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Beaches reopen after 3 reported shark attacks

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Three local beaches, including Surf Beach, reopened on Sunday afternoon following three separate shark-related incidents in just a two-day span.

Surf, Minuteman and Wall Beaches were all closed Friday morning by officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base after a surfer suffered nonfatal injuries due to an apparent attack by a great white shark Thursday afternoon about a quarter-mile north of Wall Beach. The three beaches were closed for 72 hours per standard procedure.

Thursdays shark attack, in which the 28-year-old victim suffered cuts and a puncture wound to his knee, wasnt the only scare off local waters as the weekend approached.

Two unrelated great white shark attacks were reported Friday by kayakers who had been traveling near the historic Boat House, south of Point Arguello on VAFB.

According to the Shark Research Committee which runs http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com, a website that monitors and documents shark sightings along the Pacific Coast the attacks occurred about an hour apart.

In the first incident, a great white struck a kayak around noon, sending the vessels occupant into the ocean. The kayaker was removed from the water and taken safely to shore.

Not long after that, a great white estimated to be 18 to 20 feet long breached under (a) fisherman's kayak with such force that it ejected him about 10 feet into the air, according to an online post by the Shark Research Committee. Several tooth punctures are present in the bottom of this kayak. A tooth fragment clearly identified the attacker as a white shark.

Ryan Howell, a Lompoc resident, has said he was the fisherman involved in that second incident.

In Thursdays attack at Wall Beach, the shark was estimated by witnesses to be 10 feet to 12 feet long.

Last weeks attacks came after fatal shark attacks at Surf Beach in October 2010 and October 2012.

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Beaches reopen after 3 reported shark attacks

Beaches Reopen 72 Hours After Shark Attacks

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VANDENBERG VILLAGE, CALIF. -

After a 72-hour shutdown, Surf, Wall, and Minuteman beaches have reopened. This comes after two shark attacks along the Central Coast last week.

Friday a group of kayakers said a great White shark attacked them just north of the Vandenberg Air Force Base Boathouse, near Jalama beach.

They described the attack by recounting how they saw a shark get most of its body out of the water to take a bite into one kayak, throwing one of the people inside into the air. The shark then took a second bite out of the kayak. Nobody was hurt.

Several local beaches were shut down as a precaution after the attack, and another incident a day earlier near Jack's Beach.

Surf Beach had already been shut down for much of the summer to protect the Snowy Plover. The endangered bird's nesting season had ended just days before the attacks.

The Shark Research Committee said sharks and their interactions with humans are notoriously difficult to study but says the available data indicates shark attacks along the Pacific Coast are rare.

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Beaches Reopen 72 Hours After Shark Attacks

Illawarra beaches among cleanest in state

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Oct. 6, 2014, 3:30 p.m.

Illawarra beaches have received a glowing report card from the state government.

Enjoying Wollongong City beach all to himself, William Horspool 4 of Mount Saint Thomas. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI

Illawarra beaches have received a glowing report card from the state government, with almost every beach in the region praised for its cleanliness.

The latest State of the Beaches report from Beachwatch, ranking 249 beaches around the state, rated 20 of the Illawarras 21 beaches as good or very good for cleanliness.

Only the Entrance Lagoon Beach was rated as poor'.

The Beachwatch 2013-14 report rated ocean beaches, estuarine beaches and lagoon or lake swimming spots.

Overall, 83 per cent of all swimming locations were graded very good or good compared to 81 per cent in 2012-13; 97 per cent of ocean beaches were ranked in the top two categories; and 71 per cent of estuarine beaches were ranked highlycompared to 67 per cent in the last report.

According to Beachwatch, some of the cleanest beaches in the Illawarra include Stanwell Park, Austinmer, Woonona, Warilla, Shellharbour, Seven Mile Beach and Werri Beach.

Each beach was placed in the lowest category for microbial presence, meaning swimmers have less than a one per cent chance of contracting gastrointestinal illnessand less than 0.3 per cent chance of contracting fever and rashfrom using those beaches.

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Illawarra beaches among cleanest in state

Tougher line on shark threats

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Tougher line on shark threats

Sharks seen at popular beaches will be targeted more aggressively under the State Government's imminent threat policy, Colin Barnett says.

Clarifying comments he made after WAs environment watchdog rejected his drum-line program last month, the Premier flagged changes to the way the threat policy is applied rather than the guidelines themselves.

It came as the Abbott Government again signalled it was unlikely to approve WAs extended drum-line program, despite issuing a special exemption to kill sharks after the latest attack.

Under WA's imminent threat policy, Fisheries or contracted fishermen are allowed to catch and kill sharks deemed a public safety hazard, provided they get Commonwealth approval.

Mr Barnett said yesterday that instead of granting new or expanded powers, he simply wanted the policy to be applied more readily when a threat to people was identified.

He said Fisheries' fast efforts to catch two great white sharks on Thursday after Sean Pollard was attacked showed how the policy could be put into action quickly.

And he flagged its further use in future, suggesting it could be invoked in the South West during busy periods if a shark was seen hanging around popular beaches for extended periods of time.

