Dun dun. Dun dun. Photo: Aquavision
People defy odds every day. On October 8, 55-year-old Greg Pickering found himself in an unfortunately familiar place–the jaws of a shark–not for the first time, but for the second. Being attacked by a shark once is rare enough, but to be attacked twice in nine years is another story. Bad luck takes on a whole different meaning for this diver who has now survived two shark attacks in Australian waters.
While diving for abalone off the coast of the Western Australia city of Esperance, in an area called Poison Creek, Pickering was attacked by what was likely a great white. Of course, being in the water as much as Pickering is, and being a spear fisherman, would increase his odds of a shark attack. Regardless, it’s still hard for me to believe this man’s bad fortune.
At the time of the attack, Pickering was working for Southern Wild Abalone. A nearby boat saw him after his skirmish with the suspected great white and quickly helped Pickering get to shore, call an ambulance and get to the hospital.
Pickering suffered injuries to his head and face and was air-lifted from an Esperance hospital to a hospital in Perth in order to undergo surgery Tuesday night. Sharks are commonly cited in Australia and over the last 50 years, the nation has averaged just more than one fatal attack per year. After ten hours in surgery, a hospital spokesperson told reporters Pickering was in stable condition.
Following the attack, officials from the State Department of Fisheries began to scour Poison Creek in an attempt to catch and kill the shark. For every human killed by a shark, humans kill two million sharks. How can officials expect to find the exact shark guilty of the attack? The search has since been called off as the risk of attack was no longer thought of as imminent.
While this attack occurred in Poison Creek, his 2004 attack occurred north of Perth, Western Australia’s capital, near Cervantes. Following that attack, Pickering said, from his hospital bed, that he would indeed get back in the water.
I wonder if he’ll approach the ocean with the same optimism after his second attack. The odds of being attacked by a shark are one in 11.5 million, so the odds on a second attack must be astronomically huge. If I get attacked by a shark and am lucky enough to survive, I’ll definitely get back in the ocean.
For his sake, and while we’re on the topic of terrible luck, I hope Greg Pickering doesn’t become the Roy Sullivan of the sea. Sullivan was a park ranger in Virginia who was struck by lightning not once, not twice, but seven times in his lifetime. He was even struck once while inside a ranger’s station. In case you were counting, the odds of being struck by lightning are one in 22 septillion (1 in 22,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). As for Pickering, I wish him a speedy recovery and a safe journey back in to the water.
