Sizable bite marks

[tautologies]

That has to be some jaw to get that bite mark...

http://www.nsri.org.za/2016/12/paddlers-in-a-shark-encounter/

[deepmud]

That would "bite" especially on an inflatable... or in any alone situation. Good time to have gone out with friends.

[Night Wing]

That is one big bite mark. Maybe a call to "Matt Hooper" is in order. 

[Bean]

That would "bite" especially on an inflatable... or in any alone situation. Good time to have gone out with friends.

Yes, always paddle with "friends", preferably slower ones...

It's interesting, some of the comments seem to indicate an increase in shark human encounters based at least in part on the activities of the shark-tourism industry.  It does make sense that, baiting, feeding or just getting face to face with the GW's could decrease any aversion they might otherwise have for humans.

[peterp]

That would "bite" especially on an inflatable... or in any alone situation. Good time to have gone out with friends.

Yes, always paddle with "friends", preferably slower ones...

It's interesting, some of the comments seem to indicate an increase in shark human encounters based at least in part on the activities of the shark-tourism industry.  It does make sense that, baiting, feeding or just getting face to face with the GW's could decrease any aversion they might otherwise have for humans.

The shark bit a 20ft "boat" - if it was interested in the human it would probably have gone for him after it managed to knock him in the water.....guess it hadn't been conditioned yet.....

I don't buy the whole conditioning thing, if that was really happening then we'd have blue murder at my local beaches. And we have small local harbours doing their thing with their daily catch of fish right next to surf beaches with no real problems to speak of.

Great Whites hunt by sight - I really wonder what it imagined a 20ft by 35" white creature would be - other than something made out of fibreglass. They seem quite calculated when they decide to attack so if they are now going to start attacking random floating items then it's probably time to get worried.

We've had a lot of bites on Surfskis here and thankfully none yet on a SUP but I think that is more down to the number of Surfskis and the amount of hours they spend in the water.

[Bean]

The shark bit a 20ft "boat" - if it was interested in the human it would probably have gone for him after it managed to knock him in the water.....guess it hadn't been conditioned yet.....

Almost as if to say, "I took my test-bite and it was crap", so the whole thing (boat and paddler) are rejected out of hand.

[yugi]

...
We've had a lot of bites on Surfskis here and thankfully none yet on a SUP but I think that is more down to the number of Surfskis and the amount of hours they spend in the water.

thank god I [still] far too young to do sport sitting down!

I totally get why a shark would find a surfski more appetizing than a SUP (from underneath).

Damn! That's still one hell of a taste test!

[PonoBill]

I think the shark tourism issue has a lot more to do with what people WANT to think and their precursor beliefs than anything that sharks might do.

[peterp]

The shark bit a 20ft "boat" - if it was interested in the human it would probably have gone for him after it managed to knock him in the water.....guess it hadn't been conditioned yet.....

Almost as if to say, "I took my test-bite and it was crap", so the whole thing (boat and paddler) are rejected out of hand.

I've seen GW sharks do exploratory bites when baited and that is a relatively docile affair where they swim up and try and nibble a bit - I've also seen the GW's breach off Seal Island here in False Bay and there is no nibbling - it's full on attack mode and the prey gets attacked at full speed from deep. This guy in the ski was not a test bite, it was going to get this thing seeing he got bust right out of the ski.

The fact that it upped and left immediately after the first hit confirms what you're saying - it definitely rejected the boat as not being worth a second bite.

I'm just still wondering what it could possibly have thought this long thin thing was? Is there anything on the normal shark menu that looks like that? This is what puzzles me about these surfski attacks, the skis don't look like anything else in the ocean yet they occasionally get nibbled and sometimes, like here, full on attacked. The nibble I can understand, it is checking it out. But the the full blown attack makes no sense.

We ran test seal dummies behind a boat a few years back with different designs on them and from that data it was very clear that the GW's do look and choose what they attack - some designs got hit while others were avoided, so much so that there could be no doubt that they see their prey and make conscious decisions as to what they go for.

The ski just doesn't make sense in light of that.

[Bean]

Yes, unpredictable enough for the wise to be weary for sure.

[deepmud]

I'm just still wondering what it could possibly have thought this long thin thing was? Is there anything on the normal shark menu that looks like that?

Big squid on the surface? I guess from below, it's mostly about silhouette rather than markings - but it's all I can thing of in the length/width ratio that is close.....