Shark Bite: Unlucky Encounters (Full Episode) | When Sharks Attack

Sharks the most feared animals on the Planet Despite inspiring such Terror The chances of being bitten are Incredibly rare But what about being bitten twice Unlucky victims survived not just one But two shark attacks [Music] I grew up in Florence Oregon I was born Up there on the banks of this Isla River Seth Mead is a watershed conservationist From the Oregon coast He serves every chance he gets you know I froth for it there are days when I I Can't you know think about anything else And this passion means Seth is in the Right place The Oregon coast boasts some of the most Awe-inspiring waves on the planet Strong winds create swells that can Reach more than 35 feet high and travel Up to 65 miles per hour Drawing Surfers to the water in droves But these Thrill Seekers aren't out There alone On the west coast of the United States This area has to be one of the sharkiest Places Oregon's waters are home to 15 species Of shark S commonly found off the coast of Oregon Include white sharks blue sharks salmon Sharks thresher sharks and spiny Dogfish

Unlike the majority of sharks that are Cold-blooded many of these species are Warm-blooded That means they can raise their body Temperature above that of the Surrounding water It's them warm Oregon's frigid Waters where Temperatures average around 55 degrees In the summer but wetsuit wearing Surfers don't mind the cold either [Music] I didn't really worry too much about Actually getting bit by a shark I assumed they were there but I wasn't Necessarily worried about Bad occurring The Jetty there I was sitting a couple Hundred yards south of it on that wide Peak down there Pretty similar weather conditions to Today the little weather cell that had Just came through had just passed you Know Sunny clear it was sick But the good times don't last long So I was sitting you know upright Looking out of the Horizon and All of a sudden you know bam She hit me so hard that we projected out Of the water When Seth lands the unthinkable occurs I Was in essence balancing on my board Which was spanning her mouth And her mouth was probably something

About like that and I was on the board Like looking down into it the shark Bites down hard Trapping Seth's right foot between his Surfboard and the shark's teeth I felt compression Is her lower jaw my foot my board then Her top job And then I heard my board snap [Music] And then she spun around And just let go But the shark doesn't swim away So Seth does kind of glance over my Shoulder at her glance at the horizon And I've paddled for my life [Music] Ran up the beach Remember my wetsuit was twisted around And I couldn't see the actual wounds There was just a bunch of really dark Blood A nearby police officer helped Seth to The emergency room Where he receives 25 stitches across Multiple lacerations Could have been a lot worse surprise it Wasn't worse I think if the board hadn't been Sandwiched in there There's a high probability I could have Lost my foot so yeah I feel very Fortunate the way things turned out Seth's terrifying shark encounter stuns

Locals this is a total surprise to me at The time There have been numerous sightings but I Was unaware of any previous shark Attacks in this area I think everybody was surprised Basically lived out here you know that Was the first time any of us had Witnessed anything like that Historically incidents off of Gold Beach Oregon between humans and sharks are Extremely rare most years in Oregon they See between zero and three attacks since 1974 along Oregon's entire Coastline Only 29 shark bites have been reported And Gold Beach where Seth was attacked Has only been the site of one other Incident ever so why did a shark strike Seth and why now The local community definitely wonders Investigators begin to unravel the Mystery Dr Mark marks studies the behavioral Ecology of sharks He believes figuring out which species Bit Seth may help explain why it Occurred He turns to a crucial piece of evidence Seth's surfboard Didn't hear what looks like stress Fractures the board made a very distinct Pop when the bite occurred I'm guessing The crack is probably a simultaneous Stress fracturing here and then the

Teeth actually puncturing through the Glass One of the things that's really Diagnostic is the shape like human Fingerprints each species of sharks has Its own distinct teeth marks those of The tiger shark are large and serrated Designed to rip and tear into prey Whereas those of the basking shark are Microscopic and virtually useless Swallowing prey rather than chewing Now the shark that made this bite you See how these guys are triangular yeah The flat side From the Apex that's going to be the Front of the tooth you get these Straight blade cut here so it's the Bottom tooth which made these according To Dr Marx there's only one species Whose teeth fit this bill so if we tried To line this up what you'll see are Probably these two teeth here lines up At that edge it's it's almost a perfect Fit this is a white shark White sharks are the largest predatory Fish on the planet Growing up to 20 feet in length they are Highly intelligent incredibly powerful And they're responsible for more attacks On humans than any other fish in the sea The chances of being bit Shark Or any other are incredibly Slim Dr Dan Huber of the University of Tampa

