Carcharodon
Carcharias:
California
Shark RealTalk
Note:
The respected publication, Scientific
American Presents,
in
its 3rd Quarter 1998 issue "The Oceans," listed this site (under
"Shark Stories"); SA also provided a link to us on its WWW
site.
Below
you'll find our collection of reports about Great White Shark
"incidents" in our local Northern California waters from 1995-2004
FYI, as of August 2004, there have been about 106 (presumed) GWS attacks, and but no more than 10 fatalities, in about the last fifty years out of the literally millions of surf rides, surface free dives, and scuba dives made off the entire length of California's coast. (For the list of fatal incidents, go to our report of the last one, on August 15, 2004. Click here.)
How do others interpret these stats? According to the "In Depth Undercurrent" 1997 Edition of the Travelin' Diver's Chapbook, the editors state that north of Monterey Bay there is roughly one great white shark attack annually --"Order of risk: free divers, surfers, and scuba divers." (Please note, however, that statistics for the entire century on the Pacific Coast as a whole suggest a different order of risk. See last link below, to the Shark Research Committee, for more information.)
Enough said? No? Well then scroll on down to our collection of "diver relevant" Great White Shark information (encompassing attacks known to us to have taken place in our coastal waters from southern Monterey Bay north to the Oregon border between 1995 and 2004)...
1995: The 1st GWS Incident in 1995 (1 SCUBA DIVER ATTACKED)
1996: The 1st GWS Incident in 1996 (1 AB DIVER ATTACKED)
1997: The Only GWS Incident in 1997 (1 SURFER ATTACKED)
1998: The Only GWS Incident in 1998 (1 BOOGIE-BOARDER ATTACKED)
1999: The Only 1999 GWS Incident (A BEACH CLOSURE)
2000: The 1st GWS Incident in 2000 (A BEACH CLOSURE)
2001: The Only GWS Incident in 2001 (A BEACH CLOSURE)
2002: The Only GWS Incident in 2002(1 SURFER ATTACKED)
2003: The 1st GWS Incident in 2003 (1 GWS CAPTURED)
2004: The 1st GWS Incident in 2004 (1 SURFER ATTACKED)
AFTER 2004...if you want still MORE information about the GWS along the Pacific Coast of North America after 2004, please go to the Shark Research Committee's site. [Note, also, that you can report a personal encounter with a GWS in northern California by clicking on this link.]The 2nd GWS Incident in 2004 (1 AB DIVER KILLED)
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