T.J. in Oak Island, NC

Any specifics on the shark attacks. Which beach - Long East/West, Yaupon, Caswell.

Coming down next month... with three bite-sized humans.

Two of them are confirmed, both lost arms. One was lacerated badly by a probable shark.

Keep them in knee deep water.

http://www.wral.com/two-teens-injured-in-separate-shark-attacks-on-oak-island/14711125/

Right now the beach is open but you can't go into the water.

This isn't the great white that has the transmitter in it, is it?

One was right by the Ocean Crest pier. I think the other one was, I think, near East 45th St or so(EDIT: It was at East 55th St). There was another attack last week on Ocean Isle Beach where a girl's boogie board was bitten, but she still has her extremities.

It is unclear if the two Oak Island attacks were the same shark or different sharks. I can tell you that this summer there is way more life in the ICW and Davis Canal than last summer. Hell, there's been a sea turtle hanging around my back yard on and off since Memorial Day. I've seen way more fish out there as well. Not sure if there is more sealife in the ocean this year as well and that led to more sharks. I'm not planning on heading to the beach today.

In reply to spitfirebill:

There was a 12 foot Tiger Shark with a transmitter that passed by last week. http://www.ocearch.org/ is the website where you can see the tracked sharks pings. Chessie is the one that was in the news last week or so, but it doesn't look like she is the culprit. The Great White that was in the news recently is Mary Lee. She is like a 16 footer. Doesn't seem like she is the culprit either.

T.J. wrote: Hell, there's been a sea turtle hanging around my back yard on and off since Memorial Day.

Try to keep your yard lights off at night for two months since the last time you saw one, I'm assuming your back yard goes onto the beach and it probably laid eggs there. When the little turtles hatch they'll head for the brightest light at ground level, which should be reflections off the water, but if there's any artificial light around they'll go for that instead. If you help them head for the water you could single-handedly save their species from extinction - no joke.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

No, my backyard is the intracoastal waterway. The beach is about 2 miles away. No nests in my yard to worry about light pollution. There are 43 loggerehad nests on the island this season and I think there was a Kemp's Ridley that also may have made a nest. Those guys are rare around here. The nests are all protected and monitored.

EDIT: The Kemp's Ridley nest is over at Fort Fisher, not on the island where I live.

Tiger sharks do eat sea turtles. If there are 43 turtle nests on the island, there are obviously sea turtles swimming in the water. One theory I heard on the shark attacks is that the shark (or sharks) may have mistaken the teenagers for turtles.

A person on a boogie board has a very similar shape to a big sea turtle when seen from below...similar enough for a shark anyway.

yup

Is the tannin especially heavy this year. There have been years when it was like swimming in tea. It was pretty clear last year. We are staying somewhere between Ocean Crest and Middleton. I've been going to this place for 40 years and it's been decades since we moved. This won't change our affection for Long Beach or our swimming habits, but I may bring a larger rod and reel this time.

Thanks for the info. I saw the pier on the news, but didn't catch if it was OC or Yaupon.

In reply to T.J.:

When I lived in Avon we had a pair of Kemp Ridley's nest in front of the house. We were required to escort the hatchings with shovels and wiffle ball bats to the ocean to protect them from ghost crabs when they hatched. The little guys could fit on a quarter, it was quite fun.

In reply to Apis_Mellifera:

I have nothing to add on the actual subject. However, even though I know that your handle is the taxonomic name for honey bees, every time I see it I always think it's an expensive and beautiful Italian motorcycle.

In reply to Apis_Mellifera:

The water has been pretty clear (for here) so far this summer. I went over to Bald Head Island a month or so ago and it was interesting to see how clear the water was there compared to Oak Island since it is on the other side of the mouth of the Cape Fear river.

In reply to captdownshift:

My neighbor volunteers with the turtle group. They mark and track each nest and then when it gets close to hatching time, they have volunteers sit at the nest until the little ones boil out of the sand. They create 'runways' to guide them to the ocean and to block out man-made beach light from nearby houses.

Walk on the beach, swim in the pool. Also we were wondering about the fishermen chumming from the pier.

I drove past the pier this morning on my way to the farmer's market and it looked pretty busy. Lots of peeps on it, I assume fishing, but maybe they were just looking. I was always told growing up not to swim by piers and I still follow that rule. The people bit were in waist-deep water when they were attacked, so it's not as though they were out very far, but people do chum from the pier. The other attack was about 2 miles from the pier, so who knows. I won't stay out of the ocean because of this nor will I stop swimming in the ICW where I've seen 3-4' rays, alligators and such, but I'm not headed to the beach today. (I go to the beach more often in the off season than the summer time in any case).

In reply to T.J.:

yup trench digging and black plastic and stakes down (on the south end towards Buxton) to the high tide line when in Avon. We had nest marked as well and knew the date the little ones would hatch. The would actually dig up complete nest with a backhoe and relocate the entire nest and clutch if people chose not to want to follow the needed requirements.

Some piers to the north banned chumming after some bites in the VA Beach area. In the mid-late 90s we had a double fatal attack in Avon from a single Bull shark. Couple on their honeymoon on a late night swim iirc.

You stand a better chance of getting struck by lightening.

I wouldn't sweat it too much.

/\ was struck by lightening in 1998

In reply to Toyman01:

the irony of posting that after a post of mine :)

also double irony, though not a shark "attack" a friend from High School was bite by a shark while surf fishing and wading in the surf in Maryland last year, the shark that bite him was the one that he was attempting to real in.

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2014/08/29/assateague-shark-bite/14806267/

The sharks are just sad and want hugs.....

In reply to yamaha:

haha my coworkers are wondering why I'm laughing so hard