Breaks it down the odds of being bitten By a shark are incredibly low if we look Around the entire world it's about 1 in 79 million if we bring that into the United States the odds are more like About one in eight million but not Everybody in the United States goes to The beach so if we look specifically at The odds of being attacked by a shark Amongst beachgoers in the United States The odds are about one in three million By comparison The odds of dying from a lightning Strike A roughly one in eighty thousand According to Dr Huber's stats you are 100 times more likely to be struck by Lightning than attacked by a shark Or almost 1 000 times more likely Worldwide And those are the odds for getting Attacked once So you might wonder what are the odds of Being bitten twice by a shark as a peach Grower in the United States in order to Figure out the probability of two Separate events happening twice we need To multiply their individual Probabilities so if we multiply one out Of three million by one out of three Million we get one in nine trillion and I don't know about you but that's about The lowest odds of anything I've ever Heard of in my life so the fact that

Anybody in the United States has been Bitten by a shark twice Is just extraordinarily low odds But unlikely does not mean impossible And somehow Seth defies the odds after My first shark attack I figured the Percentages of it happening again it was So slim that I was golden now I figured I'd paid my dues if it was gonna happen It was going to be somebody else little Does Seth know how wrong he is Six years after Seth's shark attack he Goes surfing with his best friend Gus They head to an Oregon beach located More than 100 miles north of Seth's Shark incident But Seth's traumatic past isn't behind Him Yet So you're out off like Essentially right out in there It had been raining for a couple days So we took the rip out And was sitting there it was a nice calm Kind of tranquil looking and Then You'd hear that sound sounded like Sandpaper And then bam a shark slams into Seth Throwing him off his surfboard Next thing I really knew I'm in the Water Look over and saw my board in the Shark's mouth

And I'm Tethered to it so I'm within Feet of the entire animal unable to flee Seth is at the shark's Mercy Is he gonna follow up with a secondary Hit Or is he just gonna let me sneak out of Here The second's tip by and at some point I Let go of my board And I remember getting on my board Looking out and seeing Gus It was just a moment of panic just kind Of froze it was like what the heck did I Just see We were just laser focused on getting Back to the beach not really looking Over our shoulders I've never paddled so fast in my life Seth and Gus Escape unscathed I don't know how that he didn't actually Get me he just got my board because There's a pretty significant gouge on The bottom of the board And then the upper jaw definitely was on The side of the board I was like man this is I think your Lucky day you probably should go buy a Lottery ticket or something Chances of winning the lottery may be Higher than what he just survived For Seth to encounter a shark twice in Oregon Waters in separate years and be The only person to do so is unbelievably Rare

This unprecedented second attack Puts locals on high alert I was in total Disbelief it was just you know kind of Unheard of at the time Now more than ever the mystery Behind These encounters must be solved why was Seth bitten not once but twice In search of a lead investigators look For similarities between the two Incidents Starting with the identity of Seth's Attacker We've got what looks to be a two-jaw Bite I think I know which teeth did these if We turn it over we're going to see some Corresponding lower jaw which we do But I think we're looking at an animal That's probably in around the 14 -foot range I'm about 99.5 confidence Level we have a white shark that hit you Two attacks both by great whites With the culprit's identity revealed Experts can now Focus their Investigation Why would a white shark attack Dr Mark Searches for clues in the local Environment and something stands out Here on the West Coast we have a lot of Henna pads Pena pads are marine sea Mammals including seals and sea lions Pinnipeds are one of the most commonly Seen marine animals in Oregon Numbering in the tens of thousands year

Round They also happen to be on a great whites Menu White sharks learn how to head them off At the pass or how to stalk them or Ambush them A great white is equipped with both Brains and Brawn giving it an uncanny Ability to hunt pinnipeds They're intelligent they learn they Adapt they have modified their hunting Techniques these are very sharp Predators in its most spectacular Display the Predator sneaks up on his Prey and attacks From Below at speeds of Up to 40 miles per hour But this remarkable hunting technique Isn't foolproof Any carnivore has to be successful at Least 10 percent of the time or it won't Survive I can tell you most definitely Sharks are way above that 10 percent Threshold That means sometimes great whites miss Their target or attack the wrong target Altogether I do think the shark thought I was a sea Lion I think she was prowling the lineup And I was in a likely Zone Mistaken identity did a great white Attempt to inflict a mortal wound on Seth confusing him for a pinup head I've Been told that's one of their kind of Quintessential attack modes is to come

