From: morgan@leland.Stanford.EDU (RL "Bob" Morgan)
Subject: Re: shark attack on kayak
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 00:50:29 GMT


Here's some more stuff on the shark attack on Ken Kelton at An~o
Nuevo. 

1.  The fellow who observed the hit from behind was, I believe, the
same Mike Chin who posts to this newsgroup every so often.  He's
probably in rec.climbing now 8^).  I understand that this was his
*first* ocean trip.

2.  It's particularly ironic that our local sea kayak club newsletter,
Bay Currents, had just come out three days before containing an
article by Ken about what a great place An~o Nuevo is and how he'd be
happy to go there again any time, just give him a call.  So Mike gave
him a call ...  Ken has promised another article for next month.

3.  I talked to Ken the night it happened.  He said that they had
approached An~o Nuevo island from the north, paddled around it, and
were headed back north again when the attack happened.  They were
about a half mile north of the island at the time, and were "just
moseying along" trying to scope a path through some rock gardens.
They had just decided not to have lunch on a particular beach because
it was crowded with harbor seals.

When the shark struck, it came from the side, not directly up from the
bottom.  As reported, the shark came mostly out of the water when it
bit, biting completely around the boat, with the front of its teeth
hitting past the center line of the boat, a foot or two behind the
cockpit.  It spun him around 180 degrees.  Somehow he didn't capsize,
which we agreed was a good thing (though he does have a roll in most
circumstances).  The bite went through the shell of the boat and
punctured his float bag too.  It also went right through a metal skeg
he had installed on the bottom to improve the Dancer's tracking.  The
diameter of the bite was about 16 inches.

They headed for the same beach they had just passed up, and had to
negotiate some substantial surf to do it.  Ken said his boat was
full of water by the time they reached the beach.

It seems that some An~o Nuevo rangers had been watching their
circumnavigation of the island, afraid that they would land there.
Apparently the rangers didn't see the attack, but did catch up with
them on the beach where they landed, which is also restricted.  The
rangers started to hound them about being there, but when Ken showed
them his boat they said "oh, OK," and helped them do the shuttle back
to their cars.

4.  Joe mentioned that our club (Bay Area Sea Kayakers, BASK) had a
talk about sharks from John McCosker of the Steinhart Aquarium once.
At another meeting (which Ken was at) we had a talk and some videos by
folks from the Farallons Bird Observatory (on the Farallon Islands,
about 30 miles west of San Francisco).  Their videos had lots of
amazing scenes of sharks attacking young elephant seals.

As already described, sharks make a first surprise bite, then back off
to wait for the victim to become incapacitated before moving in to
eat.  The Farallons observers saw cases in which seals had survived if
they could get to shore after being hit.  At least in this area, the
sharks were pretty specific about what they hit, avoiding both larger
and smaller animals and going for the juvenile elephant seals.  Unlike
someone's claim about shark territoriality (aquatality?), these sharks
only show up at the Farallons for the two or three months that the
elephant seals are there (just this time of year, actually).

5.  For you Bay Areans, I think Ken is intending to bring his boat to
the next BASK meeting: December 2, 7 PM, UCSF, Health Sciences West
room 300.

 - RL "Bob" Morgan