everywhere, but unfortunately so were the sharks. I think it was winter of 2007 Jan-Feb time frame.
Yes water get much cooler up here than say South Florida and the Keys. Nasty thermoclines sometimes in the mid to high 50s.
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Yes, it was in the middle of winter as most of the SH congregate on structure and spawn during these months. There were everywhere, but unfortunately so were the sharks. I think it was winter of 2007 Jan-Feb time frame.
Yes water get much cooler up here than say South Florida and the Keys. Nasty thermoclines sometimes in the mid to high 50s.
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thats crazy shit..RIP to the guy .. those sharks can keep their SH and barracuda.
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I have seen kite surfers get dragged out here as they try to get back to their board.
At the end of the day we all have our demons, many things can kill you.
Sorry for the family.:(
Don -
Wow poor guy RIP. I read the sharks could've been juvenile great whites but they were probably bulls.
Last time I went to Stuart I was harassed by one bull for minutes, I had no fish, until the boat came and later in the day another bull came and took a grouper as I was pulling it up.
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Bummer, there was a guy kite boarding at meade today, ive heard more and more bout this juvenile great white idea too
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When fishing in sharky waters it's a good idea to have our partners watch until the fish is out of the water. And have a powerhead ready for quick deployment. I'm so sorry for the dead surfer. He must have fought to the end. How many bites were there? Was he partially eaten?
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Dan, I have not found any info beyond that he was circled supposedly by several sharks and was alive while the lifeguard was paddling him in and died either at, or en route to, the hospital.
I hope they let an expert at least see pictures of the wounds to guage bite radius and tooth type...I wanna know what is out there, cos this is odd behavior for bulls
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Yes, it was in the middle of winter as most of the SH congregate on structure and spawn during these months. There were everywhere, but unfortunately so were the sharks. I think it was winter of 2007 Jan-Feb time frame.
Yes water get much cooler up here than say South Florida and the Keys. Nasty thermoclines sometimes in the mid to high 50s.
I never realized/thought the water can be that different in temperature just an hour or so north.
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Scary!
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That was an odd event indeed. Sharks are opportunistic gangsters. Be careful out there, once a shark has become rogue it will pose risk to the next person they would run into.
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At least they didn't feed on him http://www.sun-sentinel.com/ne…-20100204,0,5808685.story
QuoteSTUART - The shark that killed a kiteboarder off Stuart this week was an 8- or 9-foot shark in the requiem family, a group which includes bull sharks and tiger sharks, a shark attack expert who examined the body said Thursday evening.
Two bite wounds on the thigh caused the death of Stephen Howard Schafer, victim of the first fatal shark attack in Florida since 2005, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Burgess drove to the medical examiner's office in Fort Pierce on Thursday to examine the body.
Blacktip and spinner sharks, also members of the requiem family, are responsible for many attacks, but those are generally just single bites by a shark that thinks a hand or foot is a fish. Bull sharks and tigers are known killers, and along with great whites, are "the primary attackers of man," according to the International Shark Attack File. There had been speculation that a great white had been the attacker, but Burgess said his examination definitively ruled out that species.
About 4 p.m. Wednesday lifeguard Daniel Lund peered through binoculars and saw Schafer lying on his board about a quarter-mile offshore, officials said. When Lund paddled out, he saw blood in the water and Schafer screamed "I've been bitten by a shark," according to an interview Lund gave to WPTV-Ch. 5.
Lund held Schafer on his rescue board with one arm and paddled to shore with the other, as sharks circled.
"It's not like the dorsal fins come out of the water like you see … in the movies," he told the television station. "They generally kinda cruise through the waves, and you can see the shadows going underneath and so on, so you know they're there."
A report by the Martin County Sheriff's Office said Schafer had suffered an 8- to 10-inch bite on the thigh, bites on the buttocks and apparent defensive wounds on the right hand.
More than 100 sharks were seen in the ocean off Reef Road in Palm Beach on Thursday morning, prompting lifeguards to monitor the beaches to see if any should be closed, WPTV-Ch. 5 reports.
Last week, beaches were closed for three days on Singer Island because of shark sightings. Hammerheads, spinners, reef and bull sharks are common off South Florida this time of year, when they follow schools of migrating fish.
Schafer's death was a rare event in a state where shark attacks often are minor lacerations caused by small sharks. Worldwide about 8 percent of shark attacks result in death, but in Florida about 1 percent are fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File's statistics.
Brent Winner, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, said a key reason for the disparity is that attacks elsewhere — such as off Australia or South Africa — often involve great whites, huge predators whose serrated teeth can cause massive tissue loss with a single bite.
Neil Hammerschlag, research assistant professor at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, who has published research on shark attacks, said he is concerned the publicity generated by the attack will further stigmatize animals that are suffering severe declines and are responsible for very few human deaths.
"It's definitely a tragedy, but I don't think we should take this opportunity to demonize them," he said. "Shark populations are declining. We should learn more about these animals and not create hysteria."
Schafer's friends said they are shocked by his death.
Jordan Schwartz, who has known Schafer for five years, said he was an experienced kiteboarder.
"He was a super-nice guy, always mellow," Schwartz said. "I don't think he had any enemies."
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