That’s the best description I have for Great White Sharks. Terrifying in their power, ferocious in their beauty, whenever I watch a documentary about them, I think of just how vulnerable humanity is, despite its technical advancements and so-called intellect.
Put us in the ocean, and we’re just another meal for evolution’s most fearsome predator. That’s why movies such as Jaws (and even Deep Blue Sea) are so attractive — it lets us flirt with our fear of nature’s engines of life & death.
I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read the following article on the CNN website. I may be able to appreciate Jaws for its fictional qualities, but I’m not stupid enough to go swimming off the Cape of Good Hope…
18ft SHARK ATTACKS BEACH SWIMMER
Elderly South African woman feared dead
Tuesday, November 16, 2004 Posted: 4:50 AM EST (0950 GMT)
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A Great White shark estimated to be at least 18 feet long (5.5 meters) has attacked and presumably killed an elderly South African woman off a beach near Cape Town, officials said.
Tyna Webb, 77, who lived in the area, was swimming Monday off Sunny Cove in Fish Hoek when the massive shark circled her and then attacked, witnesses and officials said.
About 15 people witnessed the attack.
“All that was left was a little red bathing cap,” said Paul Dennett, who witnessed the attack from his home nearby.
Dennett told the South African Press Association that he estimated the shark to be at least 18 feet long.
Rescue workers were using boats and aircraft to search for the woman’s body.
“All efforts to find the lady have been exhausted by a wide and thorough search. We are hoping that police divers will be successful in their efforts,” Darren Zimmerman of the National Sea Rescue Institute told the SAPA.
Crews later spotted the shark.
Great Whites often are seen in the area feeding off the large seal population.
“The shark is bigger than the helicopter … it is huge,” institute spokesman Craig Lambinon told SAPA.
Law enforcement officials advised people not to swim along the Cape of Good Hope.
A 16-year-old surfer lost his right leg in an April attack by a Great White shark in the same area.
The last confirmed, unprovoked fatal shark attack in South Africa was in 2003, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, which has gathered such data worldwide for decades.
