PHUKET: While media worldwide are clamoring about a shark being responsible for a bite on the foot of an Australian tourist on Phuket, experts say other types of fish are more likely to have inflicted the wound.
Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre told Phuketwan today that the bite may have been inflicted by a bull shark or more likely, a fish with a beak-style mouth.
''I haven't heard of any shark attacks on Phuket and it seems unlikely they would suddenly appear,'' he said.
A less aggressive type of fish may have mistaken the foot of Australian mother-to-be Jane Neame for food early on Tuesday as she enjoyed a dip at Karon beach, opposite the sports stadium at the southern end.
Tassapol Krajangdara of the Andaman Sea Fishery and research Centre said there were certainly fish capable of inflicting nasty bites, but it was more likely to be a fish imagining the foot was food or protecting territory than a shark attack.
It could even be a puffer fish, he said.
With the Daily Mail and the Guardian, two of the most popular news outlets online, suggesting it could be a shark bite, local experts were hopeful of being given the chance to come up with more logical and more likely explanations.
Karon is one of Phuket's most popular swimming beaches.
Miss Neame was more easy-going about the incident and said that she wouldn't be stopped from going swimming again once her deep foot wound was repaired at Bangkok Hospital Phuket.
Karon lifeguard chief U-tane Singsom recommended that people looking to swim at the beach should choose to enter the water at one of nine ''safe swimming'' zones along the seashore defined by the famous Australian red and yellow flags.
Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre told Phuketwan today that the bite may have been inflicted by a bull shark or more likely, a fish with a beak-style mouth.
''I haven't heard of any shark attacks on Phuket and it seems unlikely they would suddenly appear,'' he said.
A less aggressive type of fish may have mistaken the foot of Australian mother-to-be Jane Neame for food early on Tuesday as she enjoyed a dip at Karon beach, opposite the sports stadium at the southern end.
Tassapol Krajangdara of the Andaman Sea Fishery and research Centre said there were certainly fish capable of inflicting nasty bites, but it was more likely to be a fish imagining the foot was food or protecting territory than a shark attack.
It could even be a puffer fish, he said.
With the Daily Mail and the Guardian, two of the most popular news outlets online, suggesting it could be a shark bite, local experts were hopeful of being given the chance to come up with more logical and more likely explanations.
Karon is one of Phuket's most popular swimming beaches.
Miss Neame was more easy-going about the incident and said that she wouldn't be stopped from going swimming again once her deep foot wound was repaired at Bangkok Hospital Phuket.
Karon lifeguard chief U-tane Singsom recommended that people looking to swim at the beach should choose to enter the water at one of nine ''safe swimming'' zones along the seashore defined by the famous Australian red and yellow flags.
Puffer fish???...doubt it!....no one really knows...but can certainly understand why the "officials" will want to downplay any consideration of it being a shark out of the possibility of putting more of a scare into the tourist sector.
Posted by sky on September 3, 2015 06:32
Editor Comment:
And why sensationalist media will accentuate the ''shark'' attack.