South Africa. From Gansbaai to Hout Bay, the term Submarine is mentioned many times by tourists and locals alike. After hearing this a few times, I asked the locals if there was a shark watching program here that could be seen in a submarine. A quote from one of them made me take a cold breath, "No, no, no, the submarine is the most terrifying super white shark that has been lurking in this water for 40 years!" ”
The port of the world-famous jaw town of Hangsbaai
<h1>"Submarine": The legend of the Dark Sea giant shark</h1>
The second episode of Shark Week 2014 introduces the submarine, and the jaw-dropping shipwreck is seen as "the most horrific shark attack in South African history".
The first sighting of the "submarine" was in June 1970. A fisherman and his companion went out to sea to fish, and his companion's hand was cut and blood flowed into the sea. Probably because of the smell of blood, the fisherman noticed that there was a huge creature lurking in the sea at this time, which he thought was a whale at first, but the shape of the creature's tail indicated that it was a large shark. Fishermen claim the shark is 9 meters long (far larger than the largest great white shark ever found) and continues to track them. The fisherman's companion took a harpoon and forked it down at the shark, leaving a scar on the shark's left eye.
Five years later, a giant shark was spotted by the radar of a warship, so big that it was mistaken for a submarine, hence the name.
On July 17, 1996, abalone hunter Boa Ross and his brother Ned were fishing abalone at a drilling rig in False Bay (Simon, Cape Town, South Africa, known for its abundance of great white sharks). Ned's palm was cut by the ship's propeller, and then dragged into the water by a huge great white shark, never to be found again... Boa recalled the shark lurking motionless in the water before launching a surprise attack, claiming the shark had a scar on the left side of its face.
Since then, there have been repeated claims of witnessing submarines, and eyewitness accounts have a common detail, that is, there is a long-healing scar above the shark's left eye. The notoriety of "submarine" spreads: in this water, there is an unprecedented super white shark, which is different from other great white sharks, it can suspend in the water, observe and track its prey, and wait for the opportunity to drag the prey away... It should be noted that great white sharks need to stay swimming to get oxygen from the water, and if they are stationary, they will suffocate. And this great white shark has obviously evolved a breathing function that is different from that of ordinary great white sharks.
Submarine, submarine appeared in the newspaper several times
In 2014, 22 travellers from different countries boarded the Joyride in South Africa's Haute Bay for whale watching at sunset. While viewing seals at Seal Island, the boat hit the reef too close to the island, causing a portboard leak, and the captain ordered everyone to abandon the boat and jump into the water at only 13 degrees after leaving Seal Island 300 meters away.
This narrow waterway connects Dale Island to Geyser Island, and the undercurrent is bubbling. The captain fired a signal flare for help, and another whale-watching ship, petrel, received a signal to come to the rescue. That seemed to give the 22 tourists struggling in the cold water a glimmer of hope. But what they didn't expect was that the waterway they were in was the most notorious water in South Africa and the world, known for its large number of great white sharks, which is the Shark Alley known as the "Great White Shark Hunting Ground".
When the Petrel rescued 6 tourists, it gradually darkened. Paula Morton, an amateur photographer aboard the Petrel, photographed the rescue scene. Shark fins are constantly crossing the surface of the sea, and tourists in the water are crying and screaming. One crew member was bitten to the leg, blood gushing out and the smell of blood excited the shark. But that's the weirdness of things. When investigators, Mel Thurman, chief shark expert at the South African Marine Research Centre, later performed sonar tests on the incident, they found that the sharks in the water had suddenly all disappeared. Thurman thinks there's only one possibility: bigger predators appear in the water. The scene switches again to the rescue scene, with tourist Emma Luba, 36, clutching a buoy waiting for rescue. Suddenly a big wave stirred up in the sea, and the buoy and Emma disappeared at the same time. Another male tourist, crying for help, his voice full of despair, was constantly pushed out to sea until he disappeared. The accident resulted in the deaths of two tourists. What is it that has so much power that it can drag people to the bottom of the water with buoys, and what is so weird that it can play with prey? When Thurman looked at the sonar display again, an inexplicable fear sent him shivering. Turns out, it's been there all the time, just not moving! The devious underwater creature had been lurking, and Thurman believed it was a submarine.
The moment the male tourist disappeared, Paula captured the amazing picture of the suspected giant shark
Figure 1-3 sonar shows that the submarine has always been there; Figure 4-6, the camera of the rig where Ned had an accident took a picture of a suspected giant shark
<h1>Superstitions about sharks</h1>
This is the main content of Shark Week's 2014 episode 2 "Dark Sea Fury Shark". Google did not find news or discussion of whale watching boats hitting the reef in South Africa in 2014, and the other program said that the accident occurred in Hout Bay, but the shark corridor was actually located in Hangsbaai, and the distance between the two was about 100 kilometers. Some people on Twitter accused Discovery of making fake documentaries, and others were convinced. I am a fan of Shark Week, but objectively speaking, the "Shark Week" program is more entertaining than popular science, I am not a popular science blogger, I know very little about sharks, but there are often loose places in the series. The image of sharks in people's minds has become a "bloodthirsty maniac" since the moment Spielberg's "Jaws" swept the world, and for more than 40 years, this false impression has been weakening, but it still remains in the hearts of many people, and the curiosity and fear of the unknown coupled with the crowds of people, some people believe that they have seen the submarine. As for whether the submarine really exists, my shark guide said, "It could be any shark, not a dark sea angry shark or a monster, just an ordinary great white shark, just a little bigger than the average great white shark." The story of the submarine is probably about the superstition of sharks, from the deification of the earliest totem worship to the demonization of the present day, the essence is still lacking in understanding. For wild animals, blind fear or no fear is too extreme, and in the case of not knowing enough, keeping a distance and fearing nature should be the safest and most rational way.
When Hangs visited the sharks, he encountered a great white shark with a body length of 4 meters