It’s Not Safe to Fool Mother Nature : Experiment in Australia Seems to Show That Hungry Sharks Confuse Surfers and Snorkelers With Their Natural Prey

While Hawaii’s shark problem appears genuine, attacks on surfers are not unique to the tropical islands, and in fact seem to be on the rise elsewhere.

Incidents in California, Oregon, Australia and Florida over the past few years prompted Surfing Magazine, in its March issue, to seek answers as to why “more and more surfers are being attacked by sharks worldwide.”

For starters, there are more surfers than ever, they tend to surf in the quiet hours of dawn and dusk and often seek that perfect wave in areas where sharks are known to feed.

But apparently, there is more. Surfers could also be victims of mistaken identity.

John McCosker of the Steinhart Museum in San Francisco said that a surfer in a slick black wetsuit, floundering on a board, might be perceived in the eyes of a great white as an elephant seal or sea lion--its chief prey.

And the fact that surfers and swimmers are on the surface apparently puts them at greater risk, perhaps because, silhouetted against the sky through the shimmering water below, they are even harder for the shark to discern from the real thing.

McCosker put this theory to test in 1985 at Dangerous Reef in Australia, where white sharks are known to feed on seals and sea lions.

“It was most dramatic,” he said. “I can’t tell you how it takes your breath away to see a white shark tracking a dummy on a short surfboard and coming up and taking it.”

Enough blood was dumped into the water to attract sharks to the vicinity--necessary, McCosker said, because he had only a week to film. “But we did not pour blood on the surfboard or tie ham hocks to mannequins,” he added.

Besides the mannequin on the surfboard, another was placed in the water to simulate a snorkeler and another at 60 feet to simulate a scuba diver.

“And in no case was there flesh attached to either until late in the experiment with the scuba diver because the sharks just would not take the diver at 60 feet,” McCosker said.

But they took the dummy surfer, and to a lesser extent the snorkeler.

“And when one looks at scars on the surfboard . . . it consumed one of the mannequins and sort of ate the experiment literally,” McCosker said.

The shark didn’t touch the mannequin scuba diver until McCosker tied fish to a line “as if it were a scuba diver spearing fish as they do sometimes, and yes the shark finally did come in and prey upon that.”

What was learned during the experiment?

“I think you’re much better off underwater than at the surface,” McCosker said. “In fact, I’m convinced you’re better off, and I think this experiment proves it.”

Bad news for surfers, particularly along the West Coast, where the passage in 1972 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act resulted in a population explosion of sea lions, which is getting the blame for bringing more great whites into near-shore areas, particularly in Northern California and Oregon.

“And if surfers are going to continue to surf in areas where sharks are going to feed, then more surfers are going to be attacked,” McCosker said.

And kayakers, too.

One theory is that a kayak and its paddles, when seen from beneath the surface, bears a resemblance to an elephant seal.

Only last November, Ken Kelton and Mike Chin were kayaking around Ano Nuevo Island in Northern California when a great white lunged out of the water and grabbed the front of Kelton’s kayak in its jaws, lifting the middle and back out of the water, then setting the kayak back down and disappearing as though it had realized that whatever it was it grabbed was not something it was used to eating.

Kelton’s kayak was damaged, but he was unhurt.

In Oregon, there there have been 10 attacks--all by great whites on surfers--since 1976, according to John Griffith, a free-lance writer compiling statistics on attacks for an upcoming article.

All attacks occurred in areas frequented by seals and sea lions. None was fatal, but most were dramatic.

“One guy was surfing near the mouth of the Klamath River,” Griffith said. “This guy was actually riding a wave and he looks and he sees this frantic harbor seal running right at him, and at the last second this clever little dude veered off and this great big white shark just blasted the surfer.”

The surfer was seriously injured, but survived.

In Florida, sharks are typically smaller and therefore feed on the smaller fish in the coastal zone.

Times staff writer David Reyes, a surfer, wrote of one experience he had in an article last December: “I remember the time a whole bunch of sharks were running right through the surf line during a contest in Florida at the Sebastian Inlet. I was announcing the contest, and people were jumping out of the water. You could see waves breaking, and the sharks were in the waves chasing mullets right onto the sand almost.”

Victims of shark attacks in Florida, too, seem to be victims of mistaken identity.

George Burgess of the Florida Museum of Natural History told Surfing Magazine:

“Basically, surfers are doing a good school-of-mullet impersonation,” he said. “Here in Florida, the soles of the feet and palms of the hands tend to be much lighter than the rest of the surfer’s tanned skin. Black-tip sharks, who are very good at distinguishing contrast, naturally perceive the flashing white as fish bellies.”