In get a good hit sit back and let you Bleed out That's probably what she was doing To test this Theory Dr Marx recreates Seth's first attack now From the injuries the scars what I see Is that your foot is back These lower teeth puncture the bottom These teeth here catch the bottom of Your foot so that thing's head was up Here pretty much yeah I mean I remember Looking right into her And then as things transpired and she Started to kind of roll back We determined she does like a lateral Roll just like that and then now you're Looking at her eye here does it passed Right through there that's where we kind Of locked eyes The positioning and force of the shark Suggests it may have been hunting But Dr Marx has his reservations sure It's a pretty intelligent animals by the Time a white shark becomes an adult it's Unlikely they make mistakes we can look At the injuries and evidence from Seth For example in both of his encounters Neither of them look like predation and The reason they don't look like Predation is because they are not Perhaps the answer to Seth's Odds-defying double encounter can be Found in another freak occurrence Elsewhere one that took place in the

SharkBite capital of the world East Marina Beach is a small town There's tons of surfing swimming fishing It's just a water-based Town Matt Glenn Is a surfer from New Smyrna Beach in Florida yeah we love everything about it Located along Florida's eastern coast It's home to dolphins Manatees alligators and sharks but Unlike the rest of the country where Shark attacks are rare here they are More common earning the area a chilling Claim to fame We are the SharkBite capital of the World we do have more shark bites than Anywhere else on the east coast in fact Since 1882 this area has seen a shocking Total of more than 330 shark attacks we Usually average about six to ten shark Bites a year we had our record year in 2001 where he had 21 bites in one year Despite the danger from Matt the call of The ocean is too strong to ignore I Still love surfing I'll go every day if I could it's just a feeling that you Really can't be so people take that Chance you know Around 9 A.M Matt and his friend Brian Hit the water That day the weather it was the day After a hurricane rolled through so it Was real Breezy but there was tons of Sun it was just you know a beautiful Florida day

They're catching some really good waves As well was amazing After half an hour Matt notices Something is off All of a sudden our tight little group We were missing our buddy Brian and Um We just started looking around but as Matt looks he hears something chilling We heard Brian scream help me shark And then our instincts just took over Matt races to reach his friend while Brian fights against the Predator That shark was on him attached to his Leg and we saw him kind of Struggle Somehow Brian breaks free Scrambling onto his surfboard he races To safety as soon as we saw Brian make It into the shore We were all there to help him he had the Shark laceration like right around his Kneecap area and one of our buddies Quickly took off his leash we wrapped Around his upper thigh to kind of make a Tourniquet And basically all we could do is just Sit there and wait for the Lifeguard to Come It's an excruciating weight the blood Was basically just oozing out of his Knee Ryan receives emergency medical Attention

And makes a full recovery I'm grateful that I didn't have it any Worse than was no stitches no nothing And It's a blessing Brian's terrifying encounter leaves Locals rattled Other Surfers were attacked just one Week before Even in the shark attack capital of the World three attacks in seven days is Unusual it was it was it was insane yeah Pretty wild if an answer can't be found The livelihood of this vacation hot spot Is at risk we are often asked by Tourists that come from all over the Country if there are sharks in the water When we have a shark right here that Becomes a problem Especially Out of Towners So why was Brian bitten To identify Brian's attacker Dr Huber Examines the evidence Based on the size of the wound going From about the middle of Brian's knee to The middle of his shin I'm estimating That this was something on the order of A five to six foot black tip shark Black tip sharks are known for their Characteristic black fins Their preferred hunting ground is in the Shallows Where they sometimes encounter humans Black tip sharks worldwide are only

