(no subject)

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian fisherman's "miraculous" swim through shark-infested seas resulted in the dramatic rescue Thursday of a crewmate who spent 30 hours clinging to an ice cooler after their boat sank.  A helicopter plucked the crewman from the ocean about 15 kilometres (nine miles) off the east coast near Byron Bay early Thursday after the fisherman swam for almost 12 hours to reach land and raise the alarm, officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080228/wl_afp/australiafishrescue
news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2278913,00.html

Both articles cite Bryon Bay as being a hotbed of shark activity. Two teens had to be rescued Nov.  2007 after 2 sharks started circling them while they were on a swim out to a wreck off the beach. Another article says, "There had been 32 shark sightings and one attack in the Byron Bay area in the past six weeks.Everything from great whites, tiger sharks, makos, bronze whalers and bull sharks had been sighted. "   Also, "Byron Bay woman Linda Whitehurst, 52, thought she was going to die when she was forced to fight off a great white shark at Byron Bay on October 15."

http://www.sundive.com.au/:  "Located just 2.5 kilometres from Byron Bay, one of Australia's most popular travel destinations, the Julian Rocks Marine Park is rated as one of the top ten scuba diving locations anywhere in Australia. The mixing of tropical warm currents with cooler temperate waters makes the diving around Byron Bay unique. There is an amazing diversity and abundance of fish life with over 600 recorded species of tropical, temperate and pelagic fish."

http://www.auscyber.net/shark/stats.html Official statistics for shark attacks in Australia.

Very interesting, especially that it would take 12 hours to swim about 9  miles.  Gadzooks.