What's a shark attack?

Seriously...The Virgin Islands have virtually NO shark attacks each year. Florida leads the nation, maybe the world in shark attacks. California has one or two "great white shark" attacks each year. (they are big and deadly)

BUT

The Virgin Islands has almost none.... ever... that is one of the things that attracted me to the waters here ..( and the fact that the water is about 40 degrees warmer than California).

So enjoy the water...don't step on a sea urchin or get stung by a jelly fish and you will only have to worry about the sunburn....

Hello,

"Over the past century only 4 shark attacks have been reported in Virgin Islands waters."

--Islander

Shark attacks are more lore. I dont think that sharks' biology really coexsist well with the warm caribbean waters. We see Nurse sharks which can look menacing but they are known as one of the most docile sharks in the world. Sharks are ancient cartilage animals and if they dont swim constantly, they sink. They are always on the move but being in such warm waters increases their metabolism and has less dissolved oxygen in the water. In other words, they have to work harder for less oxygen and food. So, the most risk you can have of a shark attack is at night when they might move into the shallows to feed and its a little cooler. Its not smart to swim at night anyhow because you run a larger risk of coral, jellyfish, and other things you couldnt otherwise see. The larger more dangerous sharks just arent around here unless it is a rare occasion. Ive heard of more whale sightings than shark(other than nurse).

Chris you say it isn't smart to swim at night - but don't they have midnight snorkeling in STJ - is that not too safe?

Found this:

A FATAL ATTACK BY THE SHARK CARCHARHINUS GALAPAGENSIS
AT ST. THOMAS, VIRGIN ISLANDS

JOHN E. RANDALL

Institute of Marine Biology, University of
Puerto Rico, Mayagdez, P. R.

Caribbean Journal of Science Vol. 3 Number 4 December, 1963

[Scanned and you know that that means!]

ABSTRACT: On April 20, 1963 a 10-foot ridge-back carcharhinid shark
attacked and killed Lt. John Gibson, USN who was swimming at the surface in
Magens Bay, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands without swim mask or flippers. The
shark was caught the following day in the bay with the right hand and other
remains of the man in its stomach. The shark was examined by the author and
ultimately identified as Carcharhinus galapagensis by J. A. F. Garrick who is
revising the genus. This is apparently the first authenticated shark attack in the
Virgin Islands and the first record of galapagensis from the western Atlantic.

WHILE IN residence for nearly three years on St. John, U. S. Virgin Islands in
1958-1961, the author made many inquiries of maritime people, doctors,
government employees, etc., concerning possible shark incidents in the area.
Although the Virgin Islands has long been a popular resort region, frequented by
many bathers and divers, no one could recall any shark attack resulting in injury
or death to man. One fatality off Reef Bay. St. John which occurred about 20
years ago was attributed by some to a shark; however, upon investigation, it
appears to have resulted accidentally from the whirling propeller of an inboard
motorboat.

The seemingly unblemished record of the Virgin Islands with respect to shark
attacks was resoundingly broken on April 20, 1963 when Lt. (jg) John Gibson.
USN of the Underwater Demolition Team was killed by a 10 foot shark in
Magens Bay on the north shore of St. Thomas, the most popular bathing site on
the island. The shark was caught on the following day, and the remains of the man
were removed from its stomach. The identity of the shark was variously reported
in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico newspapers and news broadcasts as a
blacktip shark, hammerhead shark, and thresher shark.

A phone call on April 22 to UDT headquarters on St. Thomas revealed that the
shark was still on hand at the morgue of the Knud-Hansen Memorial Hospital in
Charlotte Amalie, although in such poor condition that its disposal had been
requested by hospital authorities. The author flew the next day to St. Thomas to
examine the shark. It proved to be a male specimen of a ridge-back species of
Carcharhinus Blainville.

The assistance of various members of the hospital staff and of the Underwater
Demolition Team of the U. S. Navy is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due
Lt. George W. Kirby, Jr., USN who was assigned the duty of investigating officer
of the tragic incident. and who made the information of his investigation available
to the author and provided prints of photographs of the shark. of the body of the

victim and the remains from the shark's stomach. One of the photographs of the
shark is reproduced herein as Figure 1. The remaining photographs of the shark
and those of the body have been deposited at the Division of Fishes of the U. S.
National Museum.

When examined, the shark was partially desiccated externally, the flesh nearly
liquefied medially in the body, and most internal organs were removed. The total
length was taken at 9 feet 7 inches without bending the upper lobe of the caudal
fin downward to the mid-line. The St. Thomas Daily News reported the length as
10 feet I inch, a measurement made when the shark was fresh and hence probably
greater than when the shark was somewhat dried. No accurate measurement could
be made of the greatest body depth or girth by the author. The body seemed
slender in spite of desiccation and removal of viscera. The newspaper reported the
girth when fresh as 45 '/~ inches. The snout was fairly short and bluntly rounded.
The pectoral fins were relatively thin. The origin of the second dorsal fin was
slightly anterior to that of the anal fin. The jaws and teeth (Fig. 2), second dorsal
and anal fins, one nostril, and a section of skin across the ridge on the back
between the dorsal fins were taken from the specimen and brought to the
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagiiez where they are deposited under UPR
number 1140.

