Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets 210
As if the flood waters weren't bad enough for the people of Queensland, it now appears that there are sharks swimming in the streets. Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna, Butcher Steve Bateman saw another making its way past his shop on Williams street. Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said: "It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street."
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
RIP Steve Irwin. These are the kinds of things he *lived* for.
That being said...
"Land shark!"
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
"Land shark!"
The Land Shark Gun [youtube.com] from the game, Armed and Dangerous.
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
"Land shark!"
The Land shark sketch [spike.com]
Re:Obligatory (Score:2, Funny)
Street Shark! [youtube.com] ... sorry.
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory (Score:3, Funny)
Agree. I would have loved to see him do a show about that now, with his cool accent and all. I could imagine him jumping on a shark and riding it, saying "ain't they goorgeous?"
Unfortunately Steve jumped the shark some time ago and not in a good way...
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Yes, that was intentional.
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
(Jungle setting) Look!!! OVER THERE!!!!
It's David Attenborough!
Not surprising (Score:4, Insightful)
Hardly surprising is it? Rivers breaking their banks mean things that would normally be in the river are now in places other than the river. Considering the large amount of ~actual~ news coming out of the flooding situation, not sure why this random factoid above all others has made Slashdot. (Yes I know it's Idle...but still...)
Oh and /insert mandatory fricken laser beams joke here.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Wish I had mod points for this. Sharks are in river, river overflows into town, sharks are now in town. Surprised? No.
Re:Not surprising (Score:3)
Wish I had mod points for this. Sharks are in river, river overflows into town, sharks are now in town. Surprised? No.
I was a bit surprised at there being sharks in the river in the first place, so I did a search on freshwater sharks. Thus, I learned something today, from Idle no less..
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
The bull shark is one of the few sharks which can make the fresh/salt water transition. They even have a special gland which secretes salt, allowing them to function properly. In fact, its believed that bull sharks may actually raise their young in fresh water - which provides many advantages.
Bull sharks are actually fairly common in large rivers in the US, including and especially in the Mississippi. Over the last century, its now believed many cases of both humans and pets going missing in such rivers are likely explained by bull sharks. Likewise, jumpers, where bodies are never found, are also likely explained with bull sharks.
You won't have any trouble finding videos of sharks in rivers. [youtube.com] Yet despite bull sharks being extremely common in such waters, attacks are surprisingly rare. Even odder, sharks living in these waters typically predate in conditions which scientists say yield the highest human-shark encounters, leading to mistaken identity of humans for prey, and yet attacks are extremely rare.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Actually it is. Typically the crocs eat the sharks before they can cause too much trouble.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
It involves sharks. That makes it news for nerds. :P
Re:Not surprising (Score:2, Informative)
Not if they don't have freakin' lasers attached to their heads.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Because sharks are Salt Water creatures and swimming in Fresh water typically burns them pretty good.
That means the water flooding is highly salty. Very interesting.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Read about bull sharks. Hell read about sharks in general before shooting off at the mouth.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
not sure why this random factoid above all others has made Slashdot
It's a US-american thing I guess.
Uh US-american?
Come on its the awsome title.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Most things take at least a week to get to slashdot but I think it is on this minute because its dinner time in Melbourne and Sydney.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Most things take at least a week to get to slashdot but I think it is on this minute because its dinner time in Melbourne and Sydney.
When the water rises, the fish eat the aunts; when the water falls the aunts eat the fish.
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Re:Not surprising (Score:2)
Wait, whut??? You mean aunts or ANTS?
Better make that ants.
Can we please skip the obligatory jokes? (Score:2, Insightful)
Come on people. That damn movie was released in 1997. You'd think that after over thirteen years, we'd be able to come up with something that's (a) original, and (b) actually funny.
Re:Can we please skip the obligatory jokes? (Score:2)
"Jesus Christ, it's a shark, get in the ute!"
Re:Can we please skip the obligatory jokes? (Score:2)
Beowulf Cluster of Obligatory Comments????
Re:Can we please skip the obligatory jokes? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Can we please skip the obligatory jokes? (Score:3)
Reddit drew the line under that meme [reddit.com].
Re:Can we please skip the obligatory jokes? (Score:2)
MEEPT! would not approve.
