Sharks Tear Apart Inflatable 30ft Expedition Boat, 3 Crew "Lucky" to Be Alive
It was like a scene out of "Jaws."
The movie Jaws is an exaggerated tale of man versus shark. In the classic Steven Spielberg film, an enormous Great White Shark terrorizes a summer beach community, killing everyone from little kids to fishermen. Eventually, a group of men board a boat and head into the open waters to hunt the larger killer, who ends up tearing the boat to shreds and killing many of those on board. This week, a group of three men learned the hard way that Jaws should serve as a cautionary tale after their 30-foot boat was torn apart by a group of sharks.
Three sailors from Russia and France were out in an inflatable catamaran sailing from Vanuatu to Australia. However, they were attacked by sharks.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority writes that they responded to an alert from an emergency beacon at about 1:30 a.m. Rescuers arrived at the scene, which was more than 500 miles east of the Australian coast in the Coral Sea.
In the middle of the ocean, they found both hulls of the men's 9-meter boat severely damaged after multiple shark attacks.
A Panamanian-flagged ship, the vehicle-carrying "Dugong Ace," aided in the rescue, bringing the two Russians and one Frenchman aboard.
"The three males were very happy to be rescued, and they're all healthy and well," said Joe Zeller, duty manager at the agency's Canberra response center.
If the men didn't have a GPS system, they probably wouldn't have been saved. "This is a timely reminder to always carry a distress beacon while on the water," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. "GPS-equipped EPIRBs and personal locater beacons (PLBs) can save your life in an emergency."
While there were many reasons why a shark may attack a boat, "the motivations of these sharks is unclear," Zeller said.
There were multiple aerial photos shared depicting major damage to the catamaran.
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All healthy and unharmed men are expected to return to Australia on Thursday. The journey from Vanuatu to Australia generally takes two to three weeks.
