Sharks from species once thought harmless kill and eat snorkeler in feeding frenzy

[marmar]

A 40-year-old male tourist was swimming and filming about 100m from shore in Hadera off the coast of Israel in April when he was suddenly surrounded by a shiver of dusky sharks, a species generally considered to be harmless to humans.

Witness testimonies suggest a shark reportedly lunged at his GoPro camera. Witnesses then heard him shouting: “Help… they’re biting me,” before he disappeared from sight as the water turned red and some shark fins could be seen on the surface. By the time rescue boats could arrive, the water was bloodied and the man was gone, local reports say.

“The day after, searches at sea recovered human remains (in very small quantities) that allowed the forensic confirmation of the victim’s identity, but also led to the conclusion that he had been devoured by ‘several’ sharks during this incident,” researchers wrote.

The report, published in the journal Ethology, documents the first known instance of a dusky shark – a species with no known record of killing humans – fatally attacking a diver during a feeding frenzy. ................(more)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/sharks-species-once-thought-harmless-081012657.html