We won't have drum lines off the beaches as a matter of course, but where a shark is seen to be a threat, particularly around popular swimming areas, and if it stays in that area, then we will use a drum line to catch that shark, Mr Barnett said. We just act thats the change.

On Thursday, the Premier wrote to Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt seeking an urgent exemption from Federal environment laws to allow the State to catch and kill the sharks thought responsible for biting Mr Pollard.

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Tougher line on shark threats

The Beatles Song That Helped Mayim Bialik Land Her Role in Beaches – The Oprah Winfrey Show – OWN – Video

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The Beatles Song That Helped Mayim Bialik Land Her Role in Beaches - The Oprah Winfrey Show - OWN
Catch up with Mayim on Oprah: Where Are They Now? this Sunday, October 5, at 9/8c. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1vqD1PN Original airdate: September 19, 1995 Mayim Bialik was an unknown actress...

By: OWN TV

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The Beatles Song That Helped Mayim Bialik Land Her Role in Beaches - The Oprah Winfrey Show - OWN - Video

Keep our beaches beautiful with Home and Away star Bonnie Sveen – Video

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Keep our beaches beautiful with Home and Away star Bonnie Sveen
Take the Pledge! Home and Away star and Take the Pledge Ambassador Bonnie Sveen is on board with keeping our beaches beautiful by getting everyone to NOT litter this summer. Join her and support...

By: Keep NSW Beautiful

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Keep our beaches beautiful with Home and Away star Bonnie Sveen - Video

Beaches in California closed after surfer injured in shark attack

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Despite intense media attention generated by shark attacks on humans, such incidents are fairly rare along the U.S. Pacific Coast, with 154 unprovoked attacks authenticated off California since 1900, according to the Shark Research Committee.

Thirteen fatal shark attacks on people have been documented in California during the past 60 years , with the two most recent of those, in October 2010 and October 2012, occurring at Vandenberg's Surf Beach, the group said.

"More people are killed by toasters than by sharks," said Shark Research Institute archivist Marie Levine. "Every creature is born with a menu in its brain. ... Humans are not part of a shark's menu."

On the opposite U.S. coast, two women escaped unharmed after a great white shark attacked their kayak in the waters off Manomet Point in Plymouth, Massachusetts, earlier this month.

In July, a great white hooked by fishermen on a pier bit a swimmer along Southern California coast near Manhattan Beach when the man inadvertently swam into the struggling shark. The man survived with lacerations to his torso.

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Beaches in California closed after surfer injured in shark attack

Beaches closed after California shark attack

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A shark attack that left a surfer injured on the central California coast has prompted the closure of three public beaches in the area controlled by Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The surfer suffered lacerations to his knee, and his surfboard was scraped in the attack by a shark measuring 8 to 10 feet in length, according to a report by Shark Research Committee President Ralph Collier, who is investigating the incident.

The base and Collier's report did not say what type of shark was involved, but local media described it as a great white.

Vandenberg Air Force base, about 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles, said in a notice that Surf, Minuteman and Wall beaches would remain closed until late afternoon on Sunday (local time) "due to safety considerations."

The attack occurred in the early evening on Thursday in waters one-quarter mile north of Wall Beach, the base said.

Despite intense media attention generated by shark attacks on humans, such incidents are fairly rare along the US Pacific Coast, with 154 unprovoked attacks authenticated off California since 1900, according to the Shark Research Committee.

Thirteen fatal shark attacks on people have been documented in California during the past 60 years , with the two most recent of those, in October 2010 and October 2012, occurring at Vandenberg's Surf Beach, the group said.

"More people are killed by toasters than by sharks," said Shark Research Institute archivist Marie Levine. "Every creature is born with a menu in its brain. ... Humans are not part of a shark's menu."

On the opposite US coast, two women escaped unharmed after a great white shark attacked their kayak in the waters off Manomet Point in Plymouth, Massachusetts, earlier this month.

In July, a great white hooked by fishermen on a pier bit a swimmer along Southern California coast near Manhattan Beach when the man inadvertently swam into the struggling shark. The man survived with lacerations to his torso.

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Beaches closed after California shark attack

Shark attack closes three California beaches

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Three beaches along coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base have been closed through the weekend following a nonfatal shark attack, authorities said Friday.

The attack occurred about 4 p.m. Thursday, military officials said in a brief statement posted on Vandenbergs website.

The attack happened a 400 metres north of Wall Beach, which will be closed along with Surf and Minuteman beaches until 4 p.m. Sunday.

A bite from a great white shark killed a surfer at Surf Beach in October 2012, and a bodyboarder at the same beach died in October 2010 when an apparent great white nearly severed a leg.

Vandenbergs statement only described the latest attack as nonfatal. A base public information officer did not immediately respond to a message seeking additional details.

Vandenberg is a missile and space-launch site in Santa Barbara County about 200 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles.

Surf Beach, which had been closed for several months during the Western Snowy Plovers nesting season, only reopened earlier this week.

All three beaches provide nesting habitat for the endangered bird.

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Shark attack closes three California beaches


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