Tuesday 12 August 2014

Sharks Confuse People for Birds: Report

8th August 2014 

Certain sharks appear to confuse some recreational water users with birds, suggests a new case report that investigated a shark attack in the South Pacific.

The report, published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, indicates that kitesurfers may be particularly at risk of becoming shark food.

At least, that's what appears to have happened to a 15-year-old male kitesurfer who died May 21, 2011 after encountering a tiger shark in waters off the city of Koumac on the northwest coast of New Caledonia.

"We hypothesize that the shark may have confused the motion of the kitesurfer, who was pulled by his kite without the board, with a bird overtaking the water," lead author Eric Clua, a marine biologist and veterinary surgeon based in French Polynesia, told Discovery News.



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