Counts of the teeth and vertebrae and measurement data from the specimen are
given in Table 1.

The precaudal vertebral count of 104 was made by dissection. The caudal fin
was Xrayed at the hospital to provide a count of the caudal vertebrae; however, it
was learned after the carcass of the shark was dumped at sea that one of the two
overlapping X rays did not include all of the basal caudal vertebrae. The
incomplete caudal vertebral count was 90.

Utilizing the most recent published papers that provide for the identification of
western Atlantic Carcharhinus (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948; Springer, 1950),
the shark was tentatively labelled as C. springeri Bigelow and Schroeder. There
were differences, however, between the specimen and the descriptions of
springeri. The jaws, other pieces saved from the shark, and measurement and
meristic data were then sent to 1. A. F. Garrick who is working on a revision of
the difficult genus Carcharhinus at the Division of Fishes, U. S. National
Museum.

Garrick identified the specimen as C. galapagensis (Snodgrass and Heller), a
species recorded only from oceanic islands of the eastern Pacific (Rosenblatt and
Baldwin, 1958). Previously Garrick had seen specimens of galapagensis from St.
Helena, Ascension and Bermuda in the Atlantic. The occurrence of galapagensis
in the Virgin Islands is therefore not so surprising. The St. Thomas specimen
reported here does, however, represents the first published record from the
western Atlantic.

According to Garrick, springeri and galapagensis may be distinguished
principally by the number of teeth (springeri has 24 to 26 teeth in the outer row
of the upper jaw, not counting the small symphyseals, and 22 to 24 teeth in the
lower jaw, while galapagensis has 28 to 30 upper and 26 to 30 lower teeth),
vertical height of the second dorsal fin (2.9 to 3.2 percent of total length in
springeri and 2.4 to 2.8 percent of total length in galapagensis) and the shape of
the upper teeth (narrower and notched on both margins in springeri; noticeably
concave to notched only on the lateral margins of galapagensis).

The precaudal vertebral count of 104 in the St. Thomas specimen does not
provide for separation from springeri which seems to have approximately the
same range in the number of vertebrae as -alapagensis, nor would this one count
distin-uish the species from C. falciformis (Miiller and Henle), but it does from all
other known western Atlantic Carcharhinus (counts from Garrick, MS).

The St. Thomas shark has a shorter pectoral fin and slightly different shaped
teeth than typical galapagensis; however Garrick believes that these differences
will be shown to be within the range of variability of the species when more
specimens of diverse size and locality are available for examination.

Magens Bay, the site of the attack, is "Upshaped, 1.7 miles long and 0.7 miles
wide and opens to the northwest. With the usual easterly tradewind it is ordinarily
calm and relatively clear, and April 20 was no exception in this re-, ard. The water
temperature, judging from readings made in Lameshur Bay, St. John in April of
1960 and 1961 (Randall, 1962) probably approximated 280 C.

Gibson arrived at the beach at the head of the bay with a companion, Donna
Waugh. He suggested a swim from the beach near the southwest end across to the
rocky northeast shore. She declined and said that she would walk along the shore
and meet him on the other side. He entered the water and began swimming at the
surface without face mask or swim fins. He was well tanned and was wearing
swim trunks of a plaid pattern of deep red. Later, as Miss Waugh paused to talk
with someone on the beach, she thought she heard a scream from the water.
Looking out toward Gibson, who was then some distance from shore, she saw no
evidence of a struggle but noted that he had switched from a crawl to what
seemed to be a sidestroke. When she reached the northeast shore it became
apparent to her that Gibson was in serious trouble, for he rolled to one side, and
she saw that one of his hands was missing. Heroically, she swam to him in spite
of his warning to her to get out of the water, for the shark was still molesting him.
She aided him as he swam for shore. For her bravery Miss Waugh was later
awarded the U. S. Treasury gold life saving medal. When they neared shore, she
perceived that a man (Teddy Miller) had come to their aid, and she left Gibson
and ran to two fishermen, Paul and Aubry Bryn, who were standing near their
15-foot outboard motor boat at the northeast corner of the bay. The shark
continued to menace Gibson, and Miller threw rocks at it, while standing in the
shallow water, to try to frighten it away. The boat containing the fishermen and
Miss Waugh maneuvered in the bloody water between the shark and the injured
man. As Gibson was brought into the boat he was dead or nearly so, and it was
noted that very little blood escaped from his massive wounds into the boat. He
was pronounced dead at 2 p.m.

