Marine Life

But....why tempt a visitor by baiting yourself with some freshly caught, bloody fish n chips

Everyone says stuff like "statistically you're more likely to die in a car accident"  but numbers lie.  The statistics are based on the entire population, not on the couple thousand surfers and kayakers that are actually exposed to the possibility of a shark attack.

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Just kidding you..... No harm intended

Everyone says stuff like "statistically you're more likely to die in a car accident"  but numbers lie.  The statistics are based on the entire population, not on the couple thousand surfers and kayakers that are actually exposed to the possibility of a shark attack.

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Very few shark attacks in Iowa

Everyone says stuff like "statistically you're more likely to die in a car accident"  but numbers lie.  The statistics are based on the entire population, not on the couple thousand surfers and kayakers that are actually exposed to the possibility of a shark attack.

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Captial "B"  BINGO!!  +1   

And I think we will see the "average occurrence rate" for the actual user group population rise significantly as more folks spend more time in water that have increasing shark populations.

 How many "individual user days"(one person counted for each day the person goes out on the water) were kayakers on the ocean off the Oregon coast last year?  200, 300, 400?  I had an encounter with a large shark last summer so that's at least one in lets say 400 user days (even using what I feel would be the high end of the kayaker days scale).  The odds of an encounter suddenly aren't as astronomical ...

Based on all of my past on the water activities in various places I have lived (Lake Havasu had the highest number of idiots per capita) the drunken power boater is the most dangerous animal on the water.

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I would guess provoked attacks cover things like retards that swim with them and such. 

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Hahahabaa!!!! Like Dane Cook says (about the guy who went swimming with the GW)
"were you taunting it?"

Everyone says stuff like "statistically you're more likely to die in a car accident"  but numbers lie.  The statistics are based on the entire population, not on the couple thousand surfers and kayakers that are actually exposed to the possibility of a shark attack.

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While likely true, I say I'm more likely to die in a car as that has been my personal experience. Moose, icy roads, being too tired to drive safely.

I also see hundreds of touring kayakers every weekend and I've never heard of an incident. At least in AK it seems like its always weather or booze.


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Our end will all come eventually and if I spent my waking hours worrying about the rouge 1% of GWS then I would not be enjoying the moment. Go out and go fishing ... enjoy your life and if you get eaten by a GWS then your family will have a great story to tell.
Mean while far more American die at the hands of doctors every year than in the jaws of a shark. I'll stick to the ocean in my little chunk of plastic and avoid hospitals.

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I see as that I have two options: 

The first is to be out on the water having an amazing time with a very very very slim chance of falling victim to some creature of the sea.

The second is to live the rest of my life watching others out there having an amazing time where I am very very very likely to be filled with regret I never tried it.


I'm just working the odds   

I guess it all comes down to risk assessment.  Knowing your odds and comfort/experience level in each activity you participate in can help you decide if you are willing to take the risk. 

Personally, I'm not going fishing in the river right next to Mr. Griz cuz that's pretty risky around here and there are tons of bear free spots.  Likewise in the salt,  I'll move if I'm in some whale or other critters space since there is a whole ocean out there to fish.  But I'm not gonna sit on my duff at the salty dog because there might be something scary out there

I had was I believe was a California Steller sea lion

There are Caliornia Sea Lions and there are Steller Sea Lions, but I don't believe there are California Stellar Sea Lions.

Stellar Sea Lions get huge.  They scare me.

-Allen

it's a stellar bull that hangs out there some that time of year. He's big & bad & I'm sure he's talking to me. I don't push it & leave when he barks at me. He's probly used to running me off.

I'm not going to worry about GWS attacks, but also not going to take untoward chances. won't drag fish & stay away from some places during winter, like seal rookeries or pigeon pt. http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/2000.htm

Im really glad I dont have to worry about a great white! I didnt realize that they were as far north as oregon!

Im gonna be nervous on the water no doubt, but thats a great point about bears, moose and such. Those are wild animals that can hurt me, lots of documented cases of them hurting people, yet I dont let that deter me from doing what I like.

"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacle should be placed in their path; let them take risk, for God sake, let them get lost, sun burnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, {Great White Sharks}buried alive under avalanches-that is the right and privilege of any free American."

Amen, Mr. Abbey

Yes, drunk drivers, drunk bar fighters, would-be muggers, elk standing in the middle of the hwy in the fog on the drive home from the river, and idiot PB operators have all given me close calls. I've never had a GW make a pass at me nor seen one in the water, and I've logged thousands of hours in the many hundreds of surf sessions here since May 1979, when I first started surfing here after moving back from Oahu. I used to see sharks (gray reef, hammerheads, a couple of occasions even tigers) occasionally when surfing on Oahu, and several times we thought it best to leave the water until the shark left. But that never kept us from surfing.

I just feel like a huge dry fly out there fishing from my yak, though.