Word: sharked
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...BULL SHARK When Dawn Schauman was attacked by an 8-to-10-ft. bull shark in October 1993, she said, "it felt like a truck had slammed into me, then I felt a compacting squeeze and an acute burning in my left hand and my left leg." The shark spun her around, leaving her disoriented as she hemorrhaged blood into the water. The shark left, and willpower alone got Schauman--6 1/2 months pregnant--back to shore. Her baby was later born prematurely but safely. For months Schauman woke at 3 a.m. replaying the attack in her head...
...bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas, usually grows no longer than 10 ft. and weighs up to 500 lbs., but what it lacks in size it makes up for in aggressiveness. Experts regard it as the most pugnacious of sharks. It has, according to Robert Hueter, director of the Center of Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., the highest level of testosterone in any animal, including lions and elephants. Its lower spiked teeth are designed to hold prey while the upper triangular serrated teeth gouge out flesh. "The bull is an ambush type of predator, it makes this...
...bull is the only shark that prowls regularly in water shallow enough for humans to walk in--and it may be territorial. Australian shark biologist Ian Gordon has been getting into the water off Florida beaches and deliberately agitating bull sharks to observe their reaction. He says his research so far suggests that underwater geography and a sense of territory can provoke an attack. "Even if you don't know it's there, the shark will feel like it is being cornered...
...Human shark victims almost always seem to be inadvertent intruders rather than targeted prey. Scientists who work with sharks know how dangerous they can be, and many are critical of the guided shark-feeding tours that are proliferating in Florida and the Bahamas. Sharks there have begun to associate the sound of an outboard motor with food, and there have been attacks by sharks apparently impatient to be fed, according to George Burgess, head of the International Shark Attack File. Shark feeding is illegal in two Florida cities, and a campaign to ban it statewide is under way. "When...
...half. His sister and the other girls had ventured out much farther, but Jessie, 8, his brothers and some cousins stayed 15 ft. from shore, crouched in the shallow surf. Then, one brother felt something swish by his leg, and Jessie saw the sharp fins of a bull shark protruding 2 ft. above the water. The shark took an exploratory bite of his arm and a chunk of his thigh. "He's got me!" Jessie yelled...