In addition to the loss of the right hand, there were enormous bites taken from
the left shoulder area and the right thigh and hip. The left foot was bitten, but no
flesh was removed. One of the UDT men theorized that Gibson may have been
bitten first on the foot and that he subsequently lost his right hand fending the
shark off. The huge bite on his thigh severed the femoral artery, and as indicated
later by a doctor, the man could not have lived more than about 15 seconds after
this wound was inflicted. The wound must therefore have Occurred when the man
was near the rocky shore, probably either while Miss Waugh was still swimming
with him or Miller was trying to assist him. The first attack on Gibson, which
Miss Waugh presumes to have taken place when she heard the scream, occurred at
about 1:30 p.m. or slightly before. The depth of the water in which Gibson swam
probably did not exceed 40 feet at any place.

Beginning at 8 a.m. the following day, approximately 15 UDT men in two of their
vessels set shark hooks from six 55-gallon drums in Magens Bay. The hooks were
baited with goat meat. Shortly after 4: 30 p.m. one of the drums was observed
bobbing in the water. As the men rushed to the scene ' a large shark was observed
to be hooked. It was killed with a shotgun and transported to the UDT base. The
right hand of a man plus other human remains were removed from the stomach.
Several of the UDT men remarked that the hand showed little signs of digestion,
and this is evident from the photograph. The hand was preserved in formalin and
sent to the Navy Pathology Laboratory at Bethesda, Maryland.

It is not known whether galapagensis will prove to be a rare species in the West
Indian region or whether it is relatively common and has been recorded previously
under some other name or names. It is the author's o!)inion from limited
observations that the ciosely related C. springeri, which was not described until
1944, will prove to be the most abundant inshore species of shark other than the
nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre), in the West Indies.

On March 17, 1961 the author was frightened by an aggressive carcharhinid of
at least 8 feet in length believed at the time to be springeri, but which could have
been galapagensis. The shark, which was lacking the outer part of the upper lobe
of its caudal fin, passed nearby at a depth of 90 feet in the clear water on the north
shore of Tobago, British Virgin Islands. It made a broad circle as the author rose
in the water toward the safety of a vessel overhead, and then it rushed upward.
Acting on the belief that the usual first rea~ction of an animal which is attacked is
to retreat, an overt movement was made in the direction of the shark, and it veered
off. The boat was reached before the shark returned.

Excellent research , Mr. Kuperis. Interesting. I had not heard of a "Carcharhinus galapagensis" till now. Apparently it is predominantly from the Pacific and Galapagos and eats mostly bottom fish and seals. Very lost puppy.
Seriously:
I agree with all the comments, but will add the following based on volunteer work at a marine nature center at my current home in Florida, and having lived in the USVI for 13 years
My short answer to her 2nd question: myopia and invading their space
RE: night swimming
I have done frequent night diving, and as long as you are respectful of "personal space" and territory, there is usually no problem...but when you are splashing, body surfing and swimming at dusk, you can't see who's turf you are invading or stepping on (poor sting rays usually only thrash their stingers when they get stepped on!). So perhaps it's best to not go swimming as the sun goes down.
Night time is when sharks and many predatory fish hunt, that said, one memorable attack I know of was a tourist who checked in to Frenchman's Reef right off the plane late in the day, changed into a bathing suit, ran into the gentle surf at about 6 pm, and came out minutes later with a bloody heel requiring many stiches. Not a shark, rather definitive barracuda bite pattern. So the new question is: are barracudas more dangerous. Not in my opinion. They ARE territorial; they ARE menacing looking...but they do not attack unprovoked. This woman was attacked because her fast movements in the churning water attracted the barracuda who thought the movement was small fry (bait fish) he was chasing. They, like sharks, don't particularly like eating humans. We just annoy them or get int heir way.
Which brings me to interesting comment # 2.
Most of the shark attacks in Florida are from Nurse sharks. Yes, they are the most docile. BUT: the problem is often US- Humans! We encroach their turf- surfing and bathing often into the evening when they like to feed. We sometimes like to approach them while they are sleeping to get photos and show how "brave" we are (not kidding here: I have often seen -and subsequently reprimanded- scuba divers who pull their tail fins and harass them!!!
I could go on, but glad to hear all you assuage this woman's unfounded fears.

Enjoy- just watch out for aggressive T shirt vendors, taxi drivers, hair braiders and restaurant hawkers.

Wow, Richard! I have often heard the 1963 date quoted, but have never heard the details of the attack. Thanks for that information! And to DS, I have also heard of the infamous Reef attack, and that everyone was screaming "shark!" when it was clearly barracuda... I have seen several sharks while scuba diving, they were interested in getting away from the bubble breathers.... To Kelly: I don't know about "midnight snorkeling", but there are night snorkeling tours like Homer Calloway's Incredible Night Snorkel on St Thomas. Usually you start at sunset and watch "the changing of the guard"- very interesting stuff and highly recommended!