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A 42-year-old man who was surfing off a beach in Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture, was bitten by a shark on Sunday.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 10 a.m. while the man was surfing about 80 meters from the mouth of the Ota River, Fuji TV reported. He suffered bite wounds to his ankle and feet. Although the surfer said he did not see the shark, a man on shore said he saw a dorsal fin approaching the surfer.
Two weeks ago, there were multiple sightings of a shark reported in the same area, police said.
Shizuoka prefectural police and Iwata City officials have alerted residents to refrain from entering the sea. Furthermore, Iwata City has called attention to the incident via radio communication on the Disaster Prevention Radio Network.
© Japan Today
17 Comments
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Disillusioned
I'd guess it was a juvenile bull shark. Surfing near rivermoutbs after a lot of rain is a bit dangerous coz it flushes the juveniles out of estuaries. It seems like he was pretty lucky and only received somewhat minor injuries.
Speed
What makes you think it was a bull shark? There are lots of different kinds of sharks here in Japan.
Rivermouths are known to have a larger number of sharks due to it being a prime feeding spot for all kinds of sea life.
Monozuki
This really reminds me of the famous film "Jaws." Fortunately, his physical damage appears to be not fatal.
dcog9065
I suppose another Hammerhead? Aren't they the ones to watch out for in Japan?
Alex Einz
Hammerheads dont attack people,bull shark is most logical suggestion.
szero25
Sounds like a bull shark, they are known to frequent estuary mouths, can tolerate fresh water and can be aggressive.
Its pretty common to hear of bull shark attacks back in Australia, swimmers and kayakers have been attacked in Sydney harbour by them.
angry buggers!
Sam Watters
@AlexEinz. Wrong. There are four types of hammerheads and the Great Hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead are both known to attack man. Having said that, I would bet money it was a bull shark.
Alex Einz
@sam - wrong ! there are 9 types of hammerheads ,only 3 may seldom attack humans when provoked, and very very little number of attacks actually recorded and none are fatal, which suggests protective behavior and not aggressive.
Sam Watters
@AlexEinz. I stand corrected! There are actually ten kinds of hammerheads according to the website I found. And yes Imagree that hammers are not as agrressive as, say, bulls or tigers but....
Hammerhead sharks in general are listed by the International Shark Attack File #8 on its list of species responsible for shark attacks from the years 1580 to 2011. During this time, hammerheads were responsible for 17 non-fatal, unprovoked attacks and 20 fatal, provoked attacks.
Thanks! I learned something today!
Tamarama
Bull shark.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Bull Shark
Ah_so
Bull Shark
(it felt good writing that, although am doing nothing more that copying others' posts).
Midnight Sun Tribe
Wrong. There are 217 types of hammerhead shark and as a result of their unprovoked attacks more than 22 quadrillion humans have died. Sorry, I seem to have misplaced the link...
Kobe White Bar Owner
@Ah-so
As an avid open water diver and shark nut who has done both cages and uncaged dives with sharks from sand, white tips, to bulls and white sharks i hope that was not directed at me.
Kaerimashita
We will know what it was when they capture and kill it. In the meantime wouldn't want to be any kind of shark minding my own business of Shizuoka
Goodlucktoyou
As a shark diving fan, I've only been attacked once in many many incidents that my dive master saved me. I hate these stories and the Jaws movies. This is just an excuse to kill the most wonderful living dinosaurs on this planet. Sharks are so important to the seas ecosystem.
I would be surprised it was a bull shark, because of overfishing, they are very rare here. Shark fin soup anyone?
mmwkdw
Who cares what *** type of Shark it was, the question is, what can be done to make it safer for people to enter the Water ?