Why? (Score:5, Informative)
So one person reports (unconfirmed) two bull sharks in flood waters. Local media the next day generally has the opinion the story is a load of bollocks and now almost a week later it appears on Slashdot (a news for nerds site) as fact.... OK.
If you want some (slightly) more nerdy stuff to report about the floods go research the Wivenhoe dam.
I've really got to stop reading idle stories.
Unbelievable != hoax (Score:2)
Unconfirmed, but reported multiple times by different people. It's not really that unbelievable though, they are often spotted (and have actually attacked animals and people) even further up the river. The butcher shop is roughly 600metres from the original river bank, but was underwater on the 13th.
Marked is approximately the location of the butcher (note the flood waters on the 13th): http://www.nearmap.com/?q=Shark@-27.608694,152.899003&ll=-27.6078,152.898831&z=16&t=k&nmd=20110113 [nearmap.com]
The motorway to the north of the butcher is elevated with several underpasses. You say that the newspapers believe it was a hoax, but I can't say I've seen a retraction for the story anywhere. In fact it was covered again today: http://www.qt.com.au/story/2011/01/19/butchers-scary-shark-encounter-bull-steve-bateman/ [qt.com.au]
* Note I'm not saying its true, I just don't think you can dismiss it without something other than your own opinion.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Big Mac Attack (Score:3)
Re:Big Mac Attack (Score:2)
Re:Big Mac Attack (Score:2)
Shark: "Does this clown taste funny to you?"
Other shark: "Mmm... tastes like cardboard"
Crocodile vs Shark! (Score:2)
Re:Crocodile vs Shark! (Score:3)
I wonder who would win in a fight, a crocodile or a shark? Australia has the most dangerous animals, those poor aussies...
There's no Crocs round here.
Sharks ate 'em all.
Hey bluey, I can see the pub from here.
Re:Crocodile vs Shark! (Score:2)
Probably not the first time this has been tried. Crocs have been seen a long way off shore in the ocean so they must have been eating something.
Re:Crocodile vs Shark! (Score:3)
Close to shore, money's on the croc. A bit further out, the shark.
The show "Animal Face-Off" on Discovery did their first episode on Great White vs Saltwater Croc, and their conclusion was that the Great White would win, mostly because it doesn't have to surface to breathe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Face-Off [wikipedia.org]
Re:Crocodile vs Shark! (Score:5, Funny)
The spiders would beat them both.
Aussie style rock paper scissors (Score:2)
Gecko frightens non-Aussie-native human. Human's out, hiding away from gecko-attracting lights and insects (that would be, ohhhh, somewhere in Antarctica?)
Gecko eats spider. Spider's out, much in the sense that the innocuous paper covers rock.
Gecko v shark. Hardly a decent entree, where's the rest of the plate?
Shark v croc. How big a croc did you say it was? Less than 2.5m? Shark. One of those medieval guys? Croc.
Land sharks! (Score:2)
Re:Land sharks! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Land sharks! (Score:2)
I heard it on the weekend and the story might have been a few days old then.
PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, I've lived in Australia all my life, and I can tell ya', there's always been sharks swimming in the streets!
Blimey, if I had a 2 dollar coin for every time I've seen a shark swimming in the streets, I'd be a billionaire! (1 billion AUD ~ 23,540 USD)
We got it all down here, land sharks, flying snakes, drop bears, bunyips, flys that bite, the worlds most poisonous spiders. Basically, if it's an animal that can kill you, we've got it. Crikey, we even import dangerous animals from other countries [blogspot.com], just to make sure we've got 'em!
Land sharks? Phft! Nobodies ever died from a land shark!
Now drop bears, that's a lethal animal. I lost my father to a drop bear, came out of no where. R.I.P. Dad.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Cycling home from work today there were all these hoopsnakes running red lights right past me. What is this country coming to?
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
I know, right? Fuckin' hoopsnakes! So sick of them rolling about the country side, terrifying old grandmas, going above the speed limit, with absolutely no regard for polite society. I was at the pub the other day with Dazza, and we saw a hoopsnake carrying a fucking didgeridoo he'd stolen off some abo, who was limping because he was only wearing one thong!
