10/30/14 10:51 PM

A shark eyeing off a surfer near Esperance in Western Australia. This surfer survived, but quite a number of surfers / swimmers / divers over the last few years haven't.




When I lived in Perth I used to go swimming every morning at North Cottesloe beach. This is a photo I took there just before sunrise one morning. It wasn't until quite a few years later, when I digitised the slide with a scanner and was going over it on the computer to remove dust marks, that I noticed that there was a shark's fin only a few metres off shore (the area outlined in red that I've enlarged at upper right). No-one that morning noticed it - there was no shark alarm - but a swimmer in only waist deep water was killed by a White Pointer at that very spot a few years later.

10/31/14 7:16 AM

When I was on holiday in Australia with the family a few years ago, we visited Fraser Island and took a sand bus ride along the long beach. The ocean water was beautifully crystal clear. As these good sized waves were approaching the shore, we could see, through the water, a large number of sharks, big 'uns, riding the wave in towards shore.

We did not venture into the water.

10/31/14 8:25 AM

I never knew sharks surfed.

10/31/14 8:38 AM

Hang Ten, Dude !

Or maybe it's Eat Ten, can't remember...

11/1/14 8:05 AM

...but there was a picture circulating on the Web a few years ago of a surfer riding a wave with three sharks in it.