Korean Job Discussion Forums

[n3ptne]

I read in the International Database that S. Korea recorded one attack for 2005 and was wondering if anyone here could provide details, specifically in which part of the country the attack occurred, and if the species of shark was determined?

Also my employer told me that six years ago a Korean lost his leg to a White, anyone know more details?

Google was fruitless.

[ontheway]

I think that shark attack was in a Hogwan in Seoul. You might find more information on that "white" in the freakiest waygooks thread.







If a shark bites anyone here it's probably because they forgot to kill it before they served it in some restaurant.

PS Don't worry so much.

[Natalia]

I wouldn't worry. Even in Australia - the land people not from there like to promote as some wild and dangerous land of horror - the chances of being bitten by a shark are lower than the chance of being killed in a car accident, stuck by lightening......

[VanIslander]

worry about drowning instead

even good swimmers can get caught by the undertows in some parts, and I've heard of several such deaths over the last couple of years

i've swam in the ocean here over a hundred times (easily that, almost two hundred) on Geoje Island during the week (from may to oct, sometimes earlier and later) and along the south coast on many weekends for the last three years, and the only kind of shark I've come across is a big whale shark, harmless to humans, though impressive looking

[rokgryphon]

I am pretty sure that it was in Yeosu on the south coast. That is where most shark sightings seem to come from.

[ThePoet]

I have been told by my students that there are man-attacking sharks on some areas of the southwest coast (china sea). Apparently the shark species is kind of small (1 metre???) that has been known to attack so the attacks usually don't result in death, but can take chunks of skin.

In fact, I've been thinking of going there as an alternative to a tummy tuck or liposuction...

"chew on THAT fat you little shark!"

Poet

[HapKi]

[dreamscape]

[Soul Forest]

Swimming on certain days in certain places is like golfing or doing any other metal-pole-based activities in the middle of a lightning storm.
I heard that sharks of the attacking variety are most likely to attack fisherman on small boats just above the surface or surfers. In general, they don't want to eat or even bite humans, but confuse us with seals or such things if we are on the surface on some kind of board.
I arrived on a small island in Okinawa about six years ago, just after a huge typhoon. The waves were big in places where they're usually aren't waves. The water was murky where it's usually clear. That same afternoon a surfer got killed from blood loss after a shark attack, apparently the first surfer to be killed by a shark in Okinawa, but pretty much annually fishermen-divers get attacked there.
To me, like avalanches and lightning, it's not something to be taken lightly. It's not an irrational fear.

[RACETRAITOR]

[billybrobby]

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200506/kt2005061322065611990.htm

TAEAN (Yonhap) _ A diver's leg was injured in a shark attack yesterday off the west coast of Taean County, South Chungchong Province, maritime police officers said.
The 38-year-old woman, identified only by her family name Lee, was bitten on the knee by a shark while diving for ear shell, and she shouted to her 11 colleagues to swim away from the shark, a witness and emergency worker said.

Lee narrowly managed to escaped from the shark and saved her life.

She was the first person to be attacked by a shark in South Korea since a male diver was bitten to death in 1996. At the time of the attack, Lee was diving at a depth of about 10 meters, about 20 meters away Kaeui Island in the West Sea.

Shortly after the incident, she was conveyed by boat to hospital.

"I felt a hit in the knee, but I can't remember what it was and I did not see it," Lee said.

"According to the triangle shape of the wounds, the attacker would be a 3-meter-long great white shark," shark expert Choi Yoon, a professor at Kunsan National University, said after he saw photographs of her wounds.

Taean maritime police are investigating whether more sharks will appear.

[diver]

Great whites have been caught in the West (Yellow) Sea and in the South Sea (around Yeosu).

Great whites have also been spotted around Jeju Island (and juvenile great whites have been seen in the fish markets of Seogwipo).

The next time you get drunk and decide to go for that midnight swim while at the Daecheon Mud festival, keep this in mind.

I am looking for my list of shark attacks in Korea. I have one around here somewhere that dates all the way back to the 50s (gives the location and result of the attack). I may have deleted it, so I'll try to get another copy. Most of the attacks were recorded in the west sea though.

[jacktar]

Unfortunately, there are not enough sharks in the waters around Korea. If you're hoping to see one, you'll have to be lucky. That or hook up with Diver for one of his shark dives in the Busan aquarium. (Hi Michael). If you don't want to see one, you don't have to worry. The number of people killed per year worldwide is something in the range of 40-50 people. The attack on the diver in Yeosu was probably just the shark "sampling" with it's mouth. If they're still up, you can see pictures of the bite marks if you do a search on Yahoo Korea (in korean). I saw them last year when the attack happened.

I've heard there are angel sharks around and they can be aggressive but nothing to really fear. Again, I think you'd have to be really lucky to see one.

[HapKi]

I'm surprised there are great whites off Korea's beaches. I've always considered them to be in areas mainly around Australia, California, and Africa, and of course Jaws and her offspring off New England.

I once worked for a sea urchin diver, restoring his boat. He told of seeing a great white once while diving off Northern California's coast. He said it was like seeing a slow train go by, how you can't focus on one point yet can't see it all at once either. He said the shark knew he was there.

[n3ptne]

Worried? I'm elated...

Since I've arrived here, especially being so close to the beach, I've made a point as to inquiring about the shark life in the waters around Korea, specifically in the Sea of Japan. Sadly I was informed time and time again that there was no shark life in the waters, which was something I found impossible to believe. The waters here aren't "ideal" for sharks, especially Whites, but thats really only because of the lack of their favorite food. The water temperature is right, and Whites turn up just about everywhere.

As for the newspaper blip about the lady being lucky to fend off the shark and escape with her life? Funny... if the baby White had wanted to kill her it would have, that simple.

Now I wonder if the chances of being attacked by a shark are less than driving in a car to the beach if one is specifically going to the beach to find a shark...