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Weird News - Things that make you go 'hmmm' @real.lemmy.fan

oleorun @real.lemmy.fan

2mo ago

Shark bites off woman's hands as she tries to take a selfie with it

Shark bites off woman's hands as she tries to take a selfie with it

55 comments

I get a little suspicious of the accuracy of a story from a TV station in Cincinnati, Ohio, whose source is a story from a New Zealand newspaper, about something that happened to a Canadian tourist in the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean. Truly a globe spanning story.
EDIT: Going to the New Zealand Herald, their story just seems to be a copy of the story in the Daily Telegraph of London, England, written by one of their U.S. correspondents. That is at least a British territory, so it sort of works. Information seems largely the same as in the Turks and Caicos Weekly, so maybe the story is accurate.
- This is the exact route Ethan Hunt takes in Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning
  
  Don’t know how he didn’t make it to Cincinnati in the first film
- So I heard from Joe's best friend's brother-in-law that Bill lost $600 in a one handed chainsaw competition...
  
  Thank you Simone.
- https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/02/15/tourists-tragic-beach-encounter/

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
- There's a [ too much in your link.
  
  Typo, works both ways i guess tho. The amount of money this will cost probably isn't zero.

It has been determined that the tourist had attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs
The information is pretty scant but it sounds like maybe she was splashing around trying to get its attention.
It's really sad honestly. She's a double amputee now, and later in life so not likely to get a fancy new prosthetic.
Bull sharks are no joke. They're not as huge and scary as great whites but they're aggressive, and can operate in fresh water as well as salt water. Jeremy Wade did an episode on them in river monsters. Artificial canal estates tend to be infested with them.
I think the local authorities have some culpability in this. If you have sharks literally prowling around beaches full of clueless tourists then you have to close the beach. That's what we do at popular beaches in Australia when a shark is spotted.
- So do they just say you can't go in the water, or do they close the beach sandy area because people are idiots?
  
  They close the sandy area in most cases.

Did she get the pic?
- Yea but it's hard to find
- She certainly had a hand in it

For the record, the picture is harmful unrelated BS, the shark in question was about 6 feet long and thought to be a bull shark, certainly not a great white.
- Racism I understand, but shark racism? Why care?
  
  Because people being ignorant and afraid of sharks in general but great whites in particular hampers conservation efforts. Sharks in general but big sharks like the great whites in particular are vital to the ecosystem and great whites are vulnerable globally and critically endangered in Europe.

His tummy was making the rumblies... That only hands could satisfy...
- Caaarl!

And that, my friends, is why you need a selfie stick. <insert 90's commercial end sound>
- 🎵 Get your selfie stick
  Grab a stick of juicy fruit
  The taste is gonna move ya 🎵

OMG, is the phone ok?

Sorry, but I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who fucks with an animal; wild or otherwise.
- are you vegan?
  
  IIRC Cardassians are fungivores. I. E. they only eat mushrooms/ fungi. Not sure if that would qualify as Vegan though since those aren't "plants."

It's a wonder humans took over the world and not dolphins or some other reasonably smart animal.
Humans are 20% culture, progress, and innovation, and 80% tasty hands and dead weight.
- Those hands aren't just tasty, they also have opposable thumbs and allow complex tool use, and perhaps most importantly, complex tool creation.
  
  I think the complex use and creation are probably the exception not the rule. I'm beginning to wonder if most people, especially in the US, could fish ants out of a colony with a stick. I am unfortunately doubtful.
  
  Like a phone, which was part of the problem here

Other beachgoers saved the woman from an even worse fate, with her husband scaring off the shark after the attack and strangers gathering around her and using their clothes to slow the bleeding.
I dunno, I think I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life with no hands.
- I'm pretty certain you'd get accustomed pretty quickly
  Humans are amazingly adaptive
  
  I don't know about that. I have a chronic medical condition which affects my muscles; I've adapted, but it took a long time and I still hate it.
- How traumatizing for everyone involved.

To be fair, aside from approaching a bull shark, she did everything correct. Low heart rate, calm, etc.. If prosthetics were only 20 years more advanced, she wouldn’t be permanently crippled by this injury.
- From what source are you basing the detail "low heart rate, calm"? The OP article mentions nothing about the woman's state other than her immediate trauma.
  
  Only took an hour for someone to question my believable, but entirely unsubstantiated, claim. You win the prize!

here's a predator that has existed for many many many millions of years because they're so good at killing. I'm gonna try to take a picture of it! That seems like a great idea! /s

People need to leave wild animals alone. Especially if they have zero knowledge of what kind of animal they are engaging with. Reminds me of that video where this dude picks up a blue ringed octopus. The animal looks cute but is very very dangerous. He was very lucky that he didn’t get stung. The venom would have paralyzed him and stop his ability to breathe. Wouldn’t even be able to close his eyes.

It's honestly kind of horrific

"Sure, let's get to the hospital, but first? Lemme take a stumpy."

It’s a simple fact of human nature that some of use will never learn to leave shit alone.

What a total asshole! For a selfie!

55 comments