We thought that was a bloody sight for sore eyes, but we shut our mouths when we realized it was Sir Ernie Dingo. Luckily he was too pissed to realize who it was, and the other 53 people in Australia promised not to tell, so we should be fine. I don't wanna get a kick up the bum again!
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Fucking snakes, they think they can go wherever they want [penny-arcade.com]
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Running behind the times, ya know the whole AU$ being either aprox = or even over the value of the US$.
But worry not, its the NZ$ being worth more then the US$ that is a sign of the Apocalypse.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
LOL I'm not running behind the times, just making a joke.
When we hit parity, I went nuts buying up large! Was awesome!
The NZD will never reach parity, unless the US/China/etc decide that they really really want a lot more wool/lord of the rings, or unless they develop a significantly sized financial market. Which is possible, but unlikely.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Well, 250m NZD is only about 5 USD, so that shouldn't be too bad.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
(1 billion AUD ~ 23,540 USD)
Actually, at the moment its more like the other way around.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry, obviously there's a little confusion here. Lemme clarify that for ya.
A billion in the Australian metric system, is 1/10th of a Waggawagga, or about 3/5ths of a Malala. It doesn't quite work the same as you guys over there.
If you convert it correctly, then it comes out to a little bit above what I quoted ya. However, when you take into account the money you have to pay the Aborginal gangs on your way to the Reserve Money Trader of Australia (it's in Canberra), you'd come out with about what I quoted. If ya don't pay them, they'll bash ya, and make ya walkabout it off.
Fuckin' arseholes if you tell me.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Sorry, obviously there's a little confusion here. Lemme clarify that for ya.
A billion in the Australian metric system, is 1/10th of a Waggawagga, or about 3/5ths of a Malala.
I thought that was a sydharb.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Don't be an idiot, a sydharb's a unit of area!
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
No, a sydharb is a unit of volume.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
To any other nationality this would seem confusing but I understood that perfectly.
But seeing as they took away my yard glass, I strongly doubt I'd be seeing a sydharb of beer any time soon.
Re:PHFT! Nothing new! (Score:2)
Been a while since you read the many other posts exactly like this.
I'm from here.
Parity was a huge deal.
The rest of my post is a joke, why would that be serious?
Just one thing left out of the article... (Score:2, Funny)
Did the sharks have frickin lasers on their heads?
If not, why didn't the Australian government put lasers on their heads? Everyone deserves a warm meal!
I'm sick of these motherfuckin' sharks on this (Score:3, Funny)
Okay, I probably didn't get that right verbatim, but you get the gist.
Re:I'm sick of these motherfuckin' sharks on this (Score:2)
motherfuckin' street.
Okay, I probably didn't get that right verbatim, but you get the gist.
Look, I saw the movie on television, and they didn't employ such filthy language. I'm pretty sure it's "monkey-fighting [sharks] on this Monday-to-Friday [street]".
Re:I'm sick of these motherfuckin' sharks on this (Score:2)
I call BS (Score:2)
If the waters are as muddy as they appear in the picture, how would sharks not get their gills clogged? And what is the salinity of the water?
Re:I call BS (Score:2)
If the waters are as muddy as they appear in the picture, how would sharks not get their gills clogged? And what is the salinity of the water?
Don't worry about that, worry about this:
Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s
That "food" will make anyone sick.
Fair Dinkum (Score:2)
That's not a shark! This is a shark!!
What are ya, some kind of sheila pomey bum burglar?
Stockmarket-sharks swimming down Wall street (Score:2)
Nuff said
video or it didn't happen! (Score:2)
come on, get us some youtube.
urgh, i can see the "syfy" guys planning the movie already - what is it with them and shark films?
G'day Mate! (Nom,nom,nom) (Score:2)
Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna...
Anyone else think we'll see a McDonald's commercial with an Aussie-accented shark?
And Steve Irwin was right: sharks WILL eat ANYTHING!
Not just sharks! (Score:2)
It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It's definitely a first for Goodna
Not just sharks, but GPS-equipped sharks!
Sharks in Minnesota (Score:2)
That's nothing. We've had Bull Sharks in Minnesota! (http://www.nokomiseast.org/yard/light/creeksharks.html)
If they meet up with the Jets... (Score:2)
there's going to be a rumble
Motivation (Score:2)
It would have swam several kilometers in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway
It's probably the perspective to reach a McDonald's that drives them.
