Lake Nicaragua, Nicaragua
No, you aren’t reading the heading wrong. The next shark infested destination on our list is in fact a lake, the largest one in Central America to be exact. Bull sharks, as previously mentioned, are known for their aggressive and unpredictable behavior as well as their ability to tolerate fresh water. For years, scientists did not understand how the sharks ended up in the freshwater lake in Nicaragua.
They assumed the sharks must have been trapped there centuries ago. However, in the 1960s, scientists found that these ferocious sharks jumped upstream the San Juan River much like salmon. While there have not been a large number of attacks on humans by bull sharks in this lake, any shark swimming around in a lake is doubly terrifying.
Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia
Any place that has placed protective nets to help keep sharks away from ocean bathers has got to have a lot of sharks, and this beach on the eastern coast of Australia certainly does. Recent attacks have pushed this beach high onto many lists as one of the most shark infested beaches in the world. In 2006, a young woman was attacked and killed by three bull sharks just north of this beach. In 2008, a 16 year-old bodyboarder was mauled and killed by a bull shark here also. Months later a surfer and two divers also had close run-ins with the predatory fish in the same waters, who luckily lived to tell the tale.
With lots of sharks and lots of people in the water, this eastern coastline of Australia has some of the highest shark attack concentrations in the entire world and almost every avid surfer along this stretch of coast either has his or her own shark story or knows someone who does.
Reunion Island
Located in an isolated spot about 130 miles from the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, French owned Reunion Island is home to awe-inspiring waterfalls, lush, green landscapes, beautiful beaches, great surf and lots of sharks. Although there have only been a few attacks off the coast of Reunion Island in the past few years, the number of attacks per capita of swimmers, surfers and divers on this tiny, isolated island is one of the highest in the world. Since 1980 there have been 24 shark attacks off the shores of this island, with 13 of them being fatal. Bull and tiger sharks both troll the waters near this island and are two of the three most dangerous species of sharks known to intentionally attack humans (great whites are the other).
The most recent shark attack victim was a 34-year old surfer who had his arm ripped off by a shark while surfing Devil’s Point off this remote island and later died from his injuries. While not many people head to this tiny island, those who do should be extra careful before they get in the waters here.
West End, Grand Bahamas
The Caribbean has long been famous for its stories of looting pirates and vicious shark attacks. While there have been no documented fatal shark attacks here, West End on Grand Bahama is home to “Tiger Beach,” a notorious hangout for tiger sharks. The waters in this Caribbean area are replete with all kinds of sharks (hammerheads, bull sharks, blakctips), the West End is mostly known for its concentration of the aggressive tiger shark.
Much like in Gansbaai, this area in the Bahamas has become famous for shark cage diving, drawing many tourists to the waters who actually want to come face to face with a hungry shark (protected by a metal cage of course).
Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa
Located along the shores of the Indian Ocean not far from bull shark-infested Kosi Bay, this picturesque and popular seaside resort town has one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. However, these stretches of beautiful beaches are also home to lots of sharks. Aggressive, huge and terrifying great white and bull sharks to be exact. Swimmers here are somewhat protected by a string of fishing nets that keep sharks out, which were installed in 1957 after five swimmers were killed by sharks in just 100 days.
Today, the town is home to the Natal Shark Board, which is a combination museum, headquarters and laboratory studying sharks in the region. In fact, there are so many sharks off this coastline that scientists in Umhlanga have patented a device to be worn by surfers and divers called a Protective Oceanic Device, which supposedly repels sharks and prevents them from attacking. The device works by enveloping the wearer in a 120 volt electrical field, repelling any nearby sharks.
There’s some good websites if you wqant to read about attacks in South Africa, Australia and the USA; one is JawShark and another is the Global Shark Attack File website.
Stuart O’Hallaran
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[via BootsnAll]
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