[pct-l] First Bear attacks, and now......<g>

[Brick Robbins <brick@fastpack.com>]

What will happen to backpackers next???????
Be careful out there<g>

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  Backpacker films rare shark attack

  July 19, 2000

  EAST LONDON, South Africa -- A backpacker filming surfers on South
  Africa's east coast captured another sort of adventure story this week: rare
  footage of a Great White shark attack.

  A video recording of the incident, considered by shark experts to be unique,
  shows a second shark also lining up to attack 15-year-old Shannon Ainslie, a
  surfer from East London.

  Ainslie was surfing with his brother and friends Monday when he came face to
  face with one of the world's most ferocious killers.

  "I was just catching a wave when the shark came up and made a grab for me.
  Next thing I knew I was under water and came face to face with the shark,"
  he said.

  Ainslie escaped with a severely injured right hand, almost losing a middle
  finger.

  His ordeal was caught on film by Canadian backpacker Sean Smith, who just
  happened to be videotaping the surfers.

  The film shows Ainslie being thrown from his board as the 13-foot shark
  attacks. A dorsal fin can be seen towering above the wave as the shark's jaws
  clamp the back of the board and drag it under the water.

  The second shark is clearly silhouetted against a breaking wave and moving in
  toward the surfboard, but it drops away at the last moment.

  "I am very, very surprised to hear that there was a second shark there. It is
  very unusual for Great Whites to hunt in pairs. They don't hunt together, 
they
  only hunt alone," said Willie Maritz, the chief of marine services in East
  London.

  Maritz said sharks often attack surfboards because they mistake them for
  seals, sea turtles or large fish.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/news/news_1n19shark.html

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Yah, I know it's not PCT related, but in the context of the Bear attacks, 
it IS funny....

-Brick

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