Responsible for about five percent of Shark attacks but because they're so Common off the coast of Florida they Definitely contribute to a greater Percentage of Florida shark attacks [Music] Why did Brian attract The Unwanted Attention of a black tip Beach safety officer Captain Tamara Malfers has a theory Surfers will go out Regardless of any storm system that Comes through that's what they do Brian Was Bitten in the direct aftermath Of Hurricane Matthew Right after that hurricane I think it Was just a matter of who was going to Get bit that day Similarly in Oregon Seth's first attack Took place in the wake of a thunderstorm Could these weather patterns have played A part in the incidents Ocean scientist Dr Tracy fanara Investigates Storms play a big role in the ecosystem By creating waves big waves which are Ideal for surfing offshore winds create The best waves Big waves after a storm Are the reason both Seth and Brian were In the water when attacked but these Storms affect more than what's happening Above the surface Dr fanara demonstrates So I'm going to put some cold water with

Red food dye on the bottom to symbolize The nutrients on the bottom of the ocean Now I'm going to use the leaf blower to Show the water displacement As you can see even though we only put The air and simulated the surface waves That bottom water displaced the top Water turning the entire tank red Through a process called upwelling big Waves caused by large storms displace Water and other sediment the problem is That this upwelling can turn clear water Into murky water This impedes a shark's ability to see The water was very murky so that Murkiness would have made it harder for The shark to see their normal prey items Which may have led the Sharks to bite Onto a Human Instead of their typical Prey Blurry vision for a shark May spell Disaster for a surfer a detail that Could unravel the mystery once and for All Did the storms that preceded Brian's and Seth's attacks create murky water and Put the Surfers at a greater risk of a Shark attack According to Dr Dan Huber The answer may go beyond water clarity Seth Was Bitten in deep water roughly 400 feet from Shore [Music] And as it turns out that may be exactly

Where sharks were gathering Years ago there was a really interesting Observation about shark behavior before These types of storm events It turns out that when storm systems Come through and the air pressure drops Significantly That some sharks can actually detect This and move offshore into deeper safer Water So given that both Brian and Seth went Surfing shortly after the storm It was actually likely for there to be Sharks there and increasing those odds Than being attacked even further But Seth's second encounter did not Occur in the wake of a storm Waves caused by weather systems are not The reason behind Seth and Brian's Attacks Investigators wonder if waves are Important in a different way Only eight months after Brian's shark Incident he's back on his surfboard at a Beach less than five miles from his Attack site The surfer's second shock encounter Holds a clue We're here at Ponce Inlet Ray passes pulls about 40 to 50 yards is Where I got my second shark bite Came over to Ponce Inland Beach It's about eight o'clock in the morning The water was

A lot of bait fish Which is pot of wave And did a maneuver then landed fell But as Brian attempts to regain his Footing disaster strikes Boom like I just felt the pit I immediately thought it was another Shark bite and this assailant is even More aggressive than the first and the Full jaw going back and forth sideways With my foot and shook it I was screaming It was just insane In the chaos of the attack Brian's hand Was also bitten Finally the shark let's go There was a surfer right there that Helped me to shore And I was seeing all the blood just Trailing behind me This is the most I've ever bled in my Entire life That was pretty terrified Ryan is rushed to the hospital Where he receives 48 Stitches the second Bite was definitely more serious than The first bite I was scared that I could have lost These two toes and got nerve damage Going from here all the way to here for Brian this fear is all too familiar I'm Unlucky that I've been bit twice but Very lucky to still be alive to this day Headlines startling the world

Here in Bush County the New Smyrna area We've heard of people get bit there a Lot but I've never heard of one person Getting bit twice And beachgoers want to know what's going On In Brian's first attack he had Relatively minor surface wounds but in His second attack it actually took 48 Stitches in order to close up this wound And the reason for that is because a Shark bit and then shook its head back And forth from left to right and the Curvature that we see right here from The side of the foot up towards the Middle toe would tend to indicate a Black tip or a spinner shark Both of Brian's attacks were conducted By a black tip or spinner And both of Seth's attacks were carried Out by great whites Different species different coasts yet All of these attacks share a similar Detail I would say New Smyrna Beach Inlet Jetty It's just a wave magnet Gus who is piling out the rip you know About the tip of the jetty Jetties Seth believes this common trait between The attack sites is key the major river Mounts they're all Sharky everything's Getting funneled right through the Gauntlet it's pretty logical for the top

