Shark attacks diver in Sydney Harbour
Ya never know when one of those critters is waiting. :scared::D
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090211...20090211143153
Wed Feb 11, 9:29 am ET
Play Video Australia 7 News – Navy diver attacked by shark
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20090211/c...NAmgK8UlJCoQ-- AFP – Navy Personnel (C) leave Woolloomooloo Bay near the Garden Island Naval Base (top) on Sydney Harbour. …
SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian navy diver was seriously injured as he fought off a shark in a rare attack in Sydney Harbour Wednesday, officials said.
The 31-year-old diver was taking part in a defence exercise near an upmarket residential area of the harbour when he was attacked, suffering severe injuries to his right hand and thigh.
Able Seaman Paul Degelder was rushed straight into surgery at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, where he was reported to be in a serious but stable condition.
The attack took place near the Garden Island Naval Base in Woolloomooloo Bay, which is lined with seafood restaurants and celebrity apartments.
The diver was taking part in a trial of new technologies to protect ports and ships from underwater attack but was on the surface when the shark struck, officials said.
"It all happened very quickly," the commander of the Australian fleet, Rear Admiral Nigel Coates, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
"He fought the shark, punched it a few times. The shark disappeared. Our diver then swam to our nearby safety boat."
Coates said it was believed to be the first time that a navy diver had been attacked by a shark, and diving activities had been suspended.
While shark attacks are not uncommon off Australia's vast coastline, Taronga Zoo shark attack expert John West told ABC no one had been bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour for more than a decade.
"They're very, very uncommon," he said, with the last attack on a swimmer about 12 years ago up the Parramatta River that runs into the harbour.
"Then there's a couple in between, in 2002 and 2000, where rowers had their paddles or their skis bitten by a shark up in Parramatta River."
The shark was most likely one of the bull sharks that feed in the harbour at this time of year, West said.
He added that the last fatal attack in Sydney Harbour was in 1963, when a woman was killed by a bull shark.
Success in cleaning up the water is luring increasing numbers of gamefish into the harbour and they in turn are being chased by more sharks, marine experts and fishermen told the national AAP news agency.
The environment department said 30 years of industrial regulation, toxic chemical bans and stormwater treatment programmes had improved water quality in the harbour and boosted resident sea life populations.
"As the harbour gets healthier, so the numbers of fish are likely to improve and so, too, you may also have sharks attracted to the whole area," said department spokesman John Dengate.
"We've seen them before, but we're seeing more tiger sharks in the last two weeks than we've seen in 20 years," said Sydney harbour fishing guide Craig McGill.
The mauling of the diver follows a spate of attacks on swimmers off Australian beaches last month, which sent a shiver through summer holidaymakers. Three swimmers were attacked and injured within 24 hours just two weeks after a snorkeller was killed. But, with 194 deaths through shark attacks recorded in Australia over the past two centuries, researchers point out endlessly that more people die from bee stings and lightning strikes.
