Posted on 09/18/2009 2:55:35 PM PDT by Rebelbase
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C.
A Pittsburgh man whose body washed up in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., after he went for a late-night swim off Corolla died from extensive shark bites, according to police and the medical examiner's office.
The man's body was discovered Thursday morning in the 1300 block of N. Virginia Dare Trail by a tourist who was taking an early-morning walk, according to the Kill Devil Hills Police Department.
The man was identified as Richard A. Snead, 60, of Ross Township in Pittsburgh. The body was taken to the regional medical examiner's office in Greenville; the cause of death “has been determined to be injuries sustained from a shark bite,” according to a news release from the Currituck County Sheriff's Office.
An autopsy assistant at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, where the autopsy was done, said Snead suffered extensive injuries, including internal injuries. There is no question that the shark attack caused his death, she said.
“Living tissues look different when they receive an injury, versus tissues that are already dead,” she said. The full autopsy report is not yet available.
Officials had not determined what type of shark attacked Snead.
When Snead hadn't returned from his swim shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, his family reported him missing, authorities said. Red flags were posted Saturday warning people to stay out of the surf.
The Sheriff's Office today was warning swimmers to be alert “and to be aware that this incident occurred while the person was swimming at night,” the release says. Snead had gone into the water at mile post 4 1/2; the mile post is measured beginning at the Currituck County-Dare County line.
“I haven't heard of any (shark) sightings, but I haven't checked with any other jurisdictions,” Currituck County Sheriff Susan Johnson said today. The drowning death of a 12-year-old boy who drowned late last month did not appear to be shark-related, she added.
Johnson couldn't recall any recent shark bites, she said.
Experts say avoid swimming at night
Last year, there were 41 shark attacks in the United States; one was fatal, said Maylon White, the director of exhibits and animal husbandry at the Virginia Aquarium.
“Shark attacks are really a fairly rare event when you consider how many people in the United States go swimming, how many people are in the water each year,” he said. “There’s very little chance of something like this, as tragic as it is, happening to an individual.”
For safety, swimmers should not swim alone and should avoid swimming at twilight or at night, he said.
“The thinking is, during twilight hours, when you’re moving from dark to light or light to dark, this is when many animals feed. Sharks are in that category and so they’re looking for food,” he said. “They don’t look to humans for food, but if we happen to get in the way then we suffer the consequences.”
Two 2001 shark-attack deaths
The latest reported shark attacks were in September 2001, when two people were killed and a third was hurt off Virginia and North Carolina beachs.
On Sept. 1, 2001, David Peltier, 10, was surfing with his family at Sandbridge Beach when a shark bite severed a main artery and he died. Peltier’s death was the first ever by a shark attack in Virginia history and the first that year in the United States.
Experts said at the time that Peltier could have been bitten by a bull shark because of the location and time of year that the attack occurred.
Two days after Peltier’s death, Sergei Zaloukaev, 28, was swimming in shallow water of Avon off Hatteras Island in Dare County, N.C., with his girlfriend when they were attacked by a shark. Zaloukaev was killed, but his girlfriend, Natalia Slobodskaya, survived. In that case, experts said they believed the couple could have been bitten by a tiger shark or bull shark.
The attacks set off a wave of shark hysteria. But in 2002, a study released by researchers at the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File showed that attacks in 2001 actually decreased.
The researchers recorded 76 unprovoked attacks worldwide in 2001, compared with 85 in 2000. The number of people killed in shark attacks also dropped to five in 2001 from 12 the previous year.
Autopsy: Shark killed man who washed up in Kill Devil Hills (Late Night Snack in NC)
I am really sorry for my sickness.
Dreadful. RIP.
Preach it. It was still a great place in the 1970s and 1980s, but it’s been ruined now...especially Nags Head.
When they changed the route of the beach road so more of a golf course’s property could be quote-unquote BEACHFRONT, I knew it was time for me to stop going.
In the 60’s, my dad took us camping at Salvo (south of Nags Head) every summer. Loved it!
Yes, in the 60’s we went to Cape Hatteras every year for vacation, also camping.
We took the Ferry across the Chesapeake Bay, and ferries all the way down to Hatteras.
Those were great vacations!
My dad and I used to go surf fishing down there, and also just south of the Bonner Bridge at Oregon Inlet.
Do you remember the tiny US Post Office at Salvo?
I’ve seen really big sharks run up halfway on the beach chasing schools of fish, and flip back into the water. Visibility is low in the surf, they will bite anything their nose touches.
I’ve only had one close call with sharks that I’m aware, as a child, and it was out on the Banks at Nags Head.
My dad and I were paddling out to a sandbar that had formed due to a storm passing the week before, people were finding some amazing conch shells and such. You could see them standing in knee deep water, a hundred yards or more out, with breakers forming beyond the sandbar. We were paddling out lying on those navy and bright yellow, inflatable deals the lifeguards rented out.
The water was pretty deep between the beach and that sandbar. About halfway there, we heard a commotion on the beach, people yelling, lifeguards standing in the surf, and started looking around to see what they were going on about. Turns out they were yelling at us. About that time, three dark forms passed right beneath us. It’s a sickening feeling, not knowing whether to freeze or paddle for dear life. They apparently were trapped there by the sandbar. Nobody was bitten or attacked by them that I’m aware.
It is still a great place, just not like it used to be.
LOL and que the music!
The one I am referring to is The Villages at Nags Head.
I was not implying that the course itself was beachfront, rather that the lots the resort were selling when it was developed are.
If you know when that place was built, you know that the beach road (Virginia Dare Trail) was relocated for a short stretch so that part of it is right beside the 158 Bypass. This made more of the golf course/resort’s property between the beach road and the high tide line.
Anyway, I usually go to Topsail Island now. MUCH less crowded.
Excellent! I hope you have a good vacation.
That's largely true, but not exclusively; some species of dogfish hae been found in fresh estuaries. Bulls are amazing creatures and have been found well over 2,000 miles upstream in the Amazon, and as far north as Cairo, Illinois up the Mississippi River.
There's some conjecture that a great white was responsible for some of the inland attacks at Matawan Creek NJ in 1916, but that has never been substantiated, and most icthyologists agree that a great white would have limited, or no tolerance or freshwater. It is noteworthy however, that juvenile porbeagles (a close relative of the great white) have been found in brackish estuaries.
So all of a sudden the drag starts to whine like the other end is attached to a pickup truck at full speed. In about a half second, the spike was pulled forward and the rod shot to the water. I managed to get a grip before it washed into the water, only to have the leader break.
I still wonder what did that; how big of a shark.
Were you surfing out there? I was there w/ some friends last weekend (11th-14th), we were impressed by the surfing.
I’ve gotten spooled a couple of times in the late afternoon on hits that broke the line, 20# test.
Spend a couple of nights on the beach at Cape Lookout a few years ago with some serious shark fishermen. These guys had rod harnesses and 300# test lines with deep sea ocean reels.
One of them would drop the bait from a Kayak about 200 yards out just before dark. Biggest catch was 84”, black tip. After they landed it one guy didn’t pay attention and got whacked in the small of his back by shark’s tail, left a nice whelp.
I was trying ; )
That low pressure system (6th thru the 11th) kicked -up some decent sized waves. Showed me how out of shape I am.
You're going to need a bigger rod & reel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.