Shark Attacks in Australia

Triathlon Forum
1

As most of you may know there have been some pretty bad shark attacks in Australia recently…one attack on a Navy diver that saw him losing his hand and still managing to punch the shark to escape! (think this guy might just out rank Worlds Toughest Dog). Just overnight the breaking news was of a surfer having been attacked at a popular beach and he also lost his hand.

This reminded me of an article I reviewed years back when studying physiology at Uni. The whole impetus for the article was does nationality make your more susceptible to attack. The study looked at Australian, Japanese and Americans (no South Africans surprisingly!). The findings were somewhat interesting. Japanese nationals are least likely to be attacked by a shark, followed by Australians and the most likely to be Americans. The reasoning for this was based on diet. The author reasoned that as the Japanese diet is mostly seafood based, that they actually secrete a more fish based scent when in the water. Australians with a more balanced diet tend to have a neutral smell, with only some nationals being attacked. Most interestingly, Americans with a more fast food orientated diet tend to smell more attractive to sharks due to a certain fatty acid that undergoes trans-polymerization when heated above 65 degrees C. ( I wish I could remember the name of the fatty acid) The next stage of the study was to analyze via capillary gas chromatography the composition of these secreted scents to try and develop a shark replant.

Stay safe guys when in the water!

2

Er, don’t sharks normally eat fish?

3

I did not write the article!

I suppose it could be a matter of blending in to the natural background “smell” of the ocean rather than standing out and being more of a target???

I know on land animals use aposomatic coloring to advertise they are dangerous.

4

No, they loooove Quarter Pounders

Oh, and fries.

5

I’ll never forget walking along a beautiful beach in northeastern Australia and coming across a sign “DANGER - salt water crocodile area” Then underneath this the sign said in a very understated way “crocodiles may cause injury or death”.

We were encircled by a group of large grey reef sharks on the Great Barrier Reef during a night dive. Hard to follow them u/w with flashlights. Was damn happy to get back on the boat.

6

Big Mac Attack!

7

“Japanese nationals are least likely to be attacked by a shark”

Yeah, the problem with eating Japanese is an hour later you want another one.

8

“Japanese nationals are least likely to be attacked by a shark”

Yeah, the problem with eating Japanese is an hour later you want another one.
I just shot coffee through my nose after reading that
.

9

My initial hypothesis was that Japanese people taste bad but, I used to date a Japanese woman and that’s definitely not the case.

10

don’t know about all your scientific facts you are sprouting but if its true, it probably because most americans are fat, overweight and obese so when a shark swims by, they are harder to miss… imagine as well, fat people smell more as they have the same size heart but have to carry all that extra lard about.

hopefully Obama will do something about the american diet - could probably feed africa on all the over eating in america… anyone for another krispee kreme and some fried chicken ???

sad, but true.

11

>My initial hypothesis was that Japanese people taste bad but, I used to date a Japanese woman and that’s definitely not the case.<
don’t know about all your scientific facts you are sprouting…

Granted my limited research had a N=1. I’m more than willing to expand my study of this issue. Know any japanese women?