Of the food chain to be lumen Could River mouths be the clue Investigators have been looking for Dr Huber pursues the lead all four of These attacks happen near the mouths of Rivers And this is what creates really good Surfing brakes But Surfers aren't the only ones drawn To River mouths The mouths of rivers are definitely Areas where sharks are typically found The reason for this is because lots and Lots of nutrients come down rivers and Then spill into the ocean Phytoplankton are going to use all of Those nutrients in order to grow and bit By bit it works its way up the food Chain to bring in larger predators Anytime there is an influx of sharks in An area the chance of encounters with Humans also increases The fact that Seth and Brian were Surfing in areas where Rivers were Pouring into the ocean is definitely an Explanatory factor into why they were Attacked twice But it might not be that simple a detail From Brian's second shark encounter Complicates the theory in the moment When I was getting bit it just amazed me That it happened to me and no one else In the water nearly a dozen other Surfers were nearby when Brian was

Attacked Yet the shark left them alone Surfing near river mouths cannot be the Only explanation Let's But what this Theory does show is that Sharks are attracted to areas with an Abundance of fish And there's one event that brings Fishier in the millions we have seen Them actually a lot of them coming in And you do see the larger sharks coming In as well This is the mullet migration it's an Awe-inspiring phenomenon of epic Proportions and it just might explain The attacks Each year schools of fish larger than a Football field travel South along the Atlantic coast to spawn Passing Florida's beaches along their Way And they do so in the fall Brian was attacked in October The water was just a lot of bait fish I was paddling back out and I was Running my hands through mullet and I Didn't really think much of it But this migration doesn't just bring Mullet to New Smyrna Ever you have Muller running or any Other To the larger sharks coming in as well It's a sequence of events that's not

Unique to just Florida You can see the bait balls see the Chinook rally and chasing the bait right Under you the second you get in the Water you know you're entering the food Chain In Oregon Salmon Run almost year round and just Like the mullet they leap out of the Water to avoid being prey We have large migrations of salmon They're reliable food source and of Course with that goes the predator of Those fish such as marine mammals and That brings sharks Mullet in Florida salmon in Oregon did These floating buffets attract sharks in Large numbers and put Brian and Seth at Greater risk of an attack It all comes down to timing both of Seth's attacks happen during salmon runs Off the coast of Oregon and one of Brian's attacks happened during a mullet Run off the coast of Florida So in three out of four of these attacks The concentration of small fish in the Area of these Surfers could have been a Factor that contributed to why they were Attacked However there were no fish migrations During Brian's second incident Something else may be the cause of the Attacks perhaps the answer to these rare Double attacks lies not in the behavior

Of the sharks But in that of the Surfers Investigators review the data and zero In on a seemingly minor detail The surfer's clothing that day I was Wearing is the black wetsuit with a hood Pretty usual for around these parts we Get some pretty cold Waters at times so You need a real suit to keep yourself Warm during both incidents I was wearing The same board shorts like I was wearing Blackboard shorts both men wore dark Clothes when bitten could there be a Connection Dr Hubert takes a closer look Shark eyes are evolved to see high Contrast images such as the silhouette Of a seal at the surface of the water Against the downwelling sunlight so for A surfer to be in a dark wetsuit on a Surfboard this creates the same type of Search image that sharks depend on to Find their food This could lead to a shark To make a mistake while hunting Most sharks don't have color vision or Maybe have very limited color vision and So because of that they're going to see Objects in the environment differently Than we do Take the example of Seth's attacks off The coast of Oregon he was attacked by a White shark both times now white sharks Have black and white vision and they use

High contrast images in order to key in On the location of their prey like seals And sea lions So when a white shark is swimming down In the depths of the ocean looking up at The surface what it sees is the prey Item's body silhouetted against the Downwelling sunlight We're going to try to demonstrate this Effect by taking these objects made to Look like surfboards in a variety of Different colors and we're going to see What these objects look like from the Shark's perspective Dr Huber places a Small camera on the bottom of a fish Tank to compare color vision versus Black and white or shark vision we're Going to start with the black surfboard Because Seth was wearing a black wetsuit During both of his attacks off the coast Of Oregon and Brian was wearing a black Bathing suit during both of his attacks Off the coast of Florida Take a look at it in color it is high Contrast compared to all of the light That's coming down from above which is Meant to simulate the light from the sun Coming down through the surface of the Ocean when we switch that over to black And white it's still very very high Contrast so this speaks to how the white Shark was able to see Seth in each of His attacks when the white shark is Swimming around through the depths of