Directions (Score:2)
"Excuse me, where can I see a shark?"
"Just head down Queensland boulevard two blocks and take a left on Kukeberra drive."
I can see a plot (Score:2)
Should be interesting (Score:2)
when they hit the financial district.
Candygram (Score:2)
[Scene: A New York apartment. Someone knocks on the door.]
Woman: [not opening the door] Yes?
Voice: (mumbling) Mrs. Arlsburgerhhh?
Woman: What?
Voice: (mumbling) Mrs. Johannesburrrr?
Woman: Who is it?
Voice: [pause] Flowers.
Woman: Flowers for whom?
Voice: [long pause] Plumber, ma'am.
Woman: I don't need a plumber. You're that clever shark, aren't you?
Voice: [pause] Candygram.
Woman: Candygram, my foot. You get out of here before I call the police. You're the shark, and you know it.
Voice: Wait. I-I'm only a dolphin, ma'am.
Woman: A dolphin? Well...okay. [opens door]
Awwwww! (Score:2)
Where's the store? (Score:2)
I'm sure those sharks were looking for the laser store.
Leader of the Pack... (Score:2)
Two all-grey sharkies
special sauce, lettuce, cheese
pickles, onions on a wet motorway
Re:Why post, fake news? (Score:2)
1 more time and I'm done with this site. If a lot of these things aren't actually factual, I'll migrate to a better source
My sister in law is from Queensland and she knows people in Goodna. She told me about the sharks a couple of days ago. I am pretty sure the story comes from the Goodna butcher and I have no reason to disbelieve him.
Re:Why post, fake news? (Score:2)
Except that it's just his word with no evidence - that'd be one reason not to believe him.
It's hard to describe just how much junk was flowing through the flood waters last week. This really could have been anything.
Re:Why post, fake news? (Score:2)
Sharks are very common in Qld rivers and can be found up to 100km from the sea, Goodna is less tha 20km from the sea. As a 50yro Aussie who has heard stories like this in previous floods it does not strike me as fake news. - YMMV
Re:Why post, fake news? (Score:2)
Re:coincidence? (Score:2)
If you see a shark on the streets of Canberra and he's not a defence industry lobbyist then it will probably be Microsoft related.
Re:coincidence? (Score:2)
True story: my wife and I spent a night in a cheap hotel in Canberra some years ago because she had to get her passport renewed. The reception desk had a sign which said:
Due to problems with recent groups we do not accept bookings from residents of Canberra.
It must be the boredom.
Re:coincidence? (Score:2)
Re:Pics please (Score:2)
In the media, google news will find them, but no pic?
Re:Mcdonalds (Score:2)
I thought Flake was Shark.
Re:Oh for the love of crap.. (Score:2)
Goodna is only "good" for a landmark as half-way between Toowoomba and the Gold Coast!
BTW, Toowoomba had a massive never-before-seen flood on the Monday before this story. If a shark swam past the main McDs in Toowoomba THAT would be news (since that was a flash flood, and the water would have ended up in the Murray-Darling system, and flowed into the ocean ~2000km away)
Re:Oh for the love of crap.. (Score:2)
Goodna ....... Toowoomba
Ah now you're just making stuff up!
(cant help myself, those aussie names look ridiculous)
Re:What's with all the Aussie stories? (Score:2)
On the 24 hour cycle we're awake when you guys are not so our stuff ends up doing the night backfill on Slashdot. You want 24 hour editors so you get Samzenpus and Timothy.
True or not the story is possible. That sort of small shark has been recorded biting people 25km upstream from salt water. Also that silty water that covered everything was definitely opaque at 2mm (couldn't see concrete through it in full sunlight) so who knows where a shark will go in that.
Re:I call movie rights. (Score:2)
Sharks in the park?
Better get Samuel L. Jackson on the phone!
Knock, knock... (Score:4, Informative)
"Candygram!"
Re:Knock, knock... (Score:2)
Re:Knock, knock... (Score:2)
Were the representatives of any news organisations observed in the act of jumping [youtube.com] these sharks?