BY COOPER GEGAN
Most shark bites happen by accident. Though Jaws has led to the popular narrative of sharks as man-hunting, killing machines, one prevailing theory states that a number of shark encounters are simply the result of mistaken identity -– cases in which sharks mistake humans for seals or other prey. But as one Australian man found out recently, some seals may be purposefully deceiving sharks into making that mistake.
The incident occurred offshore from Kangaroo Island, southwest of Adelaide, in South Australia. A man in his 50s was surfing at around 1 pm when he was bitten by a shark. It appears that the bite was a result of a seal using the man as a sort of human shield.
“A surfer has been taken to hospital after receiving two shark bites from a large Bronze Whaler at ‘The Sewer’ surf break, D’Estrees Bay,” wrote Shark Watch SA on Facebook, based on information from a public submission. “According to the report, a Bronze Whaler was chasing a seal around the bay when the seal used the surfer as a decoy, and the victim was bitten twice by the shark.”
As ABC News reports, the man drove himself to a nearby hospital for treatment. South Watch SA describes the surfer’s condition as “non-life-threatening.”
This story first appeared in The Inertia.