The ocean looking up at the surface any Black object whether it be a seal a sea Lion or a surfer in a black wetsuit That's going to be a high contrast image That really stands out against the Downwelling sunlight and it's something That the shark is going to be able to Key in on When we switch to the red surfboard in Color it stands out clear as day but Interestingly when we switch over to Black and white to simulate the shark's Vision it actually becomes very low Contrast That means it's much harder for a shark To see so these black objects whether it Be the wetsuit or the bathing suit have The highest contrast relative to the Surrounding water and sunlight and this Is exactly how shark Vision Works shark Vision is based on identifying high Contrast objects not identifying color Objects Did Seth and Brian's high contrast Attire inadvertently draw a shark's eye And cause the attacks [Music] What Seth and Brian were wearing could Definitely be contributing factors to The reasons why they were attacked twice But many beachgoers wear black and are Not attacked What makes Brian and Seth different Perhaps it's not about what they were

Wearing but what they were doing Investigators are on the brink of Answers After the first attack the probability Of me and popped again very low I Definitely didn't think it would happen Again So if we look specifically at the odds Of being attacked by a shark amongst Beachgoers in the United States the odds Are about one in three million so to put That in perspective think about a royal Flush a royal flush is the hardest hand To get in a game of poker and the odds Of doing that are about 1 in 650 000. so The odds of being bitten by a shark as a Beach goer in the United States Are about five times lower than the odds Of getting the rarest hand in the game Of poker Way of Louisiana State University Studies the way in which a beach goer's Pastime can impact their odds of being Bitten So most shark attacks have some type of Activity associated with the attack for Example surfing swimming or diving The purple is the unknown the blue is The swimming But one activity eclipses all the rest [Music] What stands out here is surfing in green Around 50 percent on average and we see Especially starting around the 1980s or

So if we look at the known activities Surfing tends to be in most years the Dominant activity associated with shark Attacks Surfing Brian and Seth's favorite activity Who spends the most time in the water Well Surfers could be sitting on top for Hours divers an hour maybe less swimmers Less than that so the statistical Probability of you encountering a shark Much less encountering more than once is Really a function of how much you sit at This place your chances of being struck By lightning pretty nil but if you were A chimney sweep around lightning rods You would expect to see the frequency of Lightning strike higher but there are Approximately 3 million Surfers in the United States and of those only 15 are Attacked by sharks on average each year In a case like Brian who was serving in Florida we wouldn't expect him to be Attacked but we would expect a higher Chance of encountering a shark because You've had hundreds of encounters and Attacks over a 60-year period that also Suggests that Seth's case is much much More unlikely because there have been Only 22 attacks in that same 60-year Period in Oregon and in fact Seth Accounts for two of those 22. Foreign And Seth that sets them apart

Even from other Surfers i surf every Chance I can get And honestly nothing will stop me from Surfing yeah I have about 200 to 220 Sessions in a year [Music] Above what they do the primary factor Of why I been bitten twice Just because I love surfing I'm out There doing it so often An extreme love of surfing Could this be the final piece of the Puzzle in explaining these rare double Attacks In Brian's second attack he was surfing On a day when there were a lot of bait Fish around the beach and he reported Actually having seen sharks in the area So the fact that somebody would be Willing to continue surfing when they've Seen sharks feeding on Bait fish really Speaks to how much this person loves to Be in the water surfing Being at one with the ocean feeling how Small you are in the grand scope of Things It's an intimidating but exhilarating Experience you know there's nothing That's really comparable I can go days on end without seeing the Land basically that's how I feel about It The risk just Just the enjoyment of surfing

The only way that a person could Possibly put themselves into a situation To be attacked by sharks on two Different occasions if they are so in Love with the ocean that they are doing Everything that they can to spend as Much time possible in that environment Despite the increased risk Brian and Seth hope to never stop surfing You can't compare it to anything else There are days when I I can't you know Think about anything else I never planned to retire from surfing This is something that is a lifelong Endless Journey [Music] [Music]