Thursday, November 18, 2010

Great white shark freed from plastic noose


Thank You Very Much! Australian Geographic

GREAT WHITE SHARKS ARE usually feared for their threat to humans in the ocean, but one shark has found out how dangerous humans can be.

In late September, local divers spotted what seemed to be a subdued great white shark during an expedition about 50 km from Port Lincoln, South Australia. The 2.5 m great white (or white pointer) was being slowly choked by a ribbon of plastic strap encircling his torso. He was affectionally nicknamed Strappy because of his predicament.

Cutting into his flesh, the plastic had restricted use of Strappy's left fin, and had completely destroyed part of his gills, says Andrew Fox, part of the father-and-son team that runs dive tour operator Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions.

"From the look of the wounds I reckon he'd been suffering for a couple of months and [I thought] if we didn't do something, he would go downhill fast," Andrew says. "He probably wouldn't have lasted much more than another month."

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