Canada You guys have BIG spiders!!!!

fergus said:
Or, wouldn't this wake you up!!!

It's a real photo from a magazine, not doctored apparently.

Whites have a fascination with surf ski's it seems. Right before a fatal attack in Perth a few years back, the guys on ski's were getting 'buzzed' by a big one, just a little way off the beach.

I think you find whites in South Africa, and California/Mexico too, they're not uniquely Australian.
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I don't recall if it was the History Channel or the Discovery Channel, but I have seen specials that say they often mistake surfer's boards for sea lions, a favorite food of theirs. I also recall one show where a photographer found he had to put a downward looking camera on a surf board to catch a shark rising rapidly from the deep to stike leaping upward. He was too slow otherwise.

That photo may be undoctored, but the scale seems odd unless a very wide angle and very close to the shark. The kayak is listed as being almost the same size as the shark, but the shark looks much larger. The shore would have to be much closer too. BTW, aren't great whites supposed to be lighter in color as well?
 
You guys are not helping me think that my trip this evening (yeah, I leave Toronto THIS evening) to Sydney, then Cairns and then Perth and finally Fiji is going to be an "enjoyable" one...... Can I bring bug spray on board a Qantas flight??? :D :D :D

Dave
 
oftheherd said:
I don't recall if it was the History Channel or the Discovery Channel, but I have seen specials that say they often mistake surfer's boards for sea lions, a favorite food of theirs. I also recall one show where a photographer found he had to put a downward looking camera on a surf board to catch a shark rising rapidly from the deep to stike leaping upward. He was too slow otherwise.

That photo may be undoctored, but the scale seems odd unless a very wide angle and very close to the shark. The kayak is listed as being almost the same size as the shark, but the shark looks much larger. The shore would have to be much closer too. BTW, aren't great whites supposed to be lighter in color as well?
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White on the bottom, dark grey on top. Never seen one in person though!

Google solved the photo issue... one brave marine scientist dude! and well spotted... now that I've read the page, it was a wide angle lens.

http://www.thomaspeschak.com/kayak-great-white-sharks-/
 
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There are more great whites in the Med than on the barrier reef, in the tuna fisheries of the Adriatic, I’ve never seen one and anyway more people die from beestings than shark attack
 
For most of my life my reaction to any spider was unreasoning, sphincter tightening fear. In the last five years or so, I've begun to get over that. I'm very glad I didn't see any pictures like this before now! Still don't think I'd much like encountering one in person unexpectedly but they are pretty fascinating.
Snakes never really bothered me, I've encountered some aggressive ones over the years--on a camping/canoing trip in the Ozarks one summer I was chased by a Water Moccasin snake that was determined to get into the canoe--but mostly they truly do avoid humans more than we try to avoid them.
Rob
 
Sparrow said:
There are more great whites in the Med than on the barrier reef, in the tuna fisheries of the Adriatic, I’ve never seen one and anyway more people die from beestings than shark attack
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The Med? I didn't know that.

True you won't find many on the barrier reef... but head to SA and you won't find anyone swimming with the seal colonies, probably the one place you're guaranteed to find a hungry white!!

In Qld the crocs are a bigger worry. A few years back one came up the beach at night, into the tent, and took a bloke. His family attacked the croc and from memory they had to shoot it in the end. Lucky they had a rifle.

If you live in suburbia you never see most of our 'famous' animals, maybe just the odd redback or huntsman. But get out into the country and nature is all around you!
 
fergus said:
The Med? I didn't know that.

True you won't find many on the barrier reef... but head to SA and you won't find anyone swimming with the seal colonies, probably the one place you're guaranteed to find a hungry white!!

In Qld the crocs are a bigger worry. A few years back one came up the beach at night, into the tent, and took a bloke. His family attacked the croc and from memory they had to shoot it in the end. Lucky they had a rifle.

If you live in suburbia you never see most of our 'famous' animals, maybe just the odd redback or huntsman. But get out into the country and nature is all around you!
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I believe the tuna migrate north up the Adriatic to the fisheries around Trieste, the dolphin feed off the tuna and the shark feed off the dolphin. In the summertime they all end up in the Ionian and Adriatic seas, windsurfers sometimes get bits chewed off their boards.

I’ve snorkelled in the Ionian sea every summer for 20years now and I’ve never seen one, I only once caught a glimpse of three dolphin and I’ve disturbed some nasty eels over the years, but the mosquito remains the most dangerous thing on the island

P. S. Thinking about it a drunken Brit on a Vesper is probably the most dangerous
 
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Keith said:
The big huntsman spiders (in the hand above) are very numerous where I live. Initially they scared the crap out of me when I'd move something and disturb one in the house but now they don't bother me at all. They are extremely docile and don't do any harm so I just leave them be and eventually we both became very relaxed around each other!
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I don't know about docile. My first place in Brisbane (lived there for almost 2 years) was terrible for huntsman spiders. My wife's quite arachnaphobic, and I got that way a bit after watching one race across the *floor* straight at me! Another chased my wife into the bedroom, running along the wall at about head hight. I'd guess the smallest huntsman I saw in Brissy was about the largest size we get down here in Melbourne.

I liked the golden orb spiders in Brisbane, except when I walked into their webs!

Cheers,
Steve
 
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