Jonathan Kieran

I follow ALL shark attacks and significant shark “encounters” because I’ve been a shark FREAK since age six, when my grandparents took me to an aquarium in Niagara falls and one of the exhibits happened to have a couple of drowsy looking nurse sharks that appeared close to death from the claustrophobic confines of their tank or perhaps from sheer boredom.

No matter—I was entranced. Even more tellingly, I was buried in an avalanche of Overwhelming Fascination when we got to the gift shop and I saw that they featured several books about sharks, including one by legendary Great White Shark victim and conservationist Rodney Fox and another paperback dedicated solely to accounts of some of the most gruesome shark attacks on record at the time. Riveted? Pfffft! I was caught hook, line, and sinker. (And, yes, I was able to read adult-level material at age six. I was one of those weird kids.) My solicitous grandparents bought those books for me and, fait accompli, sharks had this fella in their teeth long before I was allowed to watch Jaws on TV and quite a stretch of time before such a thing as “Shark Week” existed on the Discovery Channel.

At all events, this initial aquarium experience launched my particular lifetime obsession with sharks, a fixation that has never ebbed for a moment in all of my subsequent years. Surfing as a kid while living in Florida and then moving to coastal Red Triangle “country” in California in my mid-20s only served to stoke my ongoing interest, particularly in Great Whites. Indeed, several Great White Shark attacks have occurred in my Monterey Bay purview, as it were, over the years. They are OUT THERE, gliding through the chilly Pacific waters and waiting, watching, searching.

It’s a thrill simply to gaze out at the majestic, roiling ocean and know this with chilling, delicious certainty.

I do not lack for knowledge of harrowing Great White Shark lore when it comes to accounts of attacks, fatal and otherwise. But my transfixion upon these predators is not dispassionate when it comes to their brutal handiwork and my attentions are not of the morbid variety. I feel keenly for those who get mauled, and the stories of attacks never fail to elicit great sympathy. Case and point is the recent, grim attack upon Australian surfer Toby Begg. Toby is a 44 year-old husband, father, and construction worker from the Port Macquarie area, and it was in those waters where he was attacked by a 15-ft. Great White while surfing with several companions a few days ago. Initial reports were grim, as are most reports involving a full-on Great White attempt at predation, but Toby’s family has since clarified some of the details of his battle.

News outlets first indicated that Toby had lost a leg in the encounter, but his family has revealed that, in fact, he lost his right foot and that his left leg was severely wounded in several places, with doctors still fighting to save and repair the limb. Thankfully, Toby’s overall condition has been upgraded from serious to stable, but his family and medical personnel emphasize that his injuries are “life-changing” and that he faces numerous surgeries and YEARS of rehabilitation and recovery.

The relief that comes with knowing Toby will likely escape with his life is tempered by the gut-punch of realization that this family man and construction-working breadwinner may be permanently out of a career and disabled for the remainder of that life. The family members are clearly out of their heads with anxiety about the present and about a future still beyond comprehension. If there ever was a time in which GoFundMe donations can make a mighty, worthily charitable difference in the trajectory of an entire family’s existence, this is one of those times. The link to Toby’s GoFundMe is found at the site of the latest article describing the family’s clarifications about his injuries and their thanks for help from fellow surfers and onlookers at the time of the attack.

The direct link to Toby’s GoFundMe page is HERE. Please consider making a donation, if you are able. Humans are at their best when they rally their resources to aid one of their own who has been broadsided—literally—by the violence of the natural world. In the animal kingdom, it doesn’t get more violent than the determined attack of an adult Great White Shark.

[Look for Jonathan Kieran’s fabulous new—as yet untitled—book of hundreds of witty, cynical, zeitgeist-rocking, and knee-slappingly clever cartoons of Pure Smartassery in 2024! Stay tuned for developing news and previews.]

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