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Recent Shark Attacks:
Two Floridians injured in shark attacks
NASSAU· A Florida man attacked by a shark during a
spearfishing trip remained in serious condition this weekend.
Richard Horton, 58, was spearfishing in Abaco Island's Bakers Bay when
a shark bit his right leg Wednesday. He was airlifted to New
Providence Island in the Bahamas and underwent surgery, hospital
officials said.
Horton, of South Orange Park, was the second man attacked within a
week in Abaco, 100 miles north of Nassau. Benjamin Brown, 39, of Juno
Beach was bitten last week while spearfishing with his brother in
Walker's Cay. He was taken to a West Palm Beach hospital, where
doctors operated on his left calf.
This article is from the
Southeastern Fisheries Website:
By Kellie Patrick
Staff Writer - Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
Posted April 11 2002
A famous shark researcher who claimed he knew
sharks too well to ever be bitten lost part of his leg to a shark as
he led a class on the predator's behavior Wednesday.
Erich Ritter, 43, was in waist-deep water with four students in
Walker's Cay in the Bahamas when he was bitten by what was thought to
be a large lemon shark. He lost a large portion of his left calf in
the attack and went into shock. Walker's Cay is an area where tourists
commonly feed sharks. Ritter was flown to St. Mary's Medical Center in
West Palm Beach, where he was treated. Hospital officials confirmed
that he was treated but had no other information about him.
Ritter, who lives in Miami, has told the media he can keep sharks away
by modifying his heart rate. In August 2000, he told The Associated
Press he had never even been nipped, attributing that largely to his
ability to understand sharks' body language. Members of Florida's
shark scientist circle put little credence in Ritter's ideas on shark
behavior.
"That was an accident waiting to happen," said Samuel Gruber, a
University of Miami professor and director of the Bimini Biological
Field Station in the Bahamas. Ritter taught classes with Gruber in
Bimini for about five years, and Gruber said he is a good lecturer but
does not rely heavily enough on the scientific method.
"Erich takes certain chances based on what he thinks he knows about
shark behavior, but there is no evidence to support his theories," he
said. "He's more like a philosopher than a scientist."
He has seen Ritter on television, standing in shallow water in the
midst of bait and lemon sharks. "Seeing him in the water with those
animals swimming around his legs like that, that just bothered me.
Frightened me actually," said Gruber.
But the pictures were beautiful, Gruber said. "I would be frightened
to do what he did, but he had gotten away with it for several years."
According to Ritter's Web site, he is a dive instructor and a
professor at Hofstra University and the University of Zurich, where he
received his doctorate in behavioral ecology. Ritter could not be
reached for comment Wednesday night.
Not foolproof
Arthur Myrberg, also a marine science professor at the University
of Miami, said Ritter has great belief in his ideas, but they "have
never been reviewed by experts in the field."
Myrberg studies animal behavior and said anyone who does recognizes
certain patterns than can help predict what an animal will do.
However, these patterns offer far from foolproof predictions.
"You would be lucky if it would work 50 percent of the time," he said.
Of the accident, Myrberg said: "It does demonstrate that a shark
specialist can get bitten like anybody else."
Shark bites remain rare, scientists say.
George Burgess, the marine biologist who is director of the
International Shark Attack File, said so far this year seven people
have been bitten by sharks in Florida, two others in Hawaii and 14
worldwide. This does not include what happened to Ritter.
Feeding ban opposed
Both Ritter and Gruber testified before the Florida commission
that last year banned feeding sharks and other marine life. Both
testified against the ban. Ritter said there was no scientific
evidence to support a ban. Gruber thinks the close encounters people
had with sharks fed in Florida taught that sharks are not the brutal
killers pictured in movies such as Jaws.
Burgess did not testify but considers shark feeding dangerous.
Normally, sharks fear humans and swim away from them, he said. But
feeding teaches sharks to associate human beings and the noises they
make with food.
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