The summer of 2001 has been named "The Summer of the Sharks", but nobody knows why! There were no more attacks than in other years, some even say there were less! But the news was crawling with sharks, and shark attacks in 2001. I am only mentioning the most well known attacks.
The first attack of the summer was on July 6th.
Jesse Arbogast was 8-years-old when swimming with his Uncle near Pensacola, Florida. Jesse's arm was grabbed by a 200 pound, 7' Bull shark. His arm was severed. Jesse's Uncle grabbed the shark, and dragged in onto the beach. Help was called.
A park ranger came. He ended up shooting, and killing the shark. After the shark was dead, he reached in, and pulled out Jesse's arm. Jesse was brought to the hospital, where his arm was reattached.
Today Jesse is happily living with his parents, though he suffers from brain damage, and inability to control his limbs because of the attack.
The second Shark attack was in the Bahamas, shortly after Jesse's misfortune.
Krishna Thompson and his wife AveMaria were at the Bahamas for their anniversary. Krishna decides to go to the beach as soon as possible, but his wife remembers all the news about sharks, and decides to just go to the hotel pool instead. Krishna goes into the water, knowing how unlikely it is that he'll get attacked. A few minutes later he was in the jaws of a bull shark.
The bull shark nearly severed his leg, and Krishna knew the only way he was going to have a chance of surviving was to get to the beach. Swimming with only his arms, Krishna reached the beach. A few people ran up to him, and asked if he was a guest at the hotel. On Shark Week he says he wrote his room number in the sand.
When the hotel staff got the news they rushed to find AveMaria. On Shark Week she says she thought it was going to be something in continuation of their nice anniversary weekend. When she got to the beach she saw him lying in the sand, almost dead. He survived his ordeal with the bull shark also, but he does not suffer from any brain damage, though has had to go through lots of surgery to save his leg.
Later on September 1st a boy died after being attacked on Virginia Beach..
David Peltier, 10-years-old, was attack while surfing with his Dad, and two brothers. The Shark grabbed David by his leg, severing the femoral artery. David's father punched the shark several times before the shark let go, and swam away. David's father got him to the beach and called for help. David was brought to a children's hospital, where he later died.
Just two days after David was attacked, and killed, a man, and his fiance were attacked on September 3rd.
Natalia Slobodskaya, and Sergei Zaloukaev, were swimming together in Virginia, close to where David was attacked. Natalia felt something bump her, and at first thought it was some of her friends, trying to scare her. It bit her a few times, and Sergei told her that it was a shark, and told her to swim fast.
They started to swim back to shore together, the whole time the shark was attacking. Natalia lost a foot, but Sergei had it much, much worse. A few days after the attack Natalia was told by her mother that Sergei had not survived the ordeal.
Natalia, and Sergei were going to be leaving the USA within days to go back to Moscow, where they lived.
A few days after Natalia learned that Sergei had died the Summer of the Sharks was ended with a bang, with the 9/11 terrorist attack.
This is my "2001 - Summer of the Sharks" page :)
I found out that the Pleco I have is a type of Rubber lip, or Rubbernose Pleco. The problem is there are a lot of different Rubber lip Plecos. Then I found a post on the tropical fish forums that listed the most common Rubbernose Plecos, and I found this link! I believe that he is a Striped Rubbernose Pleco, which according to the Planet Catfish only get up to 4", and he is already about that big. Muddy the Pleco shouldn't get much, if any, bigger than he already is! Which means I don't have a future 24" long Pleco that would outgrow any tank I'd be able to get